We are located in the Kittitas Valley in Eastern Washington and are committed to the humane treatment of our animals. Except for our chickens, our animals are conceived, born, and grow up on our Ranch; check around as this is very unusual. Our animals consume only our high quality Orchardgrass, Alfalfa and our native grasses.
We are a Pasture based Ranch meaning any animal which can exist on grass is fed nothing but grass, i.e. “Grassfed”. Exceptions to this would be pig and chicken which are “Pastured” and supplemented with other special feed. Beef, lamb and goat as ruminants however are fed only our grasses and hay grown on our Ranch. In order for the meat to attain its optimum flavor the animal needs to be butchered when it is “on the gain”, i.e. gaining 2.5 to 3.5 pounds per day as is the case for cattle. Lacking this rapid weight gain the flavor of the meat will be compromised. One can have a “Grassfed” animal and feed it hay in the winter and spring which we do if the snow precludes access to the grass by the animal, however if that animal is butchered during this shoulder maintenance period rather that it’s gaining period the meat flavor will be less than ideal. It may be “Grassfed” but will probably have an off flavor and can be tough. Butchering in these shoulder maintenance periods will give Grassfed animals a very bad name. This is a long way around in explaining that we butcher our Grassfed ruminant animals only in the Summer and Fall when they are rapidly gaining weight for at least 60 days in order to offer meat with optimum flavor.
Pigs and chickens are different in that they are non-ruminants; pigs have stomachs similar to ours called "monogastric" and chickens have a "crop and gizzard". Both pigs and chickens get approximately 30% of their calories from grasses, bugs, roots and the rest from a special feed mix for them. Because they are not exclusively grass dependant they can be butchered in the shoulder seasons whereas the Grassfed ruminant animals can not.
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