Our Values

Our Values – Why Grass-Finished?

Most people do not realize the plethora of health benefits in 100% grass-fed and grass-finished meat! Here at Real Red Meat, we love educating everyone about the benefits our animals get from eating grass. We are high altitude, where our grasses grow significantly slower to produce higher amounts of proteins and vital nutrients in each part of our native plants. Grasses and forbs at high elevation experience higher solar radiation levels, or more sunlight, that leads to increased photosynthesis and more effective growth. All that plant nutrition goes straight to the animals and the plant proteins, electrolytes, vitamins, and minerals will be retained, because ruminant animal digestive systems are designed to process grasses! Ruminants are herbivore mammals that have a unique 4-compartment digestive system; they eat rapidly, swallowing much of their food without chewing, then they rest and their body sends the food stuff back to their mouth to be thoroughly chewed. These unique animals spend one third of their life ruminating (cud-chewing) and extracting all possible nutrient from the plants they eat! That means, comparably, grass-fed beef, lamb and bison have a leaner meat rich in protein, amino acids, electrolytes and nutrients like Vitamin A B12 & B6, zinc, iron, twice as much conjugated linoleic acid, and up to 5 times as much omega-3s! … and that all equals meat packed with flavor!

 

Do your animals ever eat grain?

All grain fed to livestock is really just the seed of some type of grass plant. And our cows, lambs and bison inevitably do eat some seeds while grazing, but the difference is that these seeds are consumed naturally in conjunction with the whole plant. We do NOT deliberately feed isolated grains. There is a concerning trend in modern agriculture where animals intended for slaughter are forced to eat unnatural diets, often made from corn and soy, to encourage fast weight gain. Also worrisome is the potential of that feed to be genetically modified, with a high likelihood of having glyphosate and herbicides. Even if the grain were non-GMO and organic, it is still a high carbohydrate that ferments in the stomach rather than being digested normally. Excessive grain diets encourage bacteria in the animal’s rumen to produce lactic acid, with the resulting acidosis slowing the gut and causing dehydration, (or even death) and lowered gut pH that changes the animal’s gut microbiome, making it less effective at extracting plant benefits that don’t get stored in its meat. Plus, all these gut changes from eating a grain-heavy diet can weaken the animal's immune system; ...resulting in big operations choosing to routinely feed antibiotics to keep their grain-fed animals from getting sick! This downward spiral makes my head spin! Luckily, more studies are being done on the health benefits of grass-finished meat. We prefer to honor the amazing, God-given design of our ruminant animals with natural grazing and the native diet they love!