What Makes Mill Iron N Beef Different?

Our Beef is Both Healthy and All You Might Want From a Steak.

Commonly in today’s world, a consumer feels like he or she needs to make a choice between a healthy steak and a fantastic steak. We have combined the 2, and I’ll briefly explain what we do differently to achieve this.

It is easier to explain what makes a steak exceptional, and so we’ll begin there. Tenderness, marbling, mouth feel, and flavor are interconnected and all represented in the experience of eating a great steak. These characteristics are influenced by genetics, environment, diet, age of the animal, and the degree to which the animal is “finished.” Finish refers to the degree of intramuscular fat (marbling) deposition, and a protocol to maximize the potential for a beef animal.

Simply, an animal that remains on an increasing plane of nutrition throughout it’s life, has achieved a requisite age to ensure exceptional flavor, and has displayed phenotypic signs of adequate intramuscular fat deposition, is a finished beef animal. A beef animal that is too young does not have exceptional beef flavor, and an animal that is not properly finished will provide a less than desirable eating experience.

We begin with exceptional genetics, either Wagyu influenced cattle or commercial cattle that are exceptionally well adapted to the environment in which they are grown. We only utilize brood stock that are adapted to the grass conditions, climate, and conditions where the cattle are raised and finished. Then we ignore convention, and elect to not vaccinate. Instead we supply pasture, an exceptional mineral program, salt, clean water, and low stress stockmanship to minimize stress and illness in the herds. We will doctor sick cattle when we need to, but they will then be sold at the livestock auction at the completion of the drug withdrawal period. we will not keep animals that need any special treatment, either in the breeding herd, or the finishing program. As a result, you will never find pharmaceuticals or antibiotics in our beef.

We calve on green grass. There are multiple reasons for this, some are financial, others are calf health related. The bottom line is that calving on grass is calving in sync with nature, and the herd and the ecosystem benefit.

We allow calves to nurse longer than average. The benefits to the calf should be obvious.

We don’t even begin worrying about finishing until an animal is at least 24 to 30 months old. This is a critical component in getting exceptional beef flavor. For comparison, most of what you buy at the store is likely close to 15 months of age at slaughter, and so does not yet possess the flavor that we seek to provide.

In the last several months we focus on finishing and we employ a proprietary finishing protocol that allows us to consistently year round finish exceptional carcasses on a forage only diet. Quality is in no way sacrificed as we maximize the health benefits of grass-finishing. The result is beef that is heart healthy and marbled to the full potential of the genetics.

For those interested in the maximum marbling, we raise Wagyu influenced cattle that finish exceptionally well on grass. For those with taste for a more conventional or more inexpensive steak, we use commercial mixes of beef cattle, still held to the same high standards, and raised in the same fashion.

We could go on to discuss more nuanced practices or the effects of grass finishing on Omega 3 to 6 Fatty Acid Ratios in beef, but maybe some of that should best be reserved for when you call us at 307-248-1279 or email us at jimnorman@millironnranch.com.