Other Information & Industry Issues

Freezer Life – the maximum length of time a meat can safely be stored in a freezer and used when ready:

• Beef – 12 months
• Lamb – 6 months
• Poultry – 6 months
• Pork – 3 months

Here is an article on the debate between corn-fed and grass-fed beef.

Before World War II, most U.S. cattle were grass-fed. Picture the old fashioned cattle drive from the prairie to Abilene and you can come to understand where the beef was raised and how it was raised. Many of those animals took 3 or more years to reach their full weight. With the completion of WWII, the population boom that began and the growing economy in the 1950’s, farmers and ranchers began looking for ways to get the beef animals to market more quickly. They turned to grain-fed diets such as corn, a commodity large in abundance and with easy availability. As the number of small family-run farms began to dwindle and larger producers and slaughterhouses took over, beef producers found they could significantly lower costs and produce meat year-round by placing the cattle in feedlots and giving them corn. On this diet the cattle gained weight more rapidly so the beef could be shipped to consumers more quickly. The evolution of farming and ranching cows to corn-fed diets from pasture only diets has been largely an economic movement with some taste and flavor considerations.