Prime quality pasture-fed yearling steers
The main enterprise at Calamia is the raising of prime quality pasture-fed yearling steers.
We give them the best pasture conditions, supplemented now and then with a little Copra meal. We use a cell-grazing system in which the cattle graze small paddocks for a week before they are moved to the next paddock. The pasture regrows for about 6 weeks before the cattle return. This allows for strong regrowth and also limits the parasite load.
Pasture feeding has several advantages over lot-feeding. The meat is tasty and tender, since the cattle are young at turnoff and they have never experienced feed stress, and the mixture of pasture plants (including tasty ‘dock’ and plantain) imparts rich tastes to the meat. Not all properties have the right climate and soil conditions for high-quality pasture, but Calamia certainly does.
Pasture fed beef is typically leaner than lot-fed beef, and research has shown that the fats that are present have a different, more healthy composition.
Because our steers are allowed to roam freely and are not crowded together, we don’t have to worry about using antibiotics for disease suppression, which is the case in most intensive livestock operations. Thus meat from our cattle is clean, both in terms of lack of chemical residues and in terms of antiobiotic resistant microbial loads.
Lastly, with recent rises in grain prices, lot feeding is becoming less viable and more expensive.
We’ll have more to say about pasture-fed beef shortly.
