Ordinary beef cattle are born on a farm or ranch known as a cow-calf operation.  When the calves reach approximately five months of age, they are usually sold and shipped to an auction house where they are grouped with other animals and auctioned off to a “backgrounder” who feeds the calves on grass or the stubble from harvested crops for several months.  Next, they are sold to another auction house where they are packaged with other cattle and sold to a feeder who ships them to feed-lots located primarily in the Midwest.  At the feed-lots, animals are fed a rich diet of subsidized corn, grain and numerous industrial by-products.  This feed-lot diet can include genetically modified crops grown and transported with the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, tractors, plows, seeders, harvesters, discs, storage facilities, trucks and other equipment.

After the animals reach the desired weight, the feeder sells and ships the animals to the processor, usually in the Midwest.  After the beef has been processed, it is customarily “wet-aged” in plastic bags and shipped to regional distributors who deliver it to the grocery stores.  You drive your automobile to the grocery, purchase your beef, and drive home in your automobile.   

Unfortunately, this process also has negative impacts on the environment.  The fossil fuels used contribute to our polluted air, acid rain, damaged forests and oceans, and global warming.  The transportation required by the process also adds to the congestion on the highways.  

The O X Ranch is conservation minded.  One of the reasons we like grass-fed beef is because it eliminates almost all the transportation.  Locally grown 100% grass-fed O X steers spend their entire life within less than two hours from Phoenix and never leave the ranch except to stop by your local processor on their way to your freezer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We recently took part in one of Phoenix’s most successful celebrations of Locally-Grown Cuisine when Chef James Porter of Tapino Kitchen and Wine Bar in Scottsdale utilized all O X Ranch Grass Fed beef in his “Locavore 2” dinner.  The evening was a great success with a wait list of over 50 people.

 

The Ownership Pattern of Feedlot Cattle

 

 

 

 

 

The Ownership of O X Ranch Grass-Fed Beef