How To Raise Grassfed Beef: 3 Essential Best Practices

Does farming feel more like a calling than a job?

You’re in good company. 

In this blog, you’ll hear from Dr. Allen Williams, a regenerative farming expert, about how you can fulfill your duty to put high-quality, nutritious beef on your customers’ plates. 

Keep reading or check out the video above to learn why beef quality matters, plus how to raise grassfed beef by following three essential best practices.

Why Grassfed Beef Quality Matters

If your cattle have grazed on grass throughout their lives without supplemental grain feed, you can technically market your products as grassfed beef. 

However, turning one-time shoppers into enthusiastic repeat customers of your farm store requires you to go a step further to produce the most flavorful, nutritious beef — something they can’t find anywhere else. 

Here are three reasons to go above and beyond to provide top-quality grassfed beef:

• Customer satisfaction: Customers who can taste the grassfed difference in your farm’s beef are more likely to place repeat orders. Plus, they’re willing to pay higher prices. 

• Return on investment: Raising a single grassfed cow is a long-term project, with most animals taking 24 months or longer to be ready for harvest. If you don’t follow best practices to produce the highest quality beef, this massive effort won’t be worth it in terms of profit. 
• Responsibility: As an independent farm, your customers trust you to uphold regenerative principles and consistently provide high-quality, nutritious meats. 

Ready to build your farm’s reputation as the best grassfed beef producer in the area? Let’s explore three critical ingredients for delicious, nutritious meat. 

1. Healthy Soil

Healthy herds start with healthy soil. 

The health of your soil has a significant impact on the quantity, quality, and diversity of forage available to your cattle. If it’s rich in nutrients, it will grow plentiful grasses of various species — which will enrich your cattle’s diet and result in more flavorful beef. 

Plus, embracing regenerative principles can cut your production costs, reducing the need for supplemental feed and guaranteeing the long-term health of your grazing lands. 

How To Do It

So, how can you protect your soil health? Rotational grazing is your best bet. 

This strategy involves fencing off different areas of your pastures and rotating your herds through them, giving the soil time to recover and regrow native species between grazing sessions. 

2. Diverse Forage

Want to amaze customers with the rich, complex flavors of your grassfed beef? 

Avoid monoculture grazing fields. 

Poor soil health often leads to low plant diversity in your grazing fields, and customers can taste when their beef comes from cattle with minimal dietary diversity. 

But that’s not the only reason to nurture diverse native plants on your grazing lands. Dr. Williams compares a rich, varied grazing land to an “agricultural pharmacy,” noting that many species have immune system-boosting and antiparasitic properties! 

How To Do It

Many ranchers make the mistake of assuming that a healthy pasture is lush and green, sprouting with plentiful grasses. However, these one-note fields are lacking in plant diversity.

That’s why our top tip is to reimagine what a pasture should look like. 

According to Dr. Williams, a healthy pasture should tell a visual story, showcasing various colorful species in different stages of growth. He also warns against fighting weeds like clover, since many of these species make great food for your cattle. 

To achieve a complex ecosystem on your grazing lands, rotate your herds through different areas of the pasture, allowing time for soil recovery and native plant regrowth. You can also implement strategies to attract pollinators to increase forage diversity, quality, and quantity. 

3. Degree of Finish

What’s the hardest lesson when learning how to raise grassfed beef? Patience. 

The degree of finish is critical when it comes to quality beef. Even if you have the healthiest soil and most diverse grazing lands, harvesting cattle before they’re ready will result in beef that’s dry, tough, and lacking in flavor. 

You might feel pressure from tight processor deadlines or customer demands, but Dr. Williams emphasizes that protecting your reputation as a beef producer should be your top priority. 

How To Do It

First, learn exactly what a properly finished animal looks like. Here’s a checklist of five areas to evaluate on your cattle to learn whether they’re ready for processing: 

• Ribs: All 26 ribs should be evenly coated with a thin layer of fat, making them difficult to see and feel. 

• Spine: The top of each cow should be nicely rounded and smooth, with no bony protrusions from the spine. 

• Hooks and pins: The front and back of the pelvis should be filled and free of any skeletal sharpness. 

• Girth and flank: These areas should have deep fat deposits. 
• Brisket: A high and tight brisket means that your cattle need more time. Instead, it should be exaggeratedly distended from both the side and front views. 

Dr. Williams also recommends visiting a well-known farm and asking an experienced rancher to show you the visual difference between a properly finished cow and one that needs more time. 

Sometimes, harvesting beef before a cow is properly finished is inevitable. In these cases, you still have options, like dry aging, wet aging, or grinding the meat instead of selling primal cuts. 

Don’t forget to take a sample steak from each animal after processing! Tasting the product yourself is the best way to learn the flavor differences between properly and underfinished cattle. 

Bonus Tips for Selling Grassfed Beef

Learning how to raise grassfed beef isn’t all it takes to run a successful farm; you also need to know how to turn this high-quality product into profit. 

That’s why we’ve put together some of our best tips for managing a profitable farm sales operation: 

• Invest in the right storage and packaging. You’ve put significant effort into crafting juicy, flavorful beef, so keep it that way. Use reliable freezers and airtight packaging to keep every cut as fresh as possible. 

• Master the art of weight-based sales. Selling grassfed beef by weight is convenient for customers and profitable for you. Use a farm inventory tool to track and sell your products by the pound. 

• Embrace e-commerce. Launching an online farm store is one of the best ways to connect with farm-to-fork enthusiasts. You can share your farming practices, list products for sale, and manage online orders with a farm e-commerce tool. 
• Understand perishable shipping. Use sturdy boxes and trustworthy insulation to keep your grassfed beef safe during transit to customers’ homes, ensuring they can taste the quality in every bite. 

Looking to take your ranch to the next level? You’re in the right place. 

GrazeCart is an all-in-one solution specifically designed to help you manage and sell farm-fresh products like grassfed beef. With our software, you can track your farm’s inventory in real time, launch a custom website, make online and in-store sales, and take advantage of sales-boosting strategies like subscription boxes and loyalty rewards. 

Plus, our team of farm retail experts is available 24/7 to help you make the most of these tools. 

See GrazeCart in action by launching your free trial today!