Stress Minimizing Practices

From birth to harvest, we strive to ensure that animals undergo minimal stress to ensure the highest quality of meat. 

We utilize multiple methods to decrease stress though ALL stages of the animal's life. 

Why? Animals that undergo stress consistently often produce meat with an unappealing texture and taste. Therefore, we have an obligation to ensure that animals live as close to a stress-free life as possible. All handling practices are focused on eliminating as much stress. Cattle must be worked calmly, quietly, and WITHOUT the use of electric prods as we want animals to be comfortable with human contact. We also maintain working facilities and feeding/watering areas that minimize stress.

The Science behind WHY stress is so detrimental: Adrenaline is pulled from intramuscular fibers (AKA marbling that creates juicy, tender steaks) when animals are placed in a stressful situation and turned into glycogen. Glycogen is then turned into energy, creating a by-product called lactic acid. Lactic acid negatively affects the flavor of beef. Stress at the time of slaughter and in the weeks leading up to slaughter means that glycogen produced during stressful situations is still present in muscle fibers and will continue to turn to lactic acid with no way to be released.