IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Rolling Springs Ranch offers up a variety of choices when it comes to FRESH Food and each one will look distinctly different from what you are used to seeing in the grocery store.
Our livestock is raised as naturally as possible. They are grass fed, rotationally grazed and moved to fresh pasture weekly resulting in both physical and mental stimulation, which leads to happier and healthier livestock that produce products that are more flavorful, brighter in color and nutrient dense.
What the LABELS really mean...
Cage-Free Eggs “Cage free” means that birds are raised without cages, but it tells you nothing about any other living conditions. For instance, cage-free eggs could come from birds raised indoors in overcrowded spaces at large factory farms.
*RSR Poultry is free ranged throughout the day and put in their coop each night to ensure their safety.
Pasture Raised “Pasture-raised” or “pastured” means that animals spent at least some time outdoors on pasture, feeding on grass or forage. This traditional farming method is typically done on a smaller scale than conventional factory-farmed animals. However, there are no government standards for this label, including how much of its life the animal actually spent on pasture.
Grass-Fed “Grass-fed” means that, after weaning, an animal’s source of food comes from grass or forage, but does not tell you that they "finish" the animal on grains such as corn, for months before processing. This label also does not tell you if antibiotics, GMO's or hormones were used on the animal or what conditions it lived in.
*RSR Beef & Lamb, once weaned are pasture raised HERE on our farm and only fed Fresh Grass & Hay for their entire lives.
No Antibiotics “Raised without antibiotics” or “no antibiotics administered” means that the animal received no antibiotics over its lifetime. Some large-scale producers feed animals antibiotics at low doses to prevent disease, (caused from overcrowding & poor living conditions) which is linked to the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are difficult to treat. This label does not tell you about other conditions where the animal was raised.
*We at RSR only use antibiotics if the animals welfare is at risk, and then we use them sparingly.
Free Range “Free range” labels are regulated by the USDA only for poultry produced for meat – it’s not regulated for pigs, cattle or egg-producing chickens. Nor are the requirements very high. Poultry can use the label if the chicken had any access to the outdoors each day for some unspecified period of time; it could be just a few minutes, and does not assure that the animal ever actually went outdoors to roam freely.
*RSR Poultry is free ranged throughout the day and put in their coop each night to ensure their safety.
Natural and Naturally Raised According to USDA, “natural” meat and poultry products cannot contain artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives, and they should be “minimally processed.” However, this label does not tell us how the animals were raised, what they were fed, if antibiotics or hormones were used, or other aspects of production that consumers might logically expect from something labeled “natural.”
For all other foods (milk, eggs, and non-animal food products), the “natural” label is virtually meaningless.
