Thanks for your interest in bulk grass-fed beef this year!
Our Plan for Bulk Beef in 2020
So... just when we thought farming couldn't get any crazier, enter COVID-19! We were coasting along in the little world of Shady Grove Ranch, trying to slowly and steadily increase production to continue to employ more people and feed more wonderful customers just like you! Enter COVID and it shook up everything, everywhere, for everyone. But if there's one thing that farming has taught us, it's how to roll with the punches and keep things moving when all manner of obstacles and barriers fly up into our pathway out of nowhere. This has definitely been a challenging year in that respect!
A weak national food chain has led to instability and waste.
One thing that COVID-19 has revealed to the nation at large is how very weak and unstable the conventional food system is. I don’t know if you’ve heard, and we haven’t shared very much about it because it’s so very disturbing during already disturbed times. But when the big slaughterhouses shut down, they took a good 25% of meat-processing capacity with them. That also meant that there were huge, and I mean HUGE, batches of market-ready beef and pork that had to be euthanized because they couldn’t be processed. They were literally killed and thrown in the garbage, at a time when grocery store shelves were totally bare. That all sounds totally insane—like some terrible sci-fi episode. And sure, maybe things are back up and running in the industrial meat-processing world, but I think it woke up some folks to the dark side of corporation-scale meat production. We’ve had more than one person order for the first time, vowing never to buy grocery store meat again…
What does that have to do with our little farm?
Well, first of all, we are so grateful to report that our local slaughterhouse options have remained safe and functional. They are quite different in working conditions than the really big guys that literally have thousands of workers standing elbow-to-elbow, working around the clock, making meat production as cheap as possible. A discussion for another day… But BECAUSE people have become more aware of the vast problems in the industrial food system, they are actively seeking out farm-sourced foods. That is WONDERFUL news, not just for us, but for farms like ours all over the country, who have struggled in past years to convince folks that their products are safer, healthier, and more reliable than their industrial counterparts. A local, decentralized, diverse food supply is the most robust food system possible, and the silver lining of this intense storm is that the local food movement has more momentum than ever.
But it’s a tricky growing process because real food isn’t a widget made in a factory. It takes time to grow herds and flocks, especially when you’re using natural methods. But we see seeds of hope all over the place and we hope if you have only recently developed a resolve to purchase your food as locally as possible, that you will stick with it through these growing pains so we will all come out stronger on the other side.
The current situation
We have been inundated with calls since March from folks wanting to buy bulk beef and pork. We’ve had so many calls, in fact, we realized there was no way we could first supply our existing customers who have depended upon us for the last 10 years, and add all these new folks, too, especially in the quantities they are asking for. Grass-fed beef is a slow-moving industry, and we would have needed to know over 3 years ago that we were going to have a surge in demand if we were going to be prepared for these crazy times. We feel a responsibility to help others secure good, clean food in their time of need. But we know we must make it a priority to protect the supply of our existing customers. We are particularly concerned about another surge in cases of COVID that may cause further problems with the food system when cooler weather (aka flu season) descends upon us this autumn. We hope that won’t happen, but it places a sense of urgency on us to get as much real, healthy meat into the freezers (whether yours or ours) as possible right now. The good news is that we have very secure access to meat processing this summer, so we are putting things in motion to help as many locals as we can gain access to good, healthy meats while they can.
So we’ve hatched up a plan for 2020. If you watched our inventory update video back in May, you already knew about our big chicken plan. We’ve more than doubled our chicken production this year, thanks to so many folks participating in the Edible Savings Account program. We’ve also increased our pork supply by breeding more sows, so we expect to be able to offer some bulk pork this fall.
2020 Bulk Grass-fed Beef Plan
We’re happy to report that we have a strategy to supply more grass-fed beef, also, by collaborating with another farm here in Texas. We know the ins and outs of grass-fed beef. We know how to vet out legitimate farms, and how to investigate and ask questions to make sure the operation is being represented accurately. After all, our beef herd didn’t appear out of thin air! We had to carefully seek out good breeding stock over the years, so we have visited many farms, and there has been more than one farm we left with no cattle “in hand,” because we felt the farming practices were not what we were looking for. It’s not that we’re trying to be difficult or snobbish—it’s just that we have certain standards, as do our customers, and we want to be true to those standards because our customers trust us, and because we feel these standards provide the healthiest meat a person can eat.
We have teamed up with a farmer outside of Dallas raising grass-fed seed stock using very high production standards. He mostly sells to breeders, not to individuals for beef. (Direct-to-consumer sales are kind of a specialty thing that surprisingly few beef growers participate in--but we do!) We have interviewed him extensively. We and a farming colleague of ours both visited his farm on multiple occasions, and we feel it is a reliable and safe source of really-grass-fed beef (which is actually quite hard to find in East Texas). We decided to purchase a batch of freezer-ready cows in order to supply enough beef for those who have contacted us about bulk beef. We have also added some of his young heifers to our breeding program to further diversify our genetics and grow our herd since we don’t see demand for real beef slowing down anytime soon.
There is one point on which his operation differs from ours. We would never wish to misrepresent the products we sell, so even though to some, it may seem a very small technicality, for others, this difference may cause them to look elsewhere for bulk beef. We leave it to you to decide. If you are interested in bulk beef, these are the animals we will supply this year. Our regular retail cuts will continue to come from our own herd as usual, and we believe we have enough to last us all winter and into the spring when we begin harvesting again. But beyond that… we simply do not have enough cattle from our own herd to supply bulk beef this year.
So what’s the difference?
Shady Grove Ranch Beef Standards (in brief):
100% grass-fed for entire life. Medications only to be used for emergencies, and employ 1 year waiting period before slaughter. No hormones whatsoever.
2020 Bulk Beef Standards:
100% grass-fed for entire life. Medications only to be used for emergencies, with the exception of an adolescent-age dose of chemical dewormer as a preventative (dosed in early 2019). No medications given within last 15 months. No hormones whatsoever.
If you have questions about the particulars of the treatment, feel free to email us.
Why this ridiculously long-winded message?
Our customers feel to us like an extension of our family. We have an earnest desire to take care of you and to be open with you about the challenges we face and the solutions we’re applying. We feel it's really important to take time to communicate with you so you know exactly what you're getting. We’re actually really excited about expanding and about the increase in interest in real pasture-raised foods. Real food has made a huge difference in our health, and now, more than ever, we all need as much healthy food as we can get!
Next step:
Our regular retail beef supply will continue to be available, being restocked monthly through the end of the year, but we will not be able to offer bulk beef packages through our regular retail sales as far as we can tell at this point. We are offering 2 more batches of custom-processed bulk beef and that is all we will have until May-ish 2021. If you would like to proceed with purchasing a half or whole beef, please visit our online store and purchase the Half or Whole Cow Deposit item, found by clicking this link.
I hope you find this information beneficial and encouraging. We look forward to working with you. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to write.
--Matt and Jerica
