Why are Cowboy Grown beef products so popular around the world? Nothing has really changed in 150 years! It's due to our love of the animals and the land since the first pioneers established themselves in the Wyoming Territory in the 1800's. Our beef is being "Grown by Real Cowboys", this is why our state is known as the Cowboy State and who do you see riding the "Bucking Bronc"?, Not a GMO Chemist, it's a Cowboy!
The Homestead Act, a law signed by President Abraham Lincoln on May 20, 1862 started the flood of pioneers across the western United States. Railroad towns such as Cheyenne, Laramie, Rawlins, Rock Springs, and Evanston which tracks current day I-80 was one of the most popular treks westward. Through 1868 homesteaders flooded into this harsh environment knowing very well what they were getting themselves into. In Wyoming, the low rain and snowfall of 3"-4" of combined precipitation everywhere except the mountains, would result in low vegetative populations. This means that instead of 1 acre of pasture carrying 3-4 animals, as is the case in the eastern United States, our Wyoming range may need 3-4 acres to support just one animal. In the 1800's there was no such tools as pesticides, commercial fertilizer, pivot sprinklers, ATV's or even the manpower for that fact, to treat 1000's of acres by just a husband and wife team. We had to work with what God hath provided.
What appeals to beef eaters worldwide about Wyoming cowboy grown beef is that ranching is still conducted the same way in 2018, as it was in the 1868. We have all these new tools at our disposal but we have learned "to be one with the land". Our animals have been bred to capture all the nutrients our land has to offer. Our ranch and farm families are still small, the average Cowboy is 57 years old but the majority of them are over 72. As you visit our state you will still witness Cowboys driving cattle from one pasture to another on horseback, many times right down the middle of the highway.
The Cowboy state doesn't have a USDA packing house so we slaughter our meat animals in Colorado for Interstate commerce or Exporting. Animals used for personal consumption within Wyoming, , are still sold to local families by the cut at many farmers markets or by the ½, or ¼ beef on the hoof. Then we have the critter butchered at one of the many local meat processor that can be located within any of the Cowboy States 23 counties. You are probably from the Cowboy State if you have a large freezer plugged in the garage or laundry room (mudroom) stocked with Wyoming beef, elk, moose, black bear or venison!
Wyomingites consume what we grow and we don't want to be consuming any foreign chemicals or growth hormones, anymore than anyone else. Wyoming Grass Grown Beef is clean. This can be contributed to Wyoming's excellent breeding programs that have selected those livestock blood lines that excel under grass conditions, offering wonderful marbling and lean all at the same time. This trait is responsible for the taste consumers have come to love...without grain finishing or all the unnecessary growth hormones. This breeding program started in the 1800's and has been perfected to current day. Our beef has as much if not more flavor than grain finished beef but our animals are raised as "free rangers"! We have matched our cattle, to all our land has to offer. If you buy your beef from the larger supermarkets like Kroger, Publix, Walmart, Safeway, Albertsons, Cosco, Sams or other large chains, the animals sold to them only has a needle in a haystacks chance that it grew up in Wyoming. Our cowboy grown beef (Conception to Consumption) is the world's best kept secret! Wyoming has started the first of its kind, Beef Chain Block Chain, a new blockchain tracing program that follows our cowboy grown beef supply from calf to table.
Did you know that if you can contact just about any livestock producer in Wyoming, you can buy a portion of, or an entire animal on the hoof, get it processed, and have it shipped to your freezer via UPS or FedEx? Many buyers outside the state simply load a big chest type freezer into a pickup, connect it to a small Honda generator and come get their beef over their annual Wyoming adventure to Devils Tower, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Frontier Prison, Hot Springs or 100's of other Cowboy State's wonders. Many times for a donation, you can go out on horseback to choose your own animal off the range,.... if that type of connection to your food floats your boat, start making some call and create a memory for you and your family!
Wyoming beef has become so popular because of our long heritage of working with what we have, caring for the soil and treating our cattle like we treat our children. So what are you waiting for, go online find yourself a producer, order yourself some Cowboy Beef and stock your freezer. It just taste better when you know where it came from and that the animal was treated ethically.
Read our upcoming blog titled, Great Tasting Grass Fed Beef without the Bloodline.
Until Next Time,
