At Sage Mountain Farm we raise all of our cattle on pasture. We believe that animals raised in fresh air and sunshine with room to roam produce the highest quality, best tasting meats.
The Environment:
The native pastures and rolling hills of the Sage Mountain area are a perfect home for our livestock. The mild climate and rich soils support a variety of native grasses and organically cultivated vegetables upon which our livestock feed as they develop into healthy mature beef. Grazing animals are critical to sustaining healthy and productive open spaces, as the grazing process itself contributes to the annual regeneration of many native grasses. Our cattle are raised on pasture their entire lives.
Our Cattle:
We only purchase cattle that are guaranteed to be free of synthetic hormones and antibiotics. The following breeds have frequented our pastures:
- Charolais
- Black Angus
- Red Angus
- Black & Red Angus cross
The Beef:
You will find that our all natural, 100% Grass-Fed Grass-Finished Beef has a rich and robust flavor not found in conventional, confinement raised beef. Studies have shown that the types of fats found in Grass-Fed meats are much healthier. Grass-Fed beef contains fewer Omega-6 fatty acids, which are believed to be linked to many diseases of humanity, like heart disease and contains more of the healthy Omega-3 fatty acids as well as beta-carotene and CLA, another "good" fat.
The Market:
The demand for fresh, local meat products (with no taint of industrial processing) is absolutely staggering.
Today's restaurants, local shops, and individuals are demanding local, fresh, clean meat products from farmers they might actually know. That demand now figures into the millions.
Although Sage Mountain Beef is just a small ranch, and cannot hope to feed millions, they are proud to be the start of a new revolution: The Grass-Fed meat revolution.
The Polyface way:
In 1961, William and Lucille Salatin moved their young family to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, purchasing the most worn-out, eroded, abused farm in the area near Staunton. Using nature as a pattern, they and their children began the healing and innovation that now supports three generations.
Disregarding conventional wisdom, the Salatins planted trees, built huge compost piles, dug ponds, moved cows daily with portable electric fencing, and invented portable sheltering systems to produce all their animals on perennial prairie polycultures.
Today the farm arguably represents America’s premier non-industrial food production oasis. Believing that the Creator’s design is still the best pattern for the biological world, the Salatin family invites like-minded folks to join in the farm’s mission: to develop emotionally, economically, environmentally enhancing agricultural enterprises and facilitate their duplication throughout the world.
The Salatins continue to refine their models to push environmentally-friendly farming practices toward new levels of expertise.
So does Sage Mountain Beef.