So, my first stab at raising cattle on a rotational grazing system did not produce the quality of beef I was looking for, but one of my big questions was answered affirmatively. Both of the initial animals grew well on grass. I was told cattle won't gain weight on grass only. That idea, I found, was totally false. This was one of my first life lessons to not always rely on the views of others, because these views may be shadowed by limiting thinking or some other mentality that doesn't allow for growth and exploration.
Anyway, the long story short is that I recognized, direct grass finished beef has almost not marbling which is where flavor comes from. I also recognized that the way I grew up raising cattle by feeding them grain from a young age produced a very fatty beef, that tasted good but wasn't healthy. I just needed to figure out how much grain feeding they needed to marble enough to create flavor, juiciness and tenderness, i.e. a high quality/healthy beef.
I spent several years working with our processor experimenting with different time frames until we landed on 90-120 days on grain feed after being born and raised on rotational grazing. This produces a consistently prime quality beef that our customers enjoy today!
Once we landed on this, the word spread quickly and demand rose even faster. We started building more pasture, began breeding our own cows in order to produce our own calves instead of being fully reliant on buying calves from other farms.
The farm was growing organically, do was my family:) And don't forget, I was still working another job in social services away from the farm. I was advancing up the ranks in this job, gaining more responsibility, more time and more effort. But my farm dream was also growing. I had been told my entire life that I could never make a living just farming. I would always need to work another job. But deep within me a fire was growing. I told many people close to me that one day, I would farm full time and be successful, but when would I do it and what would it look like?
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