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Grass-and Grain-Fed Beef

What's the Difference?

Grass-Fed Cattle eat a pasture based, ruminant diet of only grass which provides better animal health (less gut disease)
and nutrient quality in the final product. Grass-fed cattle are not confined to feedlots and do not have daily drugs. 

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Grain-Fed Cattle are moved to feedlots where cows are kept in confined stalls, often with limited space. They are rapidly fattened with grain-based feeds that are usually made from soy or corn. They may also have small amounts of dried grass
in their diet as a supplement. 

Beef Weights

Weighing Your Options

We often get questions from customers about the amount of meat they receive from the butcher after processing. We want to assure our customers that we are not trying to steal meat from you. They are many factors involved when estimating the amount of beef you take home from your animal-this includes the animal's weight. For beef, there are three types of weight. 

 

Live Weight is what the animal weighed when it was alive.

 

Hanging Weight is the weight after the head, blood, hide, hooves, and organs are removed. We use this weight to base our price per lb. Cutting and packaging fees are also based on this weight or if you request additional bones or organ meats.

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Packaged Weight is the weight of meat you take home to cook or store in your freezer! Why the weight difference again? About 4% of weight is water weight lost during the period that the carcass is “cured”. Another 30-35% is lost during the cutting process.  

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A Guide to
Meat Product Return

More Resources

This guide serves as a great introduction to meat product return. To learn more about meat processing yields and losses, read this short article titled, Understanding Beef Carcass Yields and Losses During Processing. 

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