Meat quality

When choosing meats for the holidays, cookouts or for a variety of meals, the various labels on the packaging can get overwhelming.

You often see the label grass-fed which seems pretty direct right? Well, I will briefly explain what grass-fed really means.

Cattle are herbivores which means their diets contain forages, like grass and hay. Most beef cattle start out this way, calves are born in the pasture until they are weaned off of their mother. Traditionally they are finished off of supplemental grains to increase their energy and speed up the process of weight gain which is more efficient than finishing out cattle in the pasture.

Let’s get into GMO’s which stands for genetically modified organisms. GMO’s are used for disease resistance and enhanced growth and are seen in plants and animals

I will say I have been pretty fortunate in having the ability to get local and non-hormal GMO meats. I grew up on a hobby farm where we raised cattle and sheep and always had our freezers full of meat. In the fall of 2021 my Dad decided to make a career change. He took over The Country Butcher in Dawson, MN where he has retailed meats, sausages, snack sticks, and does a variety of custom processing. I will link The Country Butchers website below for anyone local to the area or wanting to stop by!