All Hogan’s Grass-fed beef is from beef-breed cattle, and are not culled cows or mixed non-beef breeds.
No Artificial Coloring or Taste Enhancers
Our cattle are processed at a state-regulated abattoir. Our meat is vacuum-packed in individually wrapped packages. This protects the meat from exposure to air, extending its life in the freezer and preventing “freezer burn”.
What are the Health Benefits of Grass-fed Beef?
Grass-fed beef is a healthier choice in a number of ways. Grass-fed beef is lower in total fat and calories than commercial beef.
Not only is Grass-fed beef lower in fat, but it has higher levels of “healthy” fats including Omega-3 fatty acids and CLA. Vitamin E levels are four times higher than in feedlot beef. eatwild.com has more information on the health benefits of Grass-fed beef.
An important difference between Hogan’s Grass-fed beef and commercial beef is that our meat is from a single, healthy steer. The ground beef is not combined with the meat from any other animal, as is the practice with commercial ground beef. Ground beef found in the stores, even the organic products, can be the product of hundreds of individual animals. This merging of meat dramatically increases your risk of exposure to all sorts of pathogens.
Feeding the cattle grain also increases the risk of E.coli contamination as it increases the acidity in the stomach and creates a more hospitable environment for E.coli bacteria. A crowded feedlot magnifies that risk as well. The natural grass diet and clean pasture of grass-fed beef greatly reduces the risk of contamination.
How is Grass-fed Beef different from commercial beef?
Cattle, as ruminants, naturally eat grasses.
The common practice of “finishing” beef in crowded feedlots includes force-feeding the cattle grain, which is not a natural feed for cattle. The cattle must be managed with various feed additives and antibiotics to prevent illness from this unhealthy life. These practices speed the growth of the cattle, adding weight rapidly and marbling fat into the meat.
What we have come to understand about this practice is that not only does it dramatically increase the fat in the meat, it actually changes the fat and reduces the amount of healthy Omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) naturally found in beef.
How is Grass-fed Beef different from Organic Beef?
Organic beef has many benefits, including the lack of antibiotics, hormones or other feed additives and recently, required access to pasture.
However, many organic beef producers use feedlots to “finish” the cattle, confining them and force feeding them grain or other unnatural food. This practice increases the total fat and dramatically lowers the levels of healthy Omega-3′s, CLA and Vitamin E. Also, organic ground meat can be the product of more than one individual animal.
Learn about cooking grass fed beef and try out some of our recipes.