[Prairie_Beef] Amazing Benefits of Grass-Fed meat

[Kevin Carpenter]

A few details from the article:

Its in the April/May 2009 issue.

"The American Grassfed Association (www.americangrassfed.org) is behind
the <labeling> effort"

"The label certifies the beef came from cattle that ate only grass from
pasture, not feed-lots; received no hormones or antibiotics in their feed;
and were humanely raised and handled".

Note the above statement would allow the use of antibiotic injections to
save the life of a cow.

"... what is driving it is profit, plain and simple."

"managed intensive rotational grazing" is key - basically keeping the herd
together with electrical fences, cycling the cattle daily through 30 or so
plots a month - mimicking a herd of buffalo on the move.

"Many ... producers <in Minnesota> ... don't own tractors; they don't need
them."

"It takes a couple of years for the land to recover <from crop farming>
sufficiently to produce high-qualify beef, but it does recover.  And after
that initial setup, his producers begin showing a profit; in fact, more
profit than the corn and soybeans yielded before."

"...finish about 2 steers per acre.  That is almost precisely the acreage
it takes to grow the grain to finish those sam steers in a feedlot."

Good words on water retention, erosion prevention, building topsoil,
carbon capture, etc.

Kevin

> News Flash!!!!!
>
>          I just received the latest issue of "Mother Earth News."      WOW
> what a compelling article espousing the many attributes
> of grazing livestock on "Native Vegetation."   Please, read this article
> by the best writing author Richard Manning. If anyone doesn't know
> Richard, he wrote the classic book called GRASSLANDS. It is required
> reading for any prairie-phile.