Nutrients in our beef: gRAZING
We work hard to keep our animals on optimal nutrition over the entire grazing season using a perennial grasses, clovers, and forbs as the backbone of our finishing program. This is supplemented with both cool season and summer annuals. We need to achieve a steady daily gain on the right mix of forages to optimize healthy rumen microbes. These healthy bacteria can convert plant fibers into the volatile fatty acids that eventually store within the muscle as the fat that make flavorful, tender, juicy beef. When fiber digestion predominates, the fatty acid profile of the meat tends toward lower omega 6 and higher omega 3 fatty acids. Legumes such as clover, boost the CLAs (conjugated linoleic acid). These two things contribute much of the health benefits of grass finished beef.
High omega 3
We had a sample of our beef tested for the fatty acid profile and would be glad to discuss the results with anyone interested. We can't sample all animals and it is possible that that there would be some variation from animal to animal based on forage preferences, but this is confirmation that we are achieving our objectives. We are pleased to report that our omega 6 to omega 3 ratio is about as low as it gets. In a recent large sampling of grass fed beef from across the nation it was discovered that ratio of omega 6:3 exhibited an extreme range with many samples between 2 and 10 and some much higher. Less that 2 is considered good. Ours came in at 1.24. The CLAs were also very good.