Is West of 3rd beef 100% grass fed?
Due to our environment on the Canadian praries, this is not economical. Instead, our steers spend the spring and summer months grazing on native prairie pasture grass around the farm. We rotate the animals to different pastures every 45-60 days, depending on grass conditions each year, to ensure our animals are well fed.
Once the snow falls, the steers are brought home to the yard where they are fed a balanced diet of green feed bales. These consist of oat and barley crops cut early in their maturity. They are also fed bales made of hay, alfalfa, and brome grass that are grown in our hay fields and cut in the summer.
To finish their life cycle the steers are fed a grain mixture of oats, barley, and lentils as part of their diet for several reasons:
-It helps marble the meat and enhances the flavour we pride ourselves on
-The climate in Saskatchewan prohibits us from growing grass 6-8 months of the year, making it very difficult and cost prohibitive to feed a grass-only diet
-Grain is a good source of necessary nutrients for the health of our herd
-Grain provides added calories to help our animals stay strong and healthy through our long prairie winters.