Raising animals in a holistic way, one that promotes maximum health, means not having to use prophylactic antibiotics or other medications. It makes intuitive sense – a healthy, robust animal will be better able to fight off infections and diseases than one that is weak or stressed. This is why our cooperative prohibits the use of antibiotics as part of the holistic approach our member-owners follow in raising 100% grass-fed beef and pastured hogs we sell under the Wisconsin Meadows label. 

Cows evolved to turn grasses into protein (“meat”) through a complex relationship between themselves and the microbiome that lives in their gut, or “rumen,” which is why they are called “ruminants.” When cows are given energy-dense foods they didn’t evolve to digest – like corn and soy – it throws their gut microbiome into “dis-ease,” which can lead directly to them being more susceptible to diseases. That’s why many conventional beef producers treat their animals prophylactically with antibiotics – to overcome the negative health impacts associated with a disease-causing diet of grains, allowing them to put on weight despite their unhealthy diet and out-of-balance gut microbiome.

Our cattle, in stark contrast, are raised outdoors, on high-quality pastures that their bodies are uniquely adapted to thrive on. We also minimize stress by ensuring that they are kept at appropriate densities and requiring that calves are kept with their mothers, drinking mother’s milk until they wean themselves naturally onto eating grass. These “management practices” allow our members to ensure that the cattle they raise are as healthy and happy and experience as little stress as possible during their lives.

That’s why we don’t use antibiotics – it simply isn’t needed, since our animals are healthy because of how they are raised.[1] “What about vaccines?” you might ask. Even though animal vaccines (like their human counterparts) are safe and effective at reducing disease prevalence and intensity, our members also avoid unnecessary vaccinations as well.[2] Why? Because they aren’t needed either. A healthy bovine immune system can fight off most infections, just like a healthy human immune system. The primary justifications for vaccinating humans – protecting against extremely dangerous diseases (like smallpox, polio, etc.) and protecting the most vulnerable in our societies through “herd immunity” – doesn’t apply to raising livestock. Our cattle have healthy immune systems as a direct result of how they are raised – outside, in the sunshine and fresh air, eating high-quality pasture on our member’s farms.

We think that you’ll agree that healthy, happy animals make for the best-tasting, most nutritious beef and pork products. That’s why the members of the Wisconsin Grass-fed Beef Cooperative raise their animals exclusively on pasture, outdoors, right here in Wisconsin!

By: Josh Miner, Wisconsin Grass-fed Beef Cooperative

[1] Plus, it helps to avoid the growing danger associated with the evolution of antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria caused in large part by prophylactic use in the livestock industry.

[2] With a few exceptions for very infectious viruses, for example pink eye and bovine RSV.