Woodtrail Graziers

About us

Nearly all the beef sold in the U.S., even in health food stores, comes from animals that have been fed large amounts of grain.  Typically, animals in this country are fattened (“finished”) for the last 6 months of their lives not on grass at all but on corn and agricultural byproducts.

Ruminants like cattle are not designed to eat grain, but rather grass and other plants.  Cattle have a complex digestive system that allows them to eat grass and pasture plants, which grow without complicated processing.  Grain feeding results in cattle with less healthful meat, with high levels of omega 6 fats, and low levels of healthful omega 3 fatty acid.  (Omega 3 oils are what make fish a healthful food.)

100% grass feeding (and grass finishing) produces meat with much higher levels of omega 3 and lower levels of omega 6 fats.  Instead of eating commercial beef that is 10-30% fat with a 10:1 or 20:1 ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fat, grass-fed beef is more typically 2-3% fat, 1/3 or more of which is healthful omega 3.