Is Our Brisket Grassfed and Grassfinished?

If you’re looking at our brisket and wondering whether it’s grassfed and grassfinished, the answer is yes. Our brisket comes from cattle raised on a grass-and-forage diet, without a grain-finishing stage. That’s the approach behind our grassfed ground beef, too.

I think that deserves a plain answer before you decide what to put in your cart. You shouldn’t need to sort through a collection of reassuring words to understand what you’re buying from a farm.

What finishing means on our farm

Finishing refers to the stage when an animal reaches the condition needed for beef. It happens before processing. It isn’t something a butcher does to a brisket, and it isn’t a cooking method.

When we say our beef is 100% grassfed and grassfinished, we mean their diet after weaning stays forage-based, including that final stage. They don’t switch to a grain ration for finishing. They aren’t fed corn or other grain. Forage includes the plants they graze and the hay that helps feed them through winter.

That last part matters in Indiana. A grassfed system doesn’t require green grass to be growing every day of the year. Hay is harvested forage. Feeding it is consistent with our grassfed approach; it doesn’t turn the cattle into grain-finished animals.

The work begins well before the package

At Tyner Pond Farm, we raise cattle on pasture in Greenfield. We move them through our pastures and allow grazed areas time to recover. The decisions about what the animals eat and how we manage that ground happen long before a customer chooses a particular cut.

That’s why I like talking about the farming behind the food. Brisket and ground beef are different products, but you can ask the same questions about either one. Where were the cattle raised? What did they eat? Did that diet change before processing? A clear answer is useful whether you’re buying one package or several.

The name of a cut tells you which product you’re looking at. It doesn’t tell you the animal’s feeding history. I want our explanation of that history to be just as straightforward as the package size.

Ask about the particular beef you are buying

If you’re comparing farms or shopping somewhere new, ask the seller to explain what grassfed and grassfinished mean for that beef. Ask what the cattle eat when pasture isn’t available, too. You don’t need to turn the conversation into an argument about labels. You’re simply finding out whether the product fits what you want.

For our beef, the answer is a forage-based diet without grain finishing. We’re happy to explain that directly. Knowing where your food comes from should leave you with fewer questions, not another set of terms to memorize.

Choose the package that fits your household

You can start with the cut you actually want. Our brisket page lists several weight ranges, so check the selected size before adding it to your cart. If you’re shopping for a smaller everyday purchase, our ground beef and stew meat are available in one-pound packages.

Enter your ZIP code on our website to see the shopping and fulfillment options available to you. Local delivery, farm pickup and frozen shipping are different services, so check the options shown for your address rather than assuming the same arrangement applies everywhere.

And if you’re unsure about a product, ask us. I appreciate people taking an interest in how their food is raised, and I’m grateful when that interest leads them to support our farm.