Grass fed checks a lot of boxes for the animal and the consumer.
🧠 Health Benefits
Better fat profile: Grass fed dairy tends to have more omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which are linked to heart health and anti-inflammatory benefits.
High in butyric acid: Butyric acid supports gut health by nourishing the cells of the colon and is considered anti-inflammatory.
Fewer toxins: Cows eating grass aren't consuming pesticide-laden grains or antibiotics as often, which reduces the risk of unwanted residues in the milk (grain eaten by organic cows must also be organic).
🌿 Ethical and Animal Welfare
Natural diet: Cows evolved to eat grass—not grain—so buying grass fed means supporting farming practices that align with an animal's natural behavior.
Better living conditions: Grass fed often means more time outdoors on pasture, which leads to happier, healthier animals.
🌍 Environmental Factors
Sustainable farming: Rotational grazing (common in grass fed systems) can promote soil health, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration.
Fewer inputs: No need to grow massive amounts of feed crops, which also reduces pesticide, herbicide, and fertilizer use, not to mention soil erosion.
😋 Taste and Quality
Richer flavor: Many people describe grass fed dairy as having a deeper, more complex flavor. This applies even more so in ghee, which is manufactured through a long cook time to bake in the flavor of butter while removing milk solids and casein.
🐄 The most grass fed in the USA?
Our butter comes from cows raised on pasture in the coastal region of Northern California, where mild weather allows for grazing 300 days or more per year—at least 19 hours a day.
During the roughly 60 winter days when pasture isn't accessible, cows are fed haylage and silage indoors, which is harvested from the same fields they usually graze. If needed, their diet may be supplemented with a small amount (no more than 6 lbs per cow per day) of organic corn and barley—never more than 15% of their total intake.
The nutrient-rich milk-fat from these cows is churned into butter, then sent to Iowa where we craft it into our grass fed ghee. To date, after more than 30 years making ghee, we have yet to find a better, more grass fed butter in the United States.