From Birth to Harvest: How We Raise Healthy, Grass-Fed Beef You Can Trust

At Cunningham Pastured Meats, we believe that what you feed your family matters. That’s why every step of our beef-raising process—from birth to harvest—is guided by care, transparency, and a commitment to natural, sustainable practices. Here’s a closer look at how we do things differently.

🐮 Birth & Early Life

Most of the cattle in our program are born and raised right here on our ranch, where they can grow naturally on wide-open pastures.
If a calf doesn’t start life on our property, we ensure they still meet our strict grass-fed and grass-finished protocols, so you know exactly how they’ve been raised.

💉 Vaccine Policy: No mRNA, Only Proven Protection

We know you care about what goes into your food—and so do we. That’s why:

• No mRNA vaccines are ever used in our cattle.

• Only proven and tested vaccines are administered, and they’re typically given 6–12 months before harvest, allowing plenty of time for anything to leave their system naturally.

On rare occasions, if an animal gets seriously ill and needs antibiotics to survive, we’ll treat them humanely—but they’re immediately pulled from our meat program and will never end up in your freezer.

🌱 100% Grass-Fed & Finished

From birth to harvest, our cattle enjoy a pasture-based diet:

• Growing season: We use management-intensive grazing, moving cattle daily to fresh, lush grass.

• Non-growing season: We supplement with non-GMO alfalfa from trusted local farmers.

We never use pesticides, herbicides, or toxic chemicals on our property or leased pastures. While we’re not certified organic (due to high certification costs and federal land weed-spraying), our practices are as close to natural, chemical-free, and sustainable as it gets.

🛠 Low-Stress Handling & Humane Harvesting

We go to great lengths to make sure our cattle are calm and stress-free every step of the way:

• Transport is done gently, and cattle are given time to rest overnight at the processing plant.

• Harvesting is handled humanely and efficiently, with cattle bled immediately and moved to a cooler right away.

• Beef is then dry-aged for 10 days, allowing for the rich, tender flavor our customers love.