The difference between grass-fed, pasture-raised, and grain-finished meat.

There is a vast number of different products in the aisles of a grocery store. A great opportunity considering every consumer has certain preferences and there is room for such variety that at least one thing appeals to everyone. I personally think one of the easiest sections to spot such differences among products is the dairy section. There are many variations of milk that consumers can buy- 1%, 2%, whole milk, chocolate milk, organic, and so on. Although maybe not quite as apparent, there are also many different labels on meat according to how the animals were raised. Something to keep in mind is that in order to have certain terms and claims included on a food label, there must be USDA FSIS approval. I am going to explain the differences between a few common terms you may see often: grass-fed, pasture-raised, and grain-finished. 

Many of our livestock animals (think cows, sheep, goats) are ruminants. This means that they have a special digestive system, ruminant digestion, that allows them to process forages because of their four stomach compartments and the microbes within the rumen compartment. This is why cows and other ruminant animals can utilize feed such as grass and hay, effectively digest and absorb nutrients from it, while we humans could not with our simple stomach. That being said, all ruminant animals you are eating meat from must have forage in their diets to keep those rumen microbes happy. The difference in these terms such as grass-fed, grain-finished, etc. has to do with the management style that these animals are raised under. Some farms choose to feed their ruminant animals only forages, so generally pasture during the grazing season and hay in the winter and can do so successfully with excellent-quality forage. This means that the animals are getting all nutrients (minus vitamins and minerals which are often given as supplements) from the forage they are consuming, and they do not need any extra grain or other non-forage feed to sustain their body and grow properly. Pasture-raised generally means that the animals are on pasture for a majority of their life. Obviously in places like Northern NY, we cannot graze year-round, so this would mean during the grazing season. USDA did recently update their labeling guidelines for this term. Now we reach the third term mentioned: grain-finished. If you see a term with “finished” in it, this is referring to how the animal was fed towards the end of its life right before it was processed into meat. Some farms finish their animals on grass and some finish with grain. A grain-finished animal will have been brought to their slaughter weight with plenty of grain, while a grass-finished animal will be brought to their finish weight solely on grass. You may see: grass-fed, grass-finished, which would mean the animal was 100% grass-fed, with the exception of milk when they were very young.

If you see some terms you are not familiar with on a farm’s social media page or on a meat label, don’t be afraid to ask what they mean and why the farm chooses to raise their animals that way. They will be happy to answer your questions!