Wolfe’s Neck Center has been a place of innovation for decades. As one of the first chemical-free beef operations in the country, Wolfe’s Neck Center’s farming operations continue to build on that legacy with new products, techniques, and education opportunities as we head into the nonprofit’s third decade in operation.
This year, we are introducing a new product, called Bistro Beef, to our community. This new product allows us to continue innovating and showcasing best practices to our farmers in training. You can learn more about Bistro Beef below.
What is Bistro Beef?
Bistro Beef is BEYOND grass-fed beef.
Bistro Beef is the meat from dairy bulls – usually of the Jersey breed – that have been raised on milk, usually from their own mother or by a surrogate mother called a “nurse cow,” for 6-8 months.
Bistro beef is different than other similar beef products on the market, like veal or baby beef. For one thing, these bulls are definitely not babies! Bistro Beef animals:
- have reached puberty, and are as big as their mothers;
- are more than double the age and size of most veal calves;
- are raised on pasture, in a herd setting;
- drink milk their whole lives;
- begin eating grass at a week old;
- never undergo the stresses of conventional beef or dairy calves, because they are never castrated, dehorned or weaned.
By changing the way these animals are raised, Wolfe’s Neck Center is continuing to transform our relationship with farming and food.
Eating with the Climate in Mind?
Because Bistro Beef bulls are born in the spring and harvested in the fall, they are not taken through a winter season, nor are they fed grain in a feedlot. Their diet is 100% grass and mother’s milk, with no mechanically-harvested forages or trucked-in feedstuffs. That reduces the carbon footprint of the final product and contributes to an excellent quality of life.
It’s a quadruple-win situation:
- the cattle win, because they have the highest possible quality of life we can give them;
- the farm wins because we can build soil while converting an underutilized resource into a high-quality, salable product;
- the consumer wins with a unique, pleasurable eating experience;
- the planet wins because we can do it all by minimizing environmental impact, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering carbon in the soil.