The Big Deal about 100% Grass-fed
By Kate Yegerlehner
I consider myself one of the lucky ones. I have consumed raw milk for most of my 34 years of
life, because I grew up as the daughter of a dairy farmer. There is no doubt in my mind that having
access to fresh milk is one of the things that has contributed to my overall health, although saying so as
a seller of said milk probably is illegal (Just ask Diamond Foods how the FDA felt about their walnut
health claims).
Since the fall of 1999 our cows have been 100% grass-fed. Before that, our management
strategies had been through several changes. In the 1980’s they received a total mixed ration, aided by
all the expensive equipment necessary for such a diet. Harvestore silos, choppers and wagons, feed
mixers…a beautiful collection of things that rust and break down. When we implemented MiG in the
early 1990’s, we continued supplementing the cows’ diet with some grain until 1999 (we also grew corn
and soybeans until 1999). In 2000 we ventured into direct marketing (we chose this route as opposed to
expanding to remain viable selling in the commodity market), and decided that converting our dairy to
100% grass-fed would put us in a more specialized niche market.
I drank our raw milk during all of these stages. It hasn’t always been 100% grass-fed, but I have
no recollection of ever being sick and attributing it to tainted raw dairy. I do know that as a kid I had
some recurring bouts of things like tonsillitis (never had the tonsils removed though, and I’m fine now!)
and strep throat, as well as the occasional bug that was going around. Yet I’m pretty sure I can count on
one hand the number of times I have actually been ill in the past 12-14 years since we converted to
100% grass-fed and I moved back home from college. Coincidence? Could be multiple factors involved
of course, but I am certainly willing to give at least some credit to regularly eating grass-fed dairy and
beef.
Considerable scientific evidence has revealed that the milk (and the muscle fat in meat) from
totally forage-fed cows contains elevated levels of certain nutrients such as conjugated linoleic acid
(CLA), omega-3 fatty acid, and fat-soluble vitamins. CLA has been shown to inhibit tumor growth.
Omega-3 appears to play a role in preventing obesity. Vitamins A, D, and E, which abound in grass-fed
meat and milk, play critical roles in immune function among other things. And these are just some
highlights.
Ruminants on fresh forages have the highest levels of these nutrients. Depending on where you
live, there may be times of the year when you must feed stored forage, but it will have an impact on the
nutrient profile of the milk and meat. And feeding even small amounts of grain will significantly alter
the levels. The response is seen more quickly in the milk than the muscle fat. Dr. Tilak Dhiman of Utah
State University found that it took a ruminant 25 days on pasture to reach its peak CLA level in the milk,
but only 5 days after being removed from fresh pasture the levels dropped back down.
In addition to the extra good things found in pastured animal products, another important
benefit is what is missing. Milk and meat from animals on a total-forage, no-grain diet appear to have a
built-in protection against pathogens. The more starchy grains a cow eats, the more acidic her body
becomes. Science has begun to show that disease initiates in an acidic body. A slightly alkaline
environment in the body prevents it. I sometimes tell our customers and school tours that a cow eating
a lot of starchy grain would be comparable to us eating a lot of sugar. It makes the body acidic and sets
us up for a whole host of maladies! Can we handle small amounts of sugar and still be pretty healthy?
Most of us can. A cow can handle a little grain too…but what grain would be naturally occurring in the
grazer’s diet? The seedhead on the maturing grass plant! If the cow is healthier, it stands to reason the
milk and meat would be that much healthier, too, and this is one of the biggest reasons why we choose
not to feed grain to our cows.
Raw milk has many enzyme-based pathogen killers (including lactoferrin, xanthine oxidase,
lactoperoxidase, lysozyme and nisin), but all enzymes are destroyed at the temperature required for
pasteurization. Through the aid of BSK labs in Fresno, Organic Pastures of California had their organic
raw milk injected with various pathogens, finding that the pathogens would not grow, and in fact
diminished over time. This experiment was with raw milk from cows on pasture. I have a notion that
the closer to “perfection” a cow’s diet gets (her God-ordained pasture diet with opportunity to browse
on occasion, grown on healthy soils with ample minerals in balance and microbes, earthworms, and
beneficial insects abounding), the more likely those pathogens are to either bow in submission or turn
and run the other direction!
Jo Robinson, author of Why Grass-fed Is Best!, explains that grain-fed cattle are about 315 times
more likely to harbor E. coli 0157:H7 than grass-fed cattle! She says the reason for this is two-fold. First,
grass-fed animals have an overall lower count of bacteria. Second, in the grain-fed digestive tract, these
pathogens adapt and become resistant to the more acidic environment. It’s not hard to imagine that
during the slaughtering and butchering process, the meat could easily become tainted with these
disease-causing bacteria. And to put the nail in the coffin, because they are acid-resistant they will be
more likely to survive our own gauntlet of digestive juices as well. Get that pH up in your cows and
you’ll nearly eliminate that problem!
Some people think it’s not possible to milk cows on total forage and keep them alive. Well, it
depends on the adaptability of the cows and the quality of your forages, but it certainly is possible.
We’ve not fed a speck of grain to any cow on our farm in 14 years (I should also mention we are
seasonal). There have been some hard knocks along the way while learning how to manage pasture
quality, soil building, and animal performance at the same time, to be sure. But we have no desire to
turn back from this journey we’ve found ourselves on. A journey where our passion for people, animals,
and the environment constantly intersect. We’re continuing to learn and adapt. The hard knocks could
have been enough to make us question whether we should just forget it and go back to “Egypt”, like the
ancient Israelites wanted to when they faced challenges in the wilderness as God and Moses led them
towards the Promised Land. But life as a slave isn’t as much of a life as fear of the unknown would have
us believe! And so we press on.
So if it’s true that cows are grazers designed to digest forages, and if it’s true that what they eat
affects the nutritional composition of the meat and milk, and if research is indicating that an all-forage
ration for the cow translates to better health for the person who drinks the milk or eats the meat, but
your herd is still dependent on grain supplementation...what are you waiting for? What steps could you
start taking to make your product even better?
The demand for real, healthy food continues to increase. We as farmers are responsible to the
people we serve. We must do everything we can to produce food that is clean, safe, and life-enhancing.
We give our customers the right and responsibility to ask questions of us and even inspect the farm.
They trust us to provide them with healthy products, and we always seek to honor that trust. The
relationships that develop when we interact with each other in this way play a vital role in keeping small
businesses alive…and this may prove to be truer than ever as the future unfolds.