Stuart Farm

Older Beef = the BEST Beef (Seriously!)

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You’ve been lied to. Tricked! Fooled! Bamboozled!

Ok, maybe just really misled. But no more!

We’ve been told by so many people, and a lot of advertisers, what makes good beef, that the old wisdom of raising cattle has been forgotten. And now, shunned.

Misconception #1

Younger beef is tender because it hasn’t had time to “toughen up”.

NOT TRUE!

Beef is tender for two reasons: the amount of marbling within the muscle and how much that muscle was used.

When beef is grain-fed, the age doesn’t matter because the grain adds the extra fat creating marbling.

When beef is completely grass-fed and grass-finished, it takes longer to create that marbling, but it does happen.

Some cuts will always be more tender than others. After all, some muscles get more of a workout than others. Filets are hardly worked and rump roasts help the animal move around–a lot of work. So of course one will be more tender than the other.

Just because one cuts is “tougher” doesn’t mean it isn’t good, you just have to know how to prepare it. I’ve been thin-slicing roasts and marinading them overnight for amazing tacos and stir-fry.

Misconception #2

Old cows are only good for ground beef. 

So, so, so UNTRUE!

I know this one first hand. Remember Queen, the cow we lost this past winter? We had her butchered on-farm and she produced the best beef we’ve ever eaten.

Every steak was almost too tender. The ground beef was so flavorful I hated adding seasoning.

Then I found this video that compares a young steer (28 months which is older than the usual 18 month-old steers found in the store) with older cows (8 and 15 years old) Spoiler alert: The oldest cow was the best! Click here to watch the video.

So why do sooooo many people think this? I think it’s just lost knowledge.

I hear so many of our older customers say our meat tastes like what they grew eating.  The flavor, the texture, the color–it’s old school.  That’s because our beef is raised like it used to be–on grass, always outside, room to roam, and butchered older.

Add to that a huge marketing campaign to convince everyone that younger beef is better, and it’s no wonder small farmers are convinced it’s not worth the gas to the butcher to process an old cow.

Misconception #3

Older beef has a strong flavor.

Yes! It’s called BEEF FLAVOR!!!!!

The older the beef gets, the more flavor it develops. Do you squish grapes, put it in a glass, and call it wine? No!

Beef develops, creates, becomes flavor.

So many of us have forgotten what REAL beef tastes like. You don’t have to dress it up and slather it in sauce–the flavor does the work. The only thing I put on our steaks or burgers is salt. If it’s quality beef, that’s all you need.

It’s not just age that affects flavor. The breed, feed, and time of year butchered have an effect as well.

Every breed has different growth rates and flavor profiles. When someone is new to grass-fed/finished beef, I tell them to shop around and find a breed they like.

You are what you eat, goes for cattle as well. Even in the same county, pastures are different, so the beef will taste different.

With grass-fed/finished beef, time of year the beef is butchered not only affects the flavor but the marbling. Two months after the spring grass flush is prime time for butchering.  They’ve put on lots of good fat marbling from the lush grass.  Two months into winter hay feeding, they may start to lose some of that marbling and flavor.

So what does all of this mean for you as a consumer?

Don’t believe the hype. Young “tender” beef (15-18 mths old) fattened and/or finished on grain was a marketing campaign to get cattle to the butcher quicker, not to get you quality beef.

Talk to your farmer about what breeds they raise, age of butcher, time of year they’re butchered, and what they eat.

Also, make sure to ask how they are finished and supplemented; 30+ days grain finish (even organic grain) negates the benefits of grass-fed beef. Grass-fed/finished beef contains up to five times as much omega-3, about twice as much Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), and much less monounsaturated fat than grain-fed beef. Who wants to lose that!?

New to grass-fed/finished beef and have questions? Ask away in the comments!

Introducing Trudy’s Piglets!

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Every farrowing is different. Every sow works through it in her own way. That’s part of why I love to be there when it happens.

Yesterday afternoon, Trudy was on her side, up and down, and really uncomfortable, so I put a bale of hay into her stall. She immediately got up and started adding it to her nest and then peed. Both good signs!

Contrary to popular belief, pigs are quite clean and do not use their living space as a bathroom. So when she chose to use a corner as a toilet, I knew for sure, she was ready.

I checked on her once after chores and decided to come back later. When I returned at about 8:45pm, there was one piglet roaming around nowhere near Trudy. UGH!

The first piglet not nursing is an issue for two reasons. 1–nursing helps release oxytocin that helps with contractions. Better contractions mean easier birthing. 2–not nursing means no food, and no food means no warmth.

With her first litter, I was right there with no problem, but it was on pasture. Now, in a confined space, I was worried about how she would react to me jumping in.  And with the sides of the stalls chest high, mud to my ankles in front of the door, and a low ceiling, I had no good escape route if things went bad. Even if I did get in the pen to help, I’d have to walk in front of the bone-crushing jaws of a momma sow in labor to get to the piglet. Not happening. So I waited nervously.

When Trudy started to roll, I knew it could be a long and devastating night. She was trying to push a piglet out with her body. Up and down, rolling this way, rolling that way. With every movement, I cringed hoping she would avoid the piglet.  I coached her with a soft voice, “you can do it, Trudy, just relax and let it come.”  And it did–a huge piglet.

After the second piglet, she moved once more and put her belly facing the stall divider. PERFECT!  I could get into the next stall and help from there.

After I clamored along the edge of the barn, only stepping into the mud with my holey boot once, I was in the next stall and could reach the piglets and her belly.  I got each piglet on a teat and started rubbing the others. Soon number 3 came. 

I don’t know why she moved in that position by the divider, but it worked well. If she wanted to, she could take out the divider without much effort. I think she felt my safety concerns but wanted my help. It also kept the piglets close to her acting as a side of the nest.  And probably most useful, she pushed on it with her feet as she was delivering and having contractions.  I should have worn earplugs. The sound of a 400 lb sow in labor stomping against tin is deafening.

She was doing great! Some came almost right after the other. Some had a bit of a lag. Right as I was thinking, “I’m so lucky to have not witnessed a stillborn or mummy piglet”, she birthed a stillborn.

Of course, in my mind, I could save it. I pulled it over to my side, ripped off the sac and started compressions as I tried to clear the mouth with my finger. No luck. The legs were a bit bony and longer than they should be.  Maybe it died before filling out? Maybe it was a disorder? I don’t know.

Then she passed something strange; what looked like an empty sac. I pulled it over to my side and could see the outline of a small skull and partial spine.  When a piglet dies in utero, the mother’s system will begin to absorb it. I think that’s what it was.

All in all, 11 healthy piglets, about half boys, and half girls were born in 3.5hours.  I stayed to make sure she passed all of the afterbirths–there are 2–and then watched everyone for a while to make sure each had a turn on the teat.

It’s a hard few first days for piglets. Being stepped or laid down on are the biggest issues. Since they can’t regulate their body temp well for the first few days, staying close to Trudy, and littermates in plenty of bedding helps maintain their heat. We breed our pigs for hardiness, so we don’t use heat lamps.

I left with high hopes of seeing all 11 this morning, and I did!  In the next week, we’ll be offering farm tours with some piggie playtime.  Until then, they’re all mine!!!!! 

Do You Know Where Your Food Dollar Goes?

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When you buy a pack of steaks or pound of tomatoes at the store, do you know how much of that goes to the farmer who produced it? You may be surprised.

Right now (May 2019) at the sale barn, hogs are going for 50-60 cents per pound live weight.  A 300 lb hog will bring $150-180. Can you imagine? The labor in raising a hog for 5-7 months, feeding it, watering it, the equipment, the fencing and/or barns, etc. YIKES!  But at that sale price, you make about $1 per day per hog.

To make any money in that system, you have to have quantity.  For the 10 or so hogs we butcher a year, there’s no way we could survive.  You have to raise hundreds to make it worth it. And the more you raise, the more efficient it must be or you lose money. That’s where concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) come in. That’s another post, but basically, farms where pigs are housed on concrete, cattle in dirt lots, and chickens in buildings. Some or all never get to be on pasture.

So if you want the farmer to get more of their share and you don’t want to support CAFOs, what can you do?

1–Buy from small local farms like ours.

Your money goes directly to us and into our community.  Not a middleman, not a distributor, not an advertising company. Your money goes to us and the companies we buy from.

We buy as much as we can from local farmers, small businesses, and locally.  We get corn and wheat from farmers that grow on our family farm and within a 15-mile radius.  Our soybean meal comes from a co-op in southern Missouri. We buy chicks from a family farm in Pennsylvania.  We buy from local mills, MFA, Orchlens, and local auctions.

2–Use your food dollars to make a statement about how you want animals raised.

We have a lot of customers that struggle with knowing where their food comes from.  If you think seeing the pictures is hard, I can assure you having them in your life every day makes it REALLY hard come butcher day.  But putting your food dollars into a farm that raises animals humanely and allows them to live how they are meant to, does send a message to Big Ag.

Farms like ours, make up less than 5% of the pork consumed in the US. Big AG wants that back, so don’t be fooled by their marketing. Just because they don’t use farrow crates doesn’t mean pigs are on pasture wallowing in the mud. Just because it says free-range doesn’t mean chickens are frolicking in the meadow.  Unless you can go and see the animals, you won’t know for sure how they are raised and treated.

3–You can also make a statement about how you want the environment cared for.

A lot of farmers raise a variety of livestock that work together.  Cattle before goat/sheep, then chickens, then some rest before the cattle start to graze again.  Pigs root up unproductive ground for re-seeding. The soil is never over-fertilized or tilled.  Chemical pesticides and herbicides aren’t used. Soils are built up with organic matter from winter pasture feeding or bedding. Waterways are protected and native plants are left to flourish.

Agriculture practices change when it’s profitable. Every time you purchase from a farmer using sustainable organic practices, the farmer who isn’t, takes notice and hopefully, one day will make the changes.

When you buy from someone you can talk with, ask questions, and really understand what and why they do what they do, you can make an informed decision about where your food comes from and what your food dollar supports.

Do I want you to buy from us? Of course! But I would be just as happy knowing you found a farmer you like and trust to provide your food. Ask questions. Go to the farm. Know your farmer.  It will make a world of difference in the food you eat and in a farmer’s life.

A Day in the Life of Your Farmer

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What I write on our blog hopefully gives you a glimpse into what we do and what we go through. I could give you only the picture perfect idyllic farm life stories and photos, but I wouldn’t be telling you the truth of our life. Yes, we have those moments, but so many more are heartbreaking and soul-crushing, backbreaking and nerve-wracking. Those are the moments I need you to know about.

The first thing you should know is the way we raise our animals is a lot more work than factory farms.  A LOT more work.  It would be soooo much easier to keep everyone in confinement all year.  Our work would be cut by more than half.  But so would the quality of the end product, the quality of their life, and the quality of our life.  So, we put in the work.

So what does a typical day look like? I have no idea. No day has ever been typical.  Almost every day, something goes wrong.  Cattle are out. Something breaks. Something isn’t working. I remember something I need to do RIGHT NOW, so the whole day changes. But if everything went well, this is what our day would look like.

5:30 am Wake up

  • Serena drives the morning school bus route
  • Fred feeds the pigs and layers
  • Breakfast
  • Fred either goes to his off-farm job, or we both start our farm work.

8am Start Chores

Meat birds on Pasture (done twice a day for 5-8 weeks)

  • Drain 4-6 five gallon buckets of feed, add 3+ lbs. of supplement, mix, fill three 5 gallon water jugs, load it all on a trailer and drive it out to the pasture.
  • Unleash the chick-nado from the tractors (seriously, it is like a tornado of chickens when they come out) wait until they calm down and start to forage.
  • Fill feeders.
  • Move tractor to new grass.
  • Change out 5-gallon waterer.
  • Overall health check.
  • Move chickens back into tractors.
  • Do this for all 4-6 tractors.
  • If needed, move three 185′ electric netting fences on to new grass.
  • Cart all the empty buckets back to the feeding station, refill with grain and water.  Stir all buckets. We ferment our feed, so the 100 pounds we feed a day, doubles with water weight.

Meat Birds in the Brooder (done 3-4 times a day for 3 weeks)

  • Drain 3-gallon bucket of food.
  • Clean and refill waterers.
  • Stir bedding.
  • Overall health check.
  • Fill feeders and feed chicks.
  • Refill feed, water, and stir all buckets.

Layers (done twice a day)

  • Check/fill waterers. Replace 5-gallon bottle if needed.
  • Drain feed, add supplement, mix, and fill feeders.
  • Overall health check.
  • Collect eggs; in the morning, at lunch time, before evening feeding.
  • Move wagon every day and move ten 185′ electric netting fences every 2-3 weeks.
  • Refill feed, water, and stir all buckets

Cows (once a day)

  • Move fence if they need more grass.
  • Check/fill waterers.
  • Overall health check.
  • Haul 300 gallon tank to refill waterer.

Pigs (once a day)

  • Drain 5-12 feed buckets, add supplement, mix, load into truck.
  • Drive next door and carry buckets to pig area.
  • Fill feed pans.
  • Overall health check.
  • Check waterers.
  • Fill waterer reservoir if needed.
  • Refill feed, water, and stir all buckets

10am-ish -12pm  This is either project time or business time;  gardening, mixing feed/supplement, fence work, brush hog, general clean up from other projects, paying bills, assessing new pasture for cows and pigs, cleaning equipment, building new chicken tractors/feeders/waterers, work on business advertising, inventory, bills, getting ready for market, packaging eggs.

12-1pm Lunch; dishes and/or laundry if needed

1-3pm Whatever project we were working on before lunch, we try to finish.

3pm Serena drives afternoon school bus route

5:00 pm Start evening chores–same as morning chores.

8 pm dinner and bed.

Whew! But then you have to add things in like cutting, baling, and putting up 1000 square bales, butchering chickens, fixing car problems, getting ready for market, going to pick-up feed or meat, laundry, bathing a calf because of rain scald, putting up fence, wrangling an escapee calf, washing feed buckets, dealing with broody hens and chicks, clearing space for a feed delivery, monitoring heat cycles for AI, brushing our working dogs so they don’t have a heat stroke, animal births, emergencies, etc.–the day gets very full, very fast.  There are some days we are so sore everything just takes longer. There are some days I am so overwhelmed everything I do is with tears in my eyes.

When winter comes, we have a break from some chores, but others get more difficult–like breaking a 6″ sheet of ice in a water tank and our bathtub turning into a fermenting station for feed buckets. The layers still get rotated through the pastures daily, while the cattle and hogs can stay a bit longer in theirs.  We hope the tractor doesn’t break down so we can move hay bales.

Some days, we have farm tours, a friend stops by, or our farm photographer comes out.  Those days we get to see our farm through someone else’s eyes. We get to slow down and appreciate all the work we do and all the progress we’ve made.

Through the hustle and bustle, we enjoy what we do and knowing we’re feeding families food that’s healthy and raised with care and respect. It’s long days and sometimes long nights, but we can’t imagine doing anything else.