The boys and Johnny and I tagged our steers this morning. Since we started selling our yearlings on the internet, we’ve found quite a few buyers like to have them age and source verified. In essence, that means we provide the paperwork to prove that we calved these steers here a year ago, and they’ve only been on our property.
It certifies that these steers haven’t been in feedlot situations, or trucked between many buyers. Most people believe that increases their chance of being healthy. Not that regular feedlot steers aren’t, but to ship to places like Japan, they want that proof.
And, no, as far as I know, none of our steers ever ended up in Japan.
We use AngusSource, provided by the Angus Association, and it says we’ve used only registered Angus bulls… so every steer’s daddy was an Angus. The mommas aren’t registered, although Johnny has enough cow records to trace them back into the 1960’s… and they’re 99% Angus.
We also sell them as Natural.
If we’ve had to doctor them with antibiotics, for foot rot or some illness, we pull those out and don’t sell them in this bunch. They haven’t had any growth hormones either. That effort fills another slot that consumers want.
So this got me to thinking today… when you buy your beef in the store, what do *you* look for?
Do you want organic?
Do you look for a COOL label? (Country Of Origin Label)
Do you care if your beef is from the USA?
Did you know what “Natural” means on the label?
Do you want grassfed or grainfed? Do you really know the difference?
I’ve heard of labels like “Wolf-Friendly”, and “Open Range”. What are some of the stickers you look for or have seen?
What’s the most important thing to you when you buy beef?
What do you say about the price? too high, just right, no object?
Have any of my blog entries made a difference in your perception of ranching?
I sound like I’m doing a survey for BEEF Magazine, but I’d really like to know what you’re thinking! Share this with your friends, and let’s see what kind of informal survey we can do.
Talk about it… think about it… and let’s learn a little about each other!
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June 29, 2010 Fleeting Memory (one of my favorites!)
June 29, 2009 A Gift
June 29, 2008 No entry.
Don’t know if you’ll even care to read this, so many years after asking… and from someone who isn’t even in the U.S…. but here I go nonetheless! 😉 We don’t have the same labels here, so I’ll just say this: What matters to me is what the animal whose meat I eat has had to endure during its lifetime, including during transport and slaughter. Accordingly, I look for labels that suggest that the animal was allowed to live a good life as naturally as possible, and that it was humanely transported over a short distance only, and slaughtered as humanely as possible. This is hard to find, and it is very expensive. If I cannot afford the price, I will buy and eat it less often.
I read all my comments, even on old posts! Thanks for responding! I believe many people are like you!