Our cows run and frolic and eat in their natural environment, grazing on our beautiful farm all of their days. The animals receive a healthy diet of rich grasses (which is their main staple) and are supplemented with high quality corn. The meat is flavorful because the animal ate a range of different natural foods and because it lived it’s whole life moving around and developing healthy muscles. O
ur animals are NEVER fed growth hormones or synthetic feeds. They are NEVER treated with antibiotics* or steroids as is common on large feedlot operations. Their natural diet of pasture, hay, and grains means that growing our cows takes a little longer, but you don’t have to wonder about what you’re putting in your body and we think that the extra time and care it worth it! It’s nothing but good meat. You taste the difference when you eat pasture raised meat and your family will be healthier. Win-win. Not only is pasture-raised beef healthier for you, it’s so much better for the animals. Our animals are all healthy and happy here on the farm. When your meat is produced far away, do you really know how the animals are treated or what type of conditions they live in? Here at Otter Creek Farms, our cows are free to behave as cows- they graze and wander through the thick green grass. They roam freely and breed naturally. Our processing facility is just down the road in Tifton, GA. Our animals will spend minimal time on a truck from our farm to processing. They arrive at the slaughterhouse calm and stress free. We never use electric cattle prods on our animals. At the slaughterhouse, the pace is slow enough to ensure that workers treat animals with respect. Otter Creek Farm is BQA certified. Beef Quality Assurance is a nationally coordinated, state implemented program that provides systematic information to U.S. beef producers and beef consumers of how common sense husbandry techniques can be coupled with accepted scientific knowledge to raise cattle under optimum management and environmental conditions. BQA guidelines are designed to make certain all beef consumers can take pride in what they purchase – and can trust and have confidence in the entire beef industry. There are lots of standards that we adhere to for good animal welfare. The best way to describe our standards though is probably this: At the end of the day, we all sit on our porches and watch the cows as the sun goes down. The calves are running and jumping around, the mamas are feeding their babies, and the herd makes one last pass across the field munching on grass before they bed down for the night. We take care of our cows the old fashioned way, with great care for the animals and the land. I can’t imagine that any normal person would want to sit and watch an animal trapped in its own filth in a feedlot. But don’t take our word for it, come visit Otter Creek Farms for yourself. We’d love to see you and show you around.
*Our animals are only treated with antibiotics if they are sick, which is very very rare and we keep documentation on such incidences. However, they are not treated with antibiotics as a routine part of their diet as is standard practice on large feedlot operations.
