1. Are your cattle and sheep grass fed and grass finished?
Yes! Our cattle and sheep are 100% grass fed and grass finished. They spend their entire lives on pasture grazing and are never given any grains, animal by-products, GMOS, or soy.
2. How much freezer space will I need for bulk beef?
1/4 Beef Share: We recommend approx. 3-4 cubic ft. of freezer space for our quarter beef boxes.
1/2 Beef Share: We recommend approx. 6-8 cubic ft. of freezer space for our quarter beef boxes.
Whole Beef Share: We recommend approx. 12-16 cubic ft. of freezer space for our quarter beef boxes.
3. Are your cattle or sheep raised in a feedlot?
Nope. Our cattle spend their entire lives on pasture. During parts of the non-growing season, they are fed grass hay bales in a pasture on the farm.
4. Do you ship?
Only locally. not nationwide. The reason for this is it's more environmentally friendly to serve those in our area (within 100 miles). We want to make every decision we make in our business is in line with our values. Local food systems can be the most environmentally friendly and sustainable options for our country. But, that doesn't mean every farmer needs to do everything for themselves and by themselves.
We realized that using the existing local infrastructure was a better use of resources. Everyday there are already USPS and UPS trucks on the road between Big Timber to Billings and Bozeman. We can put our packages on those trucks and they'll get there within 48 hours. It allows us to spare that additional fuel consumption used by us to deliver the beef personally which we have done for years.
We do offer free local delivery or shipping of our products within 100 miles of Big Timber.
5. Do I have to be home when my order is delivered?
No, your box(es) will be left at your door. It will be solidly frozen, but we recommend opening it and putting your meat in the freezer as soon as possible.
6. Are your cattle or sheep given preventative antibiotics or growth hormones?
No. We believe in working with nature and that means the cattle are allowed to grow in accord with their nature on their own schedule. If an animal was truly sick, we would provide appropriate veterinarian care and that might include a round of antibiotics. However, because they are living in a natural healthy environment in the open air with sunshine above and healthy pastures underfoot, they rarely get sick.
7. Do you use chemical fertilizers?
Never.
8. Do you use pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, etc?
Never.
9. Can I visit the farm?
Yes, because we recognize the importance of transparency in the local food system. Please understand that we lease our pastures and need to plan visits in a way that respects our landowners preferences. For example, this year we participated in a soil crawl on the farm and welcomed dozens of visitors from the local area and the Northern Plains Resource Council. NPRC is an American grassroots conservation and family agriculture group.
10. Do you practice regenerative agriculture?
Yes. Catherine has studied, trained in, and has been practicing regenerative agriculture from the start. She continues to study the best practices in regenerative agriculture including; Holistic Management, planned rotational grazing, biodynamic farming, organic ranching, low stress livestock handling, soil health, multi-species grazing, etc. to keep up to date with the advances in our field. To learn more about our specific production practices please visit the "Our Story" page.
11. Are you Uncommon Beef & Uncommon Pastures Farm?
Yes. Uncommon Beef is our beef label. It is the name we started farming with in 2020. When we added grass finished lamb in 2022, we selected a farm name that covered our vision for the future. A small, diverse, regenerative farm. Uncommon Beef & Uncommon Pastures Farm, are both us.