Ruminants like cattle, goats and sheep have a digestive system that is designed for forage. They provide us an ideal mechanism to harvest plant material such as grasses and legumes as high quality protein. Forage is the native diet of cattle.
Livestock raised on pasture are not only healthier than those raised in in a feedlot (and fed grain), but their meat is better for you. it has more vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin C and omega-3 fatty acids.
Unfortunately, grain feeding cattle in feedlots is substantially more efficient from an economic perspective. In conjunction with feeding grain, antibiotics and hormones are typically used to allow the cattle to reach slaughter weight in a minimum amount of time.
Organic does not mean grass fed. While there are huge advantages to organic beef (lack of antibiotics, hormones etc. used in the conditions the cattle are raised in), it does not imply that beef animals are raised primarily on forage. We believe that the healthiest and most sustainable way to consume beef is by purchasing grass fed beef locally, from a farm whose animals are allowed to harvest the grass at their leisure, where antibiotics and hormones are not used.
Raising grass fed beef is effectively an exercise in grass farming. The cattle harvest the grass. Grass farmers take a high degree of interest in the performance of their pastures - fertility of the soil, grass species that grow in their pastures, and so on. While this is often debated, we also believe that there is a genetic component to cattle who finish well on forage alone. The Galloway breed excels at this trait and this is one of the reasons we have selected it.
We believe that the genetics that Galloway cattle bring to the table are worth preserving and enhancing. We hope that more commercial cattlemen will use Galloways for their ability to finish on forage, among their other positive traits.
