What is grass fed meat?
Our farm meat is from animals that are fed first on mother's milk and then on green grass or hay. On Dayspring Farm this means a clean environment, where animals roam our healthy pastures and select the grasses and legumes that they instinctively know are needed for a balanced and healthful diet. It also means lots of exercise in walking to graze and drink the fresh and clean water we provide from our own well or from a dedicated spring. Return to top.

Why is it better?
Grass fed meat from cattle with old fashioned genes can convert grass to well marbled steaks and meat cuts. This meat from sweet grasses and legumes has a superior taste and it's scientifically shown to be better for your health. This is because the green grass contains two important ingredients that affect body. The first is CLA (conjugated linoleic acid). This important substance fights cancer and converts fat to muscle. The other is a high percentage of omega 3 fatty acids which are the good fats your body needs to prevent heart disease. These are the same fats found in healthy fish tissue which are so important for cardiovascular health and remember that these healthy parts of the meat are found in the meat fats. Return to top.

How does it differ from the meat I buy in the Market?
First, because the store animals are fattened on grain instead of grasses, legumes and forbs as nature intended. This means you are getting large amounts of omega 6 fats in your meat. These are the bad fats which are deposited in your arteries and cause so many current health problems. In addition, you are getting residues of growth hormones which are commonly used on feed lot cattle to increase the rate of gain of the animals. Also, you are getting fed antibiotics, which are used to keep these animals alive in the crowded and unsanitary conditions typical of the cattle feeding systems in our country and to stimulate the animal's appetite. Feedlot animals are routinely fed from a long list of chemicals and are often fed chicken manure, urea, brewery waste, genetically modified grain, pesticides and other unnatural substances. Return to top.

What about ecology?
The typical feedlot, which produces the meats you buy in the supermarket, is a giant manure factory with monumental manure handling and disposal problems. Instead of allowing the animals to roam over pastures and distribute their waste in a natural manner, the feed is brought to them from grain farms or other livestock farms. The grain is grown using high input agriculture, which is a fancy term for high oil use. In fact the whole system is dependent on and consumes vast amounts of irreplaceable oil, to transport feed, animals and manure. Its called factory farming and the pollution from this system is concentrated and very significant. Return to top.

Where does Dayspring Farm meat come from?
We are a family run hill farm in southeastern Vermont. We keep a small number of animals which we husband carefully and sustainabely. Our animals are not injected with hormones or fed antibiotics , are raised on our own pastures, drink water from the same well we use for ourselves. They get a lot of good exercise walking in our fields gathering up the food they need to grow strong and healthy. Those sold for meat are processed under USDA inspection in a processing plant which is committed to low stress handling. All meat is cut to order and wrapped in vacuum packed in Cryovac see-through packages with the weight and meat cut type noted thereon.
We are proud of our farm and like to show stock to interested folks. Visitors are welcome by appointment. Return to top.

Where can I buy your meat products?
We sell our meat from the farm by appointment and of course you can also buy some of our meat products on-line. Click here to visit our beef sale pages. Rod and Marilyn Hewitt
217 Darby Hill
Rockingham, Vermont 05101
Phone: 802-463-2205 Fax: 802-463-2205
Email: rod@dayspringfarm.com