OUR BEEF

As Public Health professor Marion Nestle at New York University points out in one study, the meat in a single pound of minced beef could be traced to 400 different cows reared in six different states in the United States. (!!!) What is even more alarming is that, as exposed by Forbes Magazine and others, the ambiguity in the language of the regulatory policy for meat processed in a USDA-inspected facility, labeled “Product of U.S.A” allows animals to be born, raised, and slaughtered in another country.(!!!) Not only can you be completely uncertain about where and how your beef was raised, but as Professor Nestle points out: “The chances of traces of pathogens getting into each helping of meat are massively multiplied, while at the same time the difficulties of tracing any outbreak of disease back to its source are correspondingly large.”

As the public meat market becomes more and more like the black market, there is one way to ensure that you are buying the pure beef product you paid for: know where your beef is coming from!!! At Southern Winds Cattle Co, the basis for our beef business starts with excellent grass. Here there are no sand lots lined with feeding troughs! Good grass and pasture rotation keep the cows healthy and fat all spring and summer long, while the grass from the hayfields keeps them going in the mild Georgia Winters where the Bermuda grass waits dormant in the cold ground until the first warmth of spring. After the calves are born in the fall, they stay with their mammas, nursing and testing out the hay all winter long. They are carefully checked on several times a day by our older children, who feed in the morning and take rotations during the day to ensure the health and well-being of the little ones and their mothers. At around 7 months all the calves are weaned from their mothers to ensure the mothers will be strong enough for their next calving season. The steers which will be used for meat are selected and separated. There they are fed a natural based local grain in order to increase the taste and marbling of the meat. They are then taken right from our Family Farm to the local USDA inspected butcher. From start to finish, our cows are naturally fed, cared for and finished, without antibiotics or growth hormones of any kind. They are treated with respect and cared for lovingly by our family.