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Simply Clean, Tender, Fresh Tasting, Homegrown and Pasture Finished - that's Why Betsy Ross's Grass-fed Beef is the Place to Buy Beef! Here's How We Do It...Ross Farm Ross Farm is located 11 miles east of Granger (click for printable directions)in Central Texas. We run an intensified management grazing operation with over 100 paddocks of 2-10 acres. Since 1995 we have worked the farm as a grazing operation, building over 100 paddocks using electric fencing; bringing piped, underground water systems to each paddock; building 'walk-ways' to each of the areas; planting improved species of bermudas, clovers and native grasses; and are now actively developing a Grass-fed meat program. Each paddock is managed as a separate ecological and biological system. Want to see a map of our paddocks or pastures? Improving Genetics for Finishing on Grass Currently at the farm, we run 4 herds of cattle, moving them at least once a day to fresh grazing. We have the grass-fed yearling herd, dairy replacement herd, the beef cow herd and a herd of dairy cows being bred for calves. Joe David ranches in Sutton County, which is in West Texas - about 200 miles from here (no, that isn't a long way in Texas). He raises the steers and heifers we put into our Grass-fed program. Once they are weaned at the ranch we transport them down here to the farm. He is currently using a South Devon and a black Angus bull on the mama cows from which he makes his selection. While continually trying to improve the genetics of the herd, he selects for cattle that do well in all stages of production on grass and at the same time produces more meat and that is tender. Gerald Fry is helping us move to the Red Devon genetics. So what we want for you is a larger steer/heifer, that eats lots of grass, is tender and yields more cuts of meat per head. Remember, we guarantee tender! Animal Health and Handling We have strict protocol regarding herd health. All animals are given their regular immunization shots on an annual basis, such as black leg, lepto, sommonus, vibro, and BRVS. These are preventative shots much like the ones given humans for measles, mumps, etc. Of course, any sick animal is treated with antibiotics should they become sick. If this happens within the 'Grass-fed' herd, we move that animal to another herd not in the 'Grass-fed' program. Our vet, John Holmstrom, is well acquainted with our farm goals and makes regular trips to the farm. We use the 'Bud Williams' style of handling our animals. No rodeos here. Joel Ham, a protege of Bud Williams, came to the farm several years ago and taught us the new method of handling animals. No shouting, no trying to stampede them - just moving to the right place at the right time. It's great knowledge. It gave Betsy a lot of confidence in animal control. You ought to try it sometimes. It reduces stress on the animals, which we think is important. High quality forages We try to put 10,000 to 12,000 pounds of dry matter on the 'table' every day of the year (for the animals)! That can get to be pretty tough to accomplish sometimes. Fortunately, we love forages, all kinds and in this old rich blackland, growth is quick and varieties can be numerous. You probably know that what we are looking for from our grasses is protein and energy as well as all those minerals our animals (and humans) need and use.
Our cool season grasses are: oats (we like Harrison oats best for grazing), clovers (burr, cherokee red, kendland red, big bersen, a little alfalfa, crimson, sweet, and white), rye (had really good animal performance from blizzard this year), legumes (velvet bundle flower)- vetch. Also we have Texas winter grass, rescue grass, little barley (we like until it throws a seed head and then it is a pain!). Our efforts to build life in the soil Sometimes when we start down a path, we have no idea where it will lead us! That's the way it was with the quest to improve our soil health. We didn't understand about bacteria, fungi, protozoa or nematodes much less how they impact the forage our cattle consume. And Betsy sure wasn't going to get into that worm composting! As we began to study, read, talk, ponder about it, we realized that for years we had been feeding the plant with our chemical fertility program. Visually we could tell the quality of that forage, both in volume and quality were not the same, and we were working too hard to put the gain on our growing animals. We discovered we should be feeding the soil, which in turn will feed the plants - in fact, if we do it right, the biology in the soil will feed the plant what it needs when it needs it! So we went to Dr Elaine Ingham's 'Soil Biology' school, and soon we were making our own compost tea, tending a worm composting bin, growing all kinds of fungi, and spraying, spraying, and spraying our pastures. And WE BEGAN to SEE POSITIVE RESULTS!
Animal Performance Our most positive results have been in the animal performance! A beef animal finally gets big enough to 'finish' and for it's last 90-150 days, it puts on a lot of weight. At Ross Farm, we do this on grass. The feat is one must have gobs of grass, it must be of the highest quality, and available 24/7 so they can eat all they want, when they want it! Even with the best of planning, it's always a guess when rain will come and how much forage one will have for the animals, but our friend Johnny Cates said we should do some 'believeing.' So this year, January 1, 2003 we began to let our best 67 beef steers have all the fresh grazing they wanted during the day - 12 hrs/7 days week. February 1, 2003 through April 24th, we pared the bunch down to 24 and they grazed 24 hrs/7 days a week ONLY our 'best' pastures - those with clovers, vetch rye or oats. AND, they were allowed only those pastures that had had two applications of compost tea and a 'transition to organic' blend of fertilizer. Wow! They have averaged over 3 lbs a day for 3 months! Every thing is in sync for them - their food consumption in perfect harmony with their nutritional needs! They look beautiful. If we are what we eat and it's what it eats, we think you should order some of this beef! NOW! Processing the Beef and Delivery to You
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Forages are usually divided into warm season and cold season varieties. Our warm season grasses, which we use about 8-10 months of the year are: bermudas, including common, coastal, tifton 85, jiggs, and brazos; tall prairie grasses such as Eastern Gamma Grass, including a variety called San Marcus which we hope to market commercially in 4 years; alamo switchgrass, bluestems, such as w.b.dahl and silver, Lometa indiangrass, klein and side-oats gamma.
The first thing we noticed was the feeder roots were abundant, main roots went deeper and the soil was more crumbly (friable). What rain we have stays with the plant for a long time. On our clovers we saw oodles of nodules (nitrogen-fixing growths on the roots). 
We have our beef processed at Readfield's in Bryan, Texas and we have a lot of confidence in their ability to 1) give us back our beef (not some one's else's 2) kill the animal humanely 3) have in place quality assurances and safety guidelines and inspections thereof; 4) age the beef for 14-21 days before packaging; 5)cut and cryovac each package for favorable presentation; 6)properly chill and hard freeze each package for maximum flavor over time. 7)deliver to me the kind of packages we are proud to deliver to you.