The Lifetime of Our Finished Beef
Our beef is pasture raised, grain finished and hand fed, every time.
Pasture Raised
Pasture-raised means a whole lot more with other animal proteins than it does for cattle. Or, at least it should. The reason being is virtually every cow has lived in a pasture. This is not true with poultry, and it may not be true with hogs. We designate ourselves “pasture raised” to separate ourselves from feedlot cattle, or CAFO beef (concentrated animal feed operations). The truth is our cows live much of their life on grass or hay, yet no, we are not grass-finished.
We believe “grass fed beef” should only be used when that steer ate grass or hay exclusively. If that steer was raised on corn and only finished 90 days on grass, then that is “grass finished.” “Pasture Raised” would then be the most transparent label for cows born and raised on a farm in the pasture and fed grain until it was processed.
We separate pasture raised from grass-fed, and we separate pasture raised from grass finished.
Grain Finished
Our beef has been grain finished. We designate this to separate it from grass finished animals that will slaughter that we will process have been on a green ration for at least 12 months given that we pull those animals at weaning 12 months in and then they will live up until 26 to 2829 months on a food ration , this is our way of being fully transparent, but steer lived on grass and hay, and then we gave it a corn and wheat ration as a supplement, and for a bit of flavor for the remainder of its life. We are not a grass fed operation. We don’t plan to be a grass fed operation.
Hand Fed
We designate “hand-fed” to double down on calling out our humanely fed cattle, separating ourselves from feedlots. Most of the beef you will consume across the year – year over year – in our lifetime – will be from feedlot cattle (CAFO). We can do better by demanding better, and we do better by raising quality beef in more natural conditions.
Introducing Akaushi
In the Spring of 2016, Dutton Cattle Co. introduced the Akaushi breed to their pasture, as part of a joint venture with the Cassarino family from New Hampshire. They currently produce first-generation cross (F1) Akaushi/ Semitol Angus, along with full-blood Akaushi.
The full-blood herd is important as the bull calves are used to replenish the bullpen, and the heifer calves are used to keep growing the full-blood herd. Both full-blood bulls and heifers are available for future sale as well.
Ohio Beef & Steaks