All of our fresh beef must meet our basic meat department standards and be animal welfare certified.
What does grass finished meat mean.
We are often asked.
Written by dennis keohane on february 7 2020 the term grass fed as it applies to beef has been in use for quite a while.
Every option is high quality with great flavor.
In order to call meat grass.
What does grass fed grass finished mean.
While this term is still not tightly regulated it is much harder for unscrupulous purveyors to develop workarounds for this label.
The ranchers we partner with raise their cattle on pasture eating grass and forages.
Labels can be confusing across meat producers.
This term is much more descriptive of what we want.
You should be wary of beef that can make the grass fed claim but not grass finished.
In the united states all calves generally begin their lives the same way regardless.
What does grass finished mean.
For example grass fed can mean that confined animals in feedlots can be fed grass at any point.
The importance of grass finished.
What is grass finished beef and why does it matter.
The difference between finishing cattle on grain instead of grass is ultimately taste and at tony s we prefer the enhanced marbling and flavor from grass fed grain finished beef.
Feedlots can still market this meat as grass fed or grass fed and grain finished if you see that specific wording on a package buck said you cannot be certain that the cow was truly 100.
Grass forage fed means that grass and forage shall be the feed source consumed for the lifetime of the ruminant animal with the exception of milk consumed prior to weaning.
It s important to note that grass fed does not necessarily mean that the cow is grass finished.
Grass finished means the animal has reached physical maturity and was kept on grass while developing exterior and intramuscular fat.
At verde our beef is 100 grass fed grass finished organic and free range beef.
This results in meat that is just like conventional feedlot beef 1 or beef that is very lean and contains little fat 2.
For most it elicits the idea of an idyllic cow on the range eating natural grass.
Moreover grass fed cows are not necessarily pasture raised.
And keep in mind that grass fed cows are not necessarily pasture raised.
At the grocery store that means grass finished beef may be marketed as grass fed beef but not vice versa.
We explain the nuances of these definitions in this blog post.
What does grain finished mean.
Meat that has been designated grass finished is much more likely to come from cows that consumed only grass throughout their entire lives.
With all the testing we ve done recently around the levels of nutrition in our meat we felt it was a good time to discuss this topic further.