Beef Program
Grass & Grain Finished USDA Beef Available at Rusted Gate Farm!
All-natural, pasture-raised, hormone-free grass and grain-finished quality USDA beef products are now available.
Visit us at the Farm Stand at 5461 Upton Road, Central Point (where our U-Pick Flower Garden is located), or contact Sales at 541-630-3418.
Our Beef Cut Selections Include:
- Beef Roast
- Brisket
- Filet
- Flank
- Flat Iron
- Ground Beef
- Liver
- New York
- Porterhouse
- Prime Rib Roast
- Ribeye
- Short Ribs
- Skirt
- T-Bone
- Tomahawk
- Top Round
- Top Sirloin
- Tri-Tip
- and much more!
Grass vs. Grain Finished – What does it mean?
You’ve probably seen colorful markers showing that beef is “natural” or “grass-fed”, but what do these markers mean? All cattle spend the bulk of their lives eating grass on ranges and pastures. But beef can be finished in a number of ways, giving you choices when at the meat counter in your neighborhood grocery store or when dining out. RGF will offer both grass and grain-finished beef providing consumers choices depending on their palate.
Grass-Finished
Grass-finished cattle spend their entire lives grazing and eating from pastures. These cattle may also eat forage, hay, or silage at the feed yard. The grass-fed beef never receives growth hormones and if a cow or calf requires antibiotics for its own health and safety, that animal is removed from the meat-producing stock. RGF will offer both grass and grain-finished beef providing consumers choices depending on their palate
Grain-Finished
Grain-finished cattle, like grass-finished, spend the majority of their lives eating grass and forage in pastures. When beef is grain-finished, cattle are free to eat a balanced diet of grain, local feed ingredients, like potato hulls or sugar beets, and hay or forage at the feed yard. Similarly, the grain-fed beef never receives growth hormones and if a cow or calf requires antibiotics for its own health and safety, that animal is removed from the meat-producing stock.
The Rusted Gate Farm Cattle Operation
Rusted Gate Farm may be a newcomer to the beef business in the Rogue Valley, but the operation includes the former Straus Ranch in Central Point which grew hay and raised cattle for over 25 years. The Straus brand remains with Rusted Gate Farm and is a long-time symbol of quality. Dalton and Ruth Straus are renowned ranchers, farmers, and generous members of the community. We are thrilled that the Straus’s chose to sell their ranch to Rusted Gate Farm.
Rusted Gate Farm is looking forward to being able to add individual cuts of beef for sale directly to consumers. The meat is all-natural, grass or grain-finished beef from our pasture-raised cattle nourished with grass feed grown by RGF. The diversification plan is also tackling the challenges confronting meat producers, including inadequate processing capacity and unfair competition from foreign beef producers.
Rusted Gate Farm is committed to operating our cattle business using best practices, testing new ideas through trials and demonstrations, and sharing the results with the farm and ranching community. Rusted Gate Farm has the distinction of operating as an Oregon nonprofit public benefit corporation. The cattle and haying businesses are for-profit enterprises within the structure of a nonprofit public benefit corporation. All profit is directed to our charitable activities which center around our founding purpose: support small and family farms by researching and conducting trials on new income-generating products and practices and sharing this information through a free education and outreach program with the local farm community.
Stay tuned for updates about the availability of our meat. In the meantime, learn about our cattle and their life at Rusted Gate Farm.
Our Herd
Rusted Gate Farm maintains about 100 head of Black Angus and Charolais Angus cross cows raised on pastures and farms owned by RGF for our breeding program. Cows are presently bred to purebred Angus bulls. All the beef steers are born at the Farm generally in the winter months and spend their entire life freely roaming pastures. These happy animals provide the beef for the meat program. In 2021, RGF’s Farm Manager plans to introduce a Wagyu bull to the herd. According to many chefs, butchers, and restaurant managers, American Wagyu is the best American beef in the United States exceeding the traditional gold standard of Prime. RGF will select a small herd for this experiment to produce prime quality grass-finished meat at no additional expense.
Our Pastures and Feed
RGF has lush green pastures from late Spring through Fall and excellent winter ground for Fall and Winter grazing and feeding. Quality forage is essential for producing premium grass-finished beef. RGF’s irrigated pastures grow fescue, rye, timothy, and clover. The oak savannah pasture is open grazing year-round with native annual feed. Cows are fed Triticale and grass hay in the winter months when the pasture grass goes dormant. Our newest pasture is the Wampler Ranch on Upper Klamath Lake, 669 acres of native meadow grass. The cattle are rotated regularly to provide the most nutritious feed and pasture conditions.
Our Care and Handling
Rusted Gate Farm is dedicated to the wellbeing of its cattle at all stages of their lives. The cattle are never confined and spend their entire lives roaming freely. Every staff member involved in the cattle operation is trained to handle the animals in a low-stress, humane manner. This approach contributes to an all-natural life and a healthy growth rate.
The grass-finished beef never receives growth hormones and if a cow or calf requires antibiotics for its health and safety, that animal is removed from the meat-producing stock. RGF will offer both grass and grain-finished beef providing consumers choices depending on their palate.
