4th Line Cattle Co.

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4th Line Cattle Co. 4th Line Cattle Co. is family owned and operated in Hillsburgh Ontario. Providing pasture raised meat

We hope you and yours had a wonderful weekend giving thanks. We sure are grateful you’re here! 🍁🤎
10/14/2026

We hope you and yours had a wonderful weekend giving thanks. We sure are grateful you’re here! 🍁🤎

09/28/2026

Lab grown. Cell cultivated. Precision fermented. Gene edited.
They don’t all mean the same thing.

Food marketing is getting a new vocabulary. Here’s a guide to the terms you may start seeing or hearing more often 👇

🧫 Lab grown / cell cultivated / cell cultured: Different terms used for food made by growing animal cells in controlled conditions. When we’re talking about cultivated meat, this means animal cells grown into food without raising an animal for that product.

🔬 Cellular agriculture: The broader category. It can refer to cultivated animal cells or ingredients produced using microorganisms.

🦠 Precision fermented: Microorganisms are used to produce a particular ingredient, such as a protein. This is different from growing meat from animal cells.

🌱 Plant based / simulated meat: Products made mainly from plant ingredients to resemble or replace meat. They are different from cell cultivated meat.

🧬 Gene edited: An animal or plant whose DNA has been changed to give it a particular trait. The animal is still raised; the meat is not grown from cells in a facility. Canada approved food from a gene edited, disease resistant pig in 2026, though its developer had not yet planned a Canadian launch.

These terms describe different ways food can be produced. There seems to be new, more palatable ways to define them in food marketing, and as a consumer it can be confusing…

Our advice? When a new term appears on a package or in an ad, ask: What is it made from? How was it produced? And who can explain that process to me?

You deserve a clear answer about the food you bring home. Save this guide for the next time a new term comes up, and let us know if we missed any!

09/16/2026

You’ve probably heard the blanket statement that farmers remove calves from their mothers shortly after birth.

And yes, some farms do, particularly within certain dairy systems. Early separation may be used to manage colostrum intake, closely monitor the calf, reduce exposure to disease or because the cow’s milk is being collected for production.

But that isn’t how every farm operates.

At 4th Line Cattle Co., our calves remain with their mamas for approximately nine months, which aligns with when they naturally wean.

During those months, they receive nutrition from their mothers while gradually eating more grass and forage. They develop their rumens, learn how to graze, socialize within the herd and become increasingly independent.

By nine months, the calves are eating and functioning independently, making the transition away from their mothers more developmentally appropriate for our herd.

Our approach isn’t possible for every operation, just as another farm’s management decisions may not make sense for ours. Land availability, herd health, weather, forage supply and the type of farming operation all influence when and how calves are weaned.

Agriculture is too varied and complex to be explained by one blanket statement.

Some calves are separated within hours.

Ours remain with their mamas for nine months.

Both deserve more context than a viral headline usually provides. Don’t you think?

09/04/2026

The order opens the door to approximately 661 million pounds of imported beef over just 90 days, with a commitment that the product itself will be sold at 25% below the current market price.

But in a global beef shortage, why is anyone willing to sell that much beef at a discount? And why is the United States buying it?

This follows another order allocating 80,000 metric tonnes specifically to Argentina. Earlier this year, China rejected one shipment of Argentine beef after its testing reportedly detected chloramphenicol, a prohibited antibiotic. The processing plant involved disputed the result, and there is no evidence that the rejected shipment entered the United States—but it raises fair questions about testing and transparency.

China, the European Union and many other markets also prohibit certain drugs and growth-promoting substances that are permitted under American production standards. Different countries do not always define acceptable beef production in the same way.

Yet the United States does not require mandatory country-of-origin labelling on retail beef. Imported trimmings can be blended with domestically produced beef and sold as ground beef. Consumers may never know where the cattle were born, raised or slaughtered… or what antibiotics, hormones or production practices were used during their lives.

Meanwhile, JBS—the world’s largest meat processor—reportedly lobbied the administration for lower beef tariffs. It is one of four corporations controlling approximately 85% of American beef processing.

And Canadians should be paying attention.

Our cattle markets are closely connected. When discounted imports pressure American cattle prices, Canadian farmers feel it too.

This isn’t about declaring all foreign beef unsafe. It’s about questioning a food system in which consumers know less, corporations control more and local farmers are pushed out.

Food security isn’t having the cheapest beef today. It’s having local farmers who can still feed us tomorrow.

Know where your beef comes from. Better yet, know your farmer.

Address

5682 4th Line
Erin, ON
N0B1Z0

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