Frequently Asked Questions

With our beef, you can choose the processing method and the specific processing company.  Ideally, the butcher will come to our ranch and perform a stress-free field kill. The animal is quietly approached, (they are very used to humans) and immediately killed using a firearm. There is no stress prior. The carcass is then hoisted up off the ground, tagged as to belonging to the specific buyer, field-dressed, and placed in a refrigerated enclosed trailer, while remaining suspended without contact with the ground or floor.  The carcass is then transported to the processing facility for finishing.  The butcher will get specific instructions from the buyer as to what type of cuts, thicknesses, etc.  Your beef is then processed into your favorite cuts.  If you like more roasts or steaks, you choose. You choose the thickness, how many steaks per package, how thick, how many pounds of ground beef per package.

We at RRR feel the method used for “field kill” is more humane and results in a better finished product than other methods commonly used. Traditionally, and most commonly, cattle are transported to slaughterhouses, packed tightly in a confined trailer, corralled tightly together for days, then walked through a processional before they are stunned, hung, bled-out, and then processed.  This is very stressful on the cattle and causes a sharp rise in the levels of adrenaline, cortisol, hormones, glycogen, and lactic acid.  These all greatly affect the taste, odor, and freshness of the finished meat.

You can purchase from us a quarter, half, or whole animal. Once the processing is made according to specifications, the meat is sealed, wrapped, and frozen awaiting pick-up or delivery to the customer. If purchasing less than a whole, you will need to wait till we have the entire animal sold. Once the entire animal is spoken for and paid for, it belongs to you. You are in control of the processing. When the butcher if finished with your portion they will call you for pick up and pay him for his services.

“You are what you eat”, you have perhaps heard. Really, it’s more accurate to say, “you are what you eat…eats.” Grass-fed beef is only as good as the grass in the pasture, and the water it drinks. Some “grass-fed beef” are eating dried up, nutrient-depleted, brown grass and weeds. Commercially raised and processed cattle are brutally treated and injected with hormones and chemicals. RRR beef are humanely treated and fed nutrient-rich GREEN grass.

Depends on the content of the grass they are feeding on, and if they must walk for miles to find it. Check the independent scientific analysis of the farm’s grass to best assess quality. If they don’t have an analysis, that’s a clue to question the quality of the beef.

Whatever cuts you specify. The processor of your choice will have you complete a form where you will indicate the cuts you like. For example, if you never use roasts, you can have that portion made into hamburger, or other cuts.

Every cut you’re already familiar with (hamburger, steak, filet mignon, ribs, etc.), PLUS the ability to request uncommon cuts such as bone-in fillet, hangar, coulotte, bavette, flank, flat iron, tri-tip, and others.

You will specify the wrapped sizes with your customized order with the butcher. For example, some people prefer the hamburger to be in 5-pound packages, others request smaller, 2-pound sizes.

You will need about 4cu. ft. of freezer per ¼ of animal.  A 1500-pound steer will yield around 600lbs. of finished meat.  This will require about a 15-17cu.ft. freezer.  

Currently the selling price of a steer is $2.25/lb. on the hoof, (others charge up to $2.50). We will, as a convenience to you, arrange for the field slaughter with a mobile butcher. You specify what cuts you would like and you will pick up the finished meat. The cost of the butchering will be incurred by you, paid directly to the butcher, at approximately $875 if purchasing a whole beef. If purchasing a ¼ beef, the processing fee will be approximately $175. If purchasing ½ beef, the processing fee is $437.50. Your finished wrapped weight will be approximately 35% to 40% of live weight. Example: a 1500lbs. steer will yield around 525lbs to 600lbs of finished meat.

Simply put, we at Refuge Rock Ranch are kind to our animals. Their feed, water, and supplements exceed industry standards. They live in open pastures that are 3-5 acres in size. They are never restrained from free movement, never crowded. They are protected from predators such as coyotes. When they need veterinarian care, it is promptly provided. We gently walk them from one pasture to another by hand gesture and voice motion. They are never cattle-prodded, electrocuted, kicked, beaten, or abused in any way. This is not true for most commercially raised beef, where it is a traumatizing horror story of physical and emotional abuse. Such cruelty is not only just plain wrong on every level, but it affects the taste and texture of the beef products.

The 1958 Humane Slaughter Act is a United States federal law designed to decrease suffering of livestock during slaughter. The law only addresses the need to have an animal sedated and insensible to pain. The law still allows for electrocution, beating, prodding, jamming cattle together into hot cargo trucks/trains without food or water, long transportation trips while crammed together, severing of the animal’s carotid arteries while awake, chemical sedation, head-locking cattle at feedlots without the ability to move (while their manure piles up around them), waiting for days in line for execution while watching it happen to others. “Sedating” for the last minute of their lives does nothing to undo the horrific treatment endured up to that point.

Yes, very much so. Cattle that are mistreated physically or emotionally secrete adrenaline, cortisol, dopamine, and lactic acid. All of these are stress hormones. These chemicals, secreted naturally during times of stress, do affect the final product. If present at the time of processing, the result is DFD syndrome: Dark, Firm, and Dry meat.

Stress can come from physical or emotional mistreatment such as occurs by mass commercial-type production. In a free-range situation such as you’ve seen along highways or in open wildland, the cattle are also subjected to predators such as coyotes, mountain lions, etc. It is very stressful to be threatened or chased by any of these, as is the case if it were to happen to yourself. Our cattle are treated with kindness and protected from dangers, while still having full freedom to graze and move about freely in large green pastures.

The Journal of Animal Science and researchers at the University of Milan’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine recently confirmed that fear experienced during slaughter significantly elevates meat’s levels of stress hormones—adrenaline, cortisol, and other steroids. Published Aug 25, 2011

Never. Our cattle grow naturally large and healthy without chemical intervention or artificial “fattening” up. They start and finish on the same super-nutrient LIVE, GREEN pasture grass. Our grass is harvested throughout the summer, stored, and fed in the winter.

Because we strongly believe in the humane treatment of the cattle, the answer is “YES!” If an animal is sick, behaving abnormally in any way, our veterinarian (who specializes in cattle and livestock) attends to them immediately. We give extra special care to observe and tend to their needs such as hand-feeding food and liquids and watching over them. If medicines are needed for pain or infection, they are given as needed. Once the animal recovers well and is given a clean-bill-of-health by the veterinarian, and after the medicines have cleared their system, we will make this animal available. A sick animal is never made available for processing.

When the ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 is any higher than 4:1, serious health problems can occur such as heart disease, hypertension, arthritis, and more.

The fact is, modern grain-fed beef can have a ratio of 20:1 or even higher! Grain-fed beef is deficient in healthy omega-3’s but it’s loaded with omega-6s, which are extremely unhealthy at these high levels.

There is a healthier ratio (3 to1) of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids in grass fed beef and contains high levels of antioxidants like vitamins E and A.  https://nutritiouslife.com/eat-empowered/grass-fed-beef-organic-beef-healthier