Cattle can make use of grass
Cattle are ruminants. Their stomach has four compartments, including the rumen, where microbes help break down the fiber in grass. That allows our cattle to turn grass and other forage into the nutrition they need.
We believe all we have has been entrusted to us by God and truly belongs to Him and not us. Therefore, we view our animals and our land from a perspective of stewardship. These resources are not ours to use or abuse as we see fit, but have been entrusted to us by their Creator for a time. With all this in mind, we aim to follow Regenerative Agricultural Practices. We believe that when we take care of our land and our animals, they take care of us.
Grass Fed Beef & Grass Finished Beef
There’s a broad spectrum of what the term “grass-fed beef” means in the marketing world. All cows eat grass—from the ground or as hay—at some point in their lives. They’re ruminants, which means that they function best when consuming and digesting a plant-based diet. The grass-fed label is not so all-encompassing that it could be applied to all cows, but it allows for some flexibility in interpretation.
In a conventional cattle system, calves in the yearling stage are removed from pastures and shipped to a feedlot, where their diet shifts to a corn-dominated ration in an attempt to pack on weight and fat cover in an accelerated time frame in the “finishing” stage. This is how the majority of the beef in the U.S. gets on grocery store shelves.
“Grass-Finished” provides the other end of the cattle diet spectrum, and that’s where you’ll find Osage Creek Farms. Grass-Finished is a distinctive qualifier which means the animal has only consumed grass in its lifetime. We like the simplicity of that definition. Our animals don’t know that grain exists. They’ve never smelled it, let alone tasted it. We’re proud of the fact that our cattle are 100% grass-fed and grass-finished.
Rotational Grazing
We utilize a rotational grazing system that allows our animals to eat fresh grass all year and allows the pasture to rest. In the traditional continuous grazing model, cows have unlimited and uninterrupted access to large fields for long stretches of time. Our farm covers 1,700 acres, but that land has been partitioned into lots of smaller areas called “paddocks.”
Each day, we give our animals access to new grass in a new paddock, and the ground that they are leaving will have time to recover. The forage plants will have a chance to deepen and expand their root systems, and the diversity of the type of plants present means that necessary nutrients can be added back to the soil.
Waterway & Soil Protection
We utilize a rotational grazing system that allows our animals to eat fresh grass all year and allows the pasture to rest. In the traditional continuous grazing model, cows have unlimited and uninterrupted access to large fields for long stretches of time. Our farm covers 1,700 acres, but that land has been partitioned into lots of smaller areas called “paddocks.”
Each day, we give our animals access to new grass in a new paddock, and the ground that they are leaving will have time to recover. The forage plants will have a chance to deepen and expand their root systems, and the diversity of the type of plants present means that necessary nutrients can be added back to the soil.
How we care for our animals and our land
Good care starts with understanding what each animal needs.
Our family farms in the Osage Valley of Northwest Arkansas. We believe God has entrusted this land and these animals to our care. That responsibility shapes the way we farm.
Grass-fed and grass-finished beef
Our cattle are raised and finished on grass, without a grain-finishing stage. That’s what we mean when we describe our beef as grass-fed and grass-finished.
Browse our beefWhy our pork is pasture-raised, not grass-fed
Cattle and pigs use pasture differently because their digestive systems work differently.
Pigs need more than pasture
Pigs have a single-compartment stomach, more like ours. They enjoy eating plants and rooting for food, but they can’t get nutrition from fibrous grass as efficiently as cattle do. Growing pigs need more than pasture alone.
Our pigs have room to root and forage on pasture, and we feed them traditional corn-based feed. That’s why we call our pork pasture-raised: we give pigs room to be pigs while feeding them for their needs.
Browse our porkGiving the pasture time to recover
We move our cattle to fresh paddocks twice a day. These smaller pasture areas give the cattle fresh grazing while the ground they leave has time to rest before they return.
Rotational grazing lets us manage where the cattle graze and when they come back to an area.
Meet the people doing the work
Our farm stories give you a closer look at the people and work behind the meat.
Meet our familyA morning weighing sheep and goats
Join Kelton, Drew and Wesley for a morning getting the animals through the weighing setup.
Read Kelton’s story