Have a quarter cow, man
In the last couple of years, I’ve been on a quest to be more conscious of the food I eat. To me, this meant adopting the paleo lifestyle, and eating local, organic food as much as budget and availability allows. I have also tried as best I can to sort fact from fiction when it comes to nutrition. It hasn’t always been easy, but in the process, I’ve lost a lot of weight, gained lots of energy, and leveled out my moods. I also feel healthier and look much younger than I did before I started this.
My latest adjustment was to investigate grass-fed beef. From what I can gather from the Internet, grass-fed beef is healthier and more humanely-raised than the traditional grain-fed stuff.
My hunt for locally-raised grass-fed beef led me to Ivan McIlroy and his Wallace Springs Cattle Company. A while ago, I arranged with Ivan to buy a quarter cow of his grass-fed beef. Today, the day finally came when I could pick up my order. I hopped in the car and headed to the farm in North Perth, Ontario to meet the meat, so to speak.
Ivan was great. He gave me a tour of the farm, introducing me to his animals and showing me how they live and what they eat. It clearly takes a lot of work and costs lot of money to raise cattle this way. The price I paid for my quarter cow was extremely reasonable. In fact, as Ivan explained to me, it’s not a sustainable price when compared to what it costs to raise the animals. I believe that many people would pay more, especially if they’re given the opportunity to see the farm and learn about how their food is grown.
After spending about an hour with Ivan and his cows, I headed to the meat packer’s to pick up my order. There was an astounding amount of beef. The order included about 70 lbs. of ground beef, four short rib roasts, two shoulder roasts, nine blade steaks, fifteen rib steaks, and a brisket. There was also a big box of beef bones to be used in soup. I’ll be sharing this order with my dad, but still, it’s a lot!
I really enjoyed my trip out to the country today. I’m naturally a city boy, so it always seems a bit exotic to visit a farm. Have a look at my gallery of snapshots with captions below.
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- These goats are Ivan’s wife Karen’s project. The babies were adorable, as you can see. Their instinctive love of jumping and climbing was fun to watch.
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- This two month-old calf was bright-eyed and attentive.
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- The mother cow was very curious. She was inhaling deep breaths of air, catching our scent. I put my hand out to her nose and she promptly licked it.
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- Ivan is renting barn space and taking care of these cows for another rancher. They are raised on a feed lot in a traditional grain diet.
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- Here’s one of the conventionally raised steers staring me down from the doorway of the barn.
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- One of the major downsides of grain-fed cattle is that they have to be fed antibiotics to fend off infection from the sores caused by the food they eat. Ivan is nursing these two immuno-compromised steers back to health.
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- Here are some of Ivan’s own cattle. They are raised on grass with a little bit of grain in the winter. To me, they seem happier and healthier than the grain-fed steers in the feed lot.
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- Here’s Ivan showing me one of the blends of hay that he feeds his cattle in the winter.
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- When you’re passionate about something, you post it on signs.
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- Here’s the trunk of my car, overflowing with grass-fed beef. This will probably last a while.
