Ready to experience the backroads?
Ready to experience the backroads?
Why Backroads?
It’s simple: The best ranchers in the world live right here in the USA. They are simply better at raising healthy, tender and flavorful beef than a corporate owned farm or a person in a lab coat. Today, successful cowboys go to college, learn how to run a business, proactively incorporate environmental standards and are born and raised in a family that raise cattle to be active, healthy and free of stress. Today’s rancher combines the knowledge, convictions and work ethic from previous generations with the education of today. Because of this, Backroads Cattle Company is able to bring to you the best naturally raised Black Angus Beef that a person can find.
Can't Argue with Science
Studies comparing quality characteristics of forage-fed and grain-fed beef have demonstrated that grain feeding improves several carcass indicators of beef quality. Grain-fed cattle produce carcasses with brighter-colored, finer-textured lean, whiter fat, and more marbling, all of which enhance acceptability of fresh retail beef. (1) In addition, most comparisons of forage-fed and grain-fed beef suggest that grain feeding improves tenderness and flavor. (2) The lower the force number, the more tender.
What does the customer want?
The produce-and-then sell-mentality of the commodity business is being replaced by the strategy of first asking consumers what they want as attributes in their food products and then creating or manufacturing those attributes in the produce. (2)
Tenderness DNA
Tenderness is the primary determinant of eating satisfaction among beef consumers. (3) The shear force measurement is a test that South Dakota State University invented many years ago. The test uses a butcher knife-based machine that measures the shear force that it takes to cut through a cut of steak. The lower the number the more tender.
Our cattle spend their entire life with access to 1,000’s of acres to pastureland, but not limited to just grass as they are also fed grain. Ranch Raised is a brand that we are proud of, not because of what it means as a definition, but what it means to us. Our standards of Ranch Raised is a culmination of all of our production claims, as well as our own convictions of how to raise cattle. Our cattle are treated humanely, live a full life with over 12,000 acres of pastureland to graze, are very healthy, never get exposed to artificial growth hormones, are free of any antibiotics and are stress free throughout their life.
Our beef received NO added hormones. Being that hormones occur naturally with all animals that are living, No Added Hormones means our cattle do not consume or receive growth hormones in any way.
Contains no artificial ingredients, preservatives or added colors. Our beef is minimally processed to ensure an authentic and true to form experience. This means that our butcher shop does not include any type of tricks to make our beef last longer or look more appealing while potentially exposing customers to unhealthy or unnatural ingredients.
The most tender and flavorful beef in the world is Black Angus. Our heard is verified as Black Angus, which allows our customers to have a peace of mind that they are going to get a quality cut every time they go to the freezer.
Our beef is free of any unnatural chemical and this includes antibiotics. Antibiotics are typically administered when a calf has a cold or some other type of illness. Much like our own children, we may give an antibiotic like we would give our kids a children’s medicine. In short, Antibiotic Free means there are no traces of any antibiotic in the beef. Even though we do give our cattle antibiotics if they have a cold, you can be assured that there are NO traces in them when the cattle go to market. In terms of the medicine label itself, we follow the weening-off recommendations. Meaning, if the label says that it takes 90 days for the medicine to work itself out of the body, we strictly follow those recommendations.
References
(1) Schroeder, J.W., D.A. Cramer, R.A. Bowling, and C.W. Cook. 1980. Palatability, shelf-life and chemical differences between forage - and grain-finished beef. Journal of Animal Science. 50:852-859.
(2) Brewer, P. And C. Calkins. 2003. Quality traits of grain-and grass-fed beef: A review. 2003 Nebraska Beef Report, pp. 74-77. Univ. Of Nebraska, Lincoln.
(3) Boehlje, M 1995. Industrialization of Agriculture: What are the consequences? Conf. Proc. Industrialization of Heartland Agriculture. Ch. 3, Ag. Econ. Misc. Rep. No. 176, Soybean Research & Development Council.
(4) Huffman, K.L., M.F. Miller, L.C. hoover, C.K. Wu, H.C. Brittin, and C.B Ramsey. 1996. Effect of beef tenderness on soncumer satisfaction with steaks consumed in the home and restaurant. Journal of Animal Science. 74: 91-97.