organic beef

My last in a series of four livestock workshops at the University of Minnesota took place on the Rosemount campus, a 7,000-acre spread given to the university by the U.S. Department of Defense. Originally used for manufacturing smokeless gunpowder during World War II, the site now hosts experiments in both produce and livestock run by the U of M’s farm extension program. Its broad expanses of wild grasslands made the perfect setting to discuss those pasture-loving fixtures of livestock farms, cows.

Yesterday's post took a look at Thousand Hills Cattle Company and the advantages of grass fed beef.

There are purists who will argue that you can’t have pastured, grass-fed cattle in Minnesota all year round. These people have a point. Snow covers much of the ground in Minnesota for what seems like 6 - 8 months of the year. Thousand Hills Cattle Company, the largest producer of grass fed beef in the Midwest, deals with this harsh reality via a system of enormous hay bails, rolled up in the warmer months and rolled out across the snow during the winter.