My husband and I just bought half a beef from Anderson Farms in Willard. We looked around for a while to find someone who gave us a good price for a good product. Keep reading to find out why we chose Anderson Farms and how you can get as good a deal as we did. 🙂
First, we knew we wanted beef that was grass fed. Cows are meant to eat grass, not grain. The more grain you introduce to a cows diet, the more bacteria you introduce to the cow. Also, most of the feed corn is genetically modified, which isn’t something I want in my diet. Some ranchers will grass feed their herd and then grain feed them for 3-4 months before slaughter to fatten them up. But grassfed cows are more lean, and also provide more of the healthy Omega-3 fatty acids.
Grassfed meat has about the same amount of fat as skinless chicken or wild deer or elk. For example, a sirloin steak from a grassfed steer has about one half to one third the amount of fat as a similar cut from a grainfed steer. When meat is this lean, it actually lowers your LDL cholesterol levels. Because grassfed meat is so lean, it is also lower in calories. A 6-ounce steak from a grass-fed steer has almost 100 fewer calories than a 6-ounce steak from a grainfed steer.
Although grassfed meat is low in “bad” fat (including saturated fat), it gives you from two to six times more of a type of “good” fat called omega-3 fatty acids.
Omega-3 fatty acids can’t be made in your body so you have to get them from your diet. They play an important role in every cell and system in your body. For example, of all the fats, Omega-3 fatty acids are the most “heart friendly.” People who have ample amounts of omega-3s in their diet are less likely to have high blood pressure or an irregular heartbeat. Remarkably, they are 50 percent less likely to have a serious heart attack.
Omega-3s are essential for your brain as well. People with a diet rich in omega-3s are less likely to have problems with depression, schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder (hyperactivity), or Alzheimer’s disease.
The reason that grassfed animals have more omega-3s than grainfed animals is that omega-3s are formed in the green leaves of plants. Sixty percent of the fat content of grass is a type of omega-3 fatty acid called alpha-linolenic or LNA.
When cattle are taken off grass and shipped to a feedlot to be fattened on grain, they lose their valuable store of LNA as well as two other types of omega-3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA. Each day that an animal spends in the feedlot, it’s supply of omega-3s is diminished.
The meat and milk from grassfed animals are the richest known source of another type of good fat called “conjugated linoleic acid” or CLA. When cattle is raised on fresh pasture alone, their milk and meat contain as much as five times more CLA than products from animals fed conventional diets. There is new evidence suggesting that CLA reduces cancer risk in humans.
In addition to being higher in omega-3s and CLA, meat from grassfed animals is higher in vitamin E. In humans, vitamin E is linked to lower risk of heart disease and cancer.
So you can see why finding animals that were grassfed were so important to us.
Second, not only are the cattle from Anderson Farms grassfed, but they doesn’t use hormones, steroids, or antibiotics. These ultimately end up on the meat and are then consumed…by us. I’m not interested in putting steroids, hormones, or antibiotics in my body from my food supply.
Third, Anderson Farms are local (Willard) so we feel good knowing that we’re supporting local industry, and they take their animals to a local butcher for processing – so we’re supporting another local business.
Fourth, well, we just couldn’t beat the price! We paid less than the price of ground beef at the local grocery store! And they packaged it in the sizes that work best for our family and gave us the cuts that we like the most. Plus, for us Western A. Pricers, they’re including the tallow, the tongue, liver, and heart, and the marrow bones (great for making broth)!
Anderson Farms raises Angus, Hereford, and Limousine breeds. The hanging weigh can be anywhere from 750 – 830 pounds depending on the breed. If your family is interested in purchasing beef from Anderson Farms, contact me with your email and phone number and I’ll add you to the list for our annual Group Buy. There’s about a 3 week pick up time to allow for ageing.
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