Frequently Asked Questions

When you purchase from The Little Farm That Could, you are buying a live animal that lives on the farm. Your purchase includes our services to arrange and execute butchering, packaging, and transport. For this reason, please understand that there will be some time between your purchase, and the delivery of your final product. You can use this time to plan for the payment and storage of your bulk meat. We offer live animals Whole, or shared.

"On Hoof" is a term used to describe an animal that is alive, and literally, standing "on their hoof", (as opposed to "belly up"! ) Animals at The Little Farm That Could are sold "On Hoof", and you may chose to pick up your live animal, or have us handle all the processing arrangements so that your animal arrives to you "in packages". The prices in our store usually reflect an animal that includes processing, so please contact us to inquire for non-processed animal prices.

When we sell an animal "On Hoof", it is a whole, live animal. Buying by the "share" means that you are buying a portion (an 1/8th, 1/4th, or 1/2, etc) of a whole, live beef or pork. Someone else would be buying the other portions. The whole animal would be divided between all shareholders, according to the percentage owned. The farmer that you purchase your animal from then coordinates processing and delivery.

Short answer: Studies have shown Grass Fed Beef to have superior health benefits vs., grain finished beef. Additionally, cattle are made to graze grasses, and when they eat too much grain in their diet, their body chemistry changes to become more acidic and disease accommodating. We want healthy cows and healthy meat to feed our friends and family!

More answers:

You are what you eat. Most available grain is now genetically modified, which in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. Anything that is selectively bred can be considered genetically engineered or modified, however, "GMO Grains" are often modified to include a tolerance to glyphosate. Grain eats fertilizer, cow eats grain, you eat cow, ergo you eat fertilizer.

There is a lot of information and varied opinions on this, but at The Little Farm That Could, we like to raise our beef cows grain free. Traditionally, cows eat grass to sustain, but they do enjoy the grains that the grass naturally produces during the fall when it goes to seed. This allows them to fatten up before going into the winter. We allow a natural cycle such as this for our mama cows when possible.

For more information, here are some great articles about the health benefits of grass raised beef:

https://www.heartstonefarm.me/blogs/about-grass-fed-beef/the-7-health-benefits-of-grass-fed-beef

No.

There are a few factors to this:

-At the current time, USDA processors are few and far between, with slaughter dates booked as much as a year out sometimes. As a small farm, it is very difficult to work with a timeline like that.

- Additionally, there is nothing closer than a three hour drive for us. In order to have the meat USDA certified, the animal must be transported to a slaughter facility, live, and all processing done there. It is scary, stresfull, and often terrifying for them. We work hard to respect our animals and honor their sacrifice to us, and believe that if we can accomplish the process in the comfort of their routine, that is the best way we can Thank them. Our animals are professionally and humanely dispatched at home, usually while they are doing what they love most: eating. They don't stress or even see it coming. Then they are transported to a state approved, custom butcher shop for processing.

-When transporting to USDA facility, the cost of production increases significantly. In order to give our customers the best product we can, and the best price we can, we have decided to continue selling animals "on hoof" and arrange for ranch slaughter. This gives us more flexibility overall to greater serve you!

We raise happy and healthy animals on the farm, and know their history and health. We do not feed hormones or antibiotics.