At Missouri Grass Fed Beef, our cattle are rotationally grazed on pasture, using organic practices. Raising animals in this fashion requires more knowledge and skill than sending them to a feedlot. In fact, for grass-fed beef to be flavorful and tender, the cattle need to forage on many different types of high-quality grasses, clover, lespedeza, and other forage plants.
Grass-based livestock production is inherently sustainable as this production system relies on bio diversity and ecological complexity to maintain production without the use of costly inputs, such as herbicides, non-organic fertilizers, and pesticides. Providing this nutritious diversity requires healthy soil and careful pasture management so that the plants are maintained at an optimal stage of growth.
This type of farming benefits the environment in several ways:
In our grass-based system, rotational grazing allows the animals to roam around the farm in a managed fashion, fertilizing the pastures, so we don't need commercial fertilizers to grow high-quality grasses. In contrast, corn, other grains, and soybeans grown not only for human consumption, but also for feedlot animals, require great amounts of fossil fuels for planting, tilling, fertilizing, and harvesting annually.
As our cattle graze, they work manure into the soil along with other decaying organic matter, enriching the land with nutrients and carbon. Also, healthy grass roots retain water and microbes, which help to keep the soil healthy.
Because we don't use commercial fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides or confine our animals in feedlot pens that create huge amounts of manure, we are protecting the waterways from chemical and excessive manure runoff.
The pasture grasses form healthy root masses all year long that hold the soil in place, therefore, reducing soil erosion and improving water filtration. In contrast, conventional farming methods to harvest corn, soybeans, and other grains cause soil erosion.