About Us
Wagner Farms is a small, family run grass finished beef farm located about thirty miles south west of Cincinnati Ohio in the beautiful rolling hills of south eastern Indiana.Our cattle spend their entire lives with us the way nature intended. Enjoying open space, lush growing pastures and fresh water. Never are they fed any grain, grain concentrates, antibiotics or any other growth accelerating supplements that are consumed by their feed lot cousins. Our cattle are 100% pasture raised, grass fed and grass finished. They enjoy a wonderful life except for that one bad day!
Grass Finished versus Feed Lot Beef. Whats the difference?
In a commercial beef operation cattle are removed from pasture at a young age and crammed into a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) where there is not a blade of fresh grass to be found. In these feed lots the cattle are fed lots of grain and other questionable feed stuffs. to keep the animals healthy and gaining weight they are given growth hormones (three occur naturally and three are synthetic)and antibiotics. It is estimated that 70% of all antibiotics used in the United States are fed to livestock! This method of production creates a less nutritious product with an unhealthy omega 6 to omega 3 fat ratio. Grass finished beef is raised on pastures consisting of nutritious grasses, legumes and various forbs (you might call them weeds). This is what nature intended cattle to eat . This process takes longer and is costlier but produces a healthy more flavorful product. Grass finished beef provides these benefits. Lower in fat, Higher levels of Beta-carotene, Vitamin E , B vitamins (Thiamin and Riboflavin) , Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium, Omega-3's, CLA ,Vaccenic acid. A much healthier Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio.
Grass Fed versus Grass finished. Learn the difference!
Be advised that some beef labeled as grass fed is actually finished on grain.All cattle with the exception of veal calves will enjoy pasture for some of their life. Technically not lying, Unscrupulous producers will raise their cattle on grass to near slaughter weight then finish them for one to three months on grain. This grain finishing will diminish any health benefits of the grass feeding in as little as thirty days. Our cattle spend their entire lives on pasture. We supplement this with hay only three months out of the year. Our richest most nutritious paddocks are reserved for our yearling steers that are gaining two to three pounds a day. It is expensive and demanding of time to maintain forage of this quality and is why some will cheat and resort to feeding grain to put the desired fat cover and marbling in their beef. Do your research to avoid being misled! Know your farmer buy only grass fed beef that has been grass finished!
The Perfect Mix
After much research and experimentation we have selected and crossed two breeds of cattle to assure a quality grass finished product. Tarentaise (A French breed) was chosen for their tender flavorful meat and rich milk to assure rapid growth of their calves. Aberdeen Angus (Formerly known as Lowline Angus) were chosen for their smaller size and feed efficiency which allows the animals to produce juicy, flavorful well marbled meat on a strictly pasture raised forage based diet. The combination of these breeds quality's has produced what we consider the perfect animal for grass finished beef. We call them Tarangus.