As a kid who grew up on our family’s ranch, it was easy to take things for granted. I knew where the beef in our freezer came from; I knew why we needed to feed the cattle; I knew why we were taking the calves to the sale barn. But then again, we only raised […]
On our family ranch, we use antibiotics as one tool to keep our beef cattle healthy and well-cared for in order to produce great, quality meat. And we don’t just use antibiotics to use them. We have a herd health program where our cattle get regular medical care, including checkups, that starts with vaccinations to […]
Food. Blogging. Women. Warm Weather. What do these all have in common? BlogHer Food Conference! I had the opportunity to attend the 2016 BlogHer Food conference with support from the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance, along with Leah Dorman aka Ask Dr. Dorman (animalantibiotics.org), a veterinarian and mom from Ohio. The common question among everyone […]
I get this question a lot. “Are your cattle fed grass or grain?” The question that usually accompanies this is, “Isn’t grass-fed beef healthier?” One common misperception with meat-buying is that organic, natural or grass-fed beef are healthier for me. No matter what type of beef food-eaters choose, they can be confident all types of […]
Identifying our cattle is how we know who they are. Sure, we get to know their personality when we are out with them everyday on the ranch. 1103Y is the bossy cow always to the feed bunk first. I would know that if she had a ear tag or not! But since we work […]
As a rancher and a mom, it’s just as important to have a health plan for our cattle as it is our kids. Animal welfare is a way of life for farmers and ranchers just like my family and me. On our ranch, we use a herd health program, much like a well-child check with […]
Locally grown. Locally served. You probably see these two terms on your menu when you’re at a restaurant or buying beef in the meat case, right? While local has a different meaning to different people, you can be confident that most of the beef you eat right here in the U.S. is “local” because it […]
Beef agvocacy (agriculture + advocacy) does not take any special skills, science or art. It takes your effort to share about what you are doing as a beef producer and explaining production practices that make it easy for food-eaters to understand. As agriculture, we’ve come to a point in time where it is not enough […]
As a rancher, mom and main chef in my household, we have two whole shelves in our freezer dedicated to ground beef. It is such a versatile, easy protein to add to any meal – and healthy! We get a 90/10 blend (90% lean beef/10% fat) from our local butcher, and I hardly ever have […]
Most of our snow has melted and things are looking more and more like spring around the ranch. Even though we started with about 30 purchased bred heifers having their baby calves in February/March, we are now officially into “calving season” on the ranch. Since we Artificially Inseminate (AI) all of our heifers and cows, […]
