What does a "split half" look like?

A "traditional" split half will weigh between 80 and 100 pounds. A "CSA-style" split half will weigh 87 pounds. An entire split half will require approximately 4.5 cubic feet of space in your freezer. It will be broken down into (approximately):

15 lbs pounds steaks (one - two pound packages)

17 lbs roasts (2.5 - 4 lbs)

35 lbs pounds ground beef (1 lb. packages) 

11 lbs chuck and round steaks (1.5 - 2 lb. packages)

7 lbs stew meat (1 lb packages) 

What would I do with all that beef?

With a split half, an average family can have healthful grassfed beef year round! Our beef freezes well, so you can have delicious burgers in the summer, steaks in the fall, stews in winter, and fajitas in the spring!

If you are single or a couple, invite some of your friends to join you in your purchase.

Is Morris Grassfed BeefT "organic"?

Our beef is not certified organic. Because the USDA requires that our butcher and slaughterhouse also be certified organic, we have not pursued this certification yet. We are working on ways to remedy this, including perhaps opening our own, organic butcher shop and/ or using a certified, organic mobile slaughterhouse. Until that time comes however, we are relying on our relationships with you, our customers to be as compelling and credible as certification by a third party label.

For the record: Our animals are fed no grain, nor are they given hormones. Furthermore, because they are raised and finished on grass they do not need and are not given sub-therapeutic antibiotics. They are never put in feedlots. Our practice regarding animal health is: one, prevent health problems with good nutrition, clean habitat and proper, low-stress handling methods; two, use alternative therapies when possible; and, three, if antibiotics are used at all after the animal is weaned at seven months of age, the animal is not sold to our grass-finished beef customers. We do supplement their diet with a small bit of alfalfa during their second summer. Finally, managed in a herd as they are, our animals can fill their natural ecological niche, maintaining the health of the land with their every step. We believe our practices honor the land and the animals in ways that industrial agriculture does not and cannot, and therefore, that our standards actually reach, in important ways, beyond those of "organic." 

Does grazing damage the range?

No. Grazing occurs when a cow or elk or bison, etc., bites a grass plant. "Overgrazing" occurs when that same bison bites a plant a second time before the plant has recovered from the first bite. It is like a gardener pruning roses. If you prune your roses too often, the rose will suffer and eventually die. "Over-grazing," not grazing is damaging. The grasslands in California, like grasslands in other arid parts of the world, evolved along with grazing animals-see the La Brea tarpits in LA if you have any question about this. Consequently, grazing that simulates this evolutionary pattern is necessary for the health of the grasslands and the communities that depend on them for their water, among other things, and that means all of us!

Morris Grassfed Beef cattle are carefully managed to simulate these wild patterns and to build the life of the land. Their grazing and animal impact are carefully timed so that the animals do not return to graze a plant a second time before that plant has had sufficient time to recover its ability to photosynthesize and draw energy from the sun. This recovery period varies throughout the year according to the growing conditions.

Hollister Hills State Park, Hollister, Calif.        California State Park Archives

The above photo shows the effects of our cattle operation on one of the ranches we lease near Hollister, CA. The bright green area in the center of the photo is the area we graze our cattle on. The more wan green and yellow colored areas are either not grazed at all or more or less continuously grazed. The colors demonstrate the possible health that holistically managed grazing can bring to the landscape. On each of the ranches we manage, the native perennial grasses and oak trees-even the valley oaks-are regenerating themselves and adding young members to their respective populations.

Is Morris Grassfed BeefT available year round?

Like all fresh, real food Morris Grassfed Beef is a seasonal product. Orders for Morris Grassfed Beef are taken year round until our beef supply runs out. We harvest our animals on a seasonal basis, when the grass is still green and the animals have "finished," usually May through July.

If you would like to place an order, please fill out the order form and return it to us - or simply ask us to add your e-mail and address to our customer list. Our beef freezes very well and can be preserved safely for a year or more in a freezer. Last we checked the cost of energy for a chest freezer that would hold far more than the beef from one animal was $40.00.

Besides our direct market, we also offer Morris Grassfed Beef for sale in individual cuts at the Hollister Farmers' Market - Wednesdays from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. - from May until October, Our friend and fellow family farmer Jim Dunlop, owner of the TLC Ranch in Watsonville, is also selling our beef at the Santa Cruz Farmers Market on Wednesdays from 2:30 to 6:30 (Lincoln and Cedars Streets). Drop by and say hi to him and pick up a delicious Morris Grassfed steak for dinner!

Morris Grassfed BeefT vs. Organic:
What's the Difference?

What is a CSA-style split half?

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). While maintaining our traditional split half format for selling beef, we’ve added a CSAstyle split half, the same split half but stored for you and delivered over the course of the year, for people who would like to eat Morris Grassfed Beef™ but do not have the freezer capacity to store it.. Delivery Dates for this option are as follows:

Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 and
Thursday, March 5, 2009.

Our target weight is 87 pounds, delivered in three 29 lb. mouth-watering and healthful, manageable portions. Included in the CSAstyle split halves will be steaks, roasts, stew and ground beef. There will be some variation in the exact proportions of each, as each animal is different. We will even out these discrepancies by adding or subtracting a small bit of ground beef. Our butcher has asked
that we not vary our prescribed cutting instructions, although we will be able to deliver additional items such as extra ground beef, organ meats, and bones, as long as our supplies last. All items must be included in the initial order. The cost for this option will be $7.10/ lb, and that includes cut, wrap, storage & delivery. The 87 lb. share will cost $617.70. Reserve your share now with a $140
deposit. Balance must be paid upon delivery of first portion in July.

Are the drop-off points the same for "traditional" split halves and "CSA style" split halves?

Not necessarily. "CSA-style" deliveries will be made to: 

     . Aptos
     . Scotts Valley
     . San Jose
     . San Francisco
     . Oakland
     . San Juan Bautista

"Traditional" split halves will be delivered to:

What are the closest drop off points for a traditional split half, if I live in the Central Valley or foothills?

Though we are not going to Fagundes Meats this year, we have added two drop off points to our delivery route for the "traditional split halves." One will be in the Stockton area, and one will be off Highway 33 just south of Santa Nella. Check out our Newsletter for dates and specific drop-off locations.

What will be the drop off point for traditional split halves that is nearest to the Central Coast?

In the past, we have delivered to Monterey, Aptos and Santa Cruz for "traditional split half" customers. This year we will be delivering to one of the ranches we lease in Las Lomas. We will be there with our delivery truck and your frozen beef. We hope you enjoy the opportunity to see one of our ranches where the animals are raised.

How and where are Morris Grassfed animals slaughtered?

We take our animals to one of three different, small scale butcher facilities. The animals are gathered off pasture the day of slaughter in lots of eight or ten, loaded quietly onto our stock-trailer, and hauled to the abattoir. All of these facilities work quietly with the animals and take meticulous care of each individual carcass.

As far as euthanizing animals, the animals are moved up a ramp with curved solid sides. The ramp is slightly inclined, and with the solid sides the animals move upwards willingly, so there is very little pressure needed to get them to move. All of this is very easy for the animals. At the end of the ramp, a door slides down behind the animal, so that the workers are in a safe place to apply the bolt, and the movement of the animal is limited by space, though the animals are not held. The animals are calm and dispatched instantly and without pain.

I can't think of a more humane way to do this, other than a perfect shot to the brain while they are out on pasture. A perfect shot, however, is not always possible when the animals are loose, and there are a number of regulations that prohibit ranch harvesting of animals and the subsequent sale of the beef. My impression is that the animals are not aware of what is going to happen, and there is no panic, discomfort or fear. The workers at the abattoirs try to work as quietly and using as little stress as they can.

In other words, we know how the animals are handled while they are at the plant and that the meat we sell has been tracked from animal to carcass to individual cut or pound of ground beef. Our animals are not mixed with other animals, and our beef is cut and processed one animal at a time. It is far more expensive to do it this way and at this scale, but it is the only way we are interested in seeing it done.

For beef quality, animal husbandry and our own integrity, it behooves us all to take care of the animal at each step of its life. Our animals live perfectly in harmony with their fellow community members, both plant and animal; and they enhance that community—the “land-- as they live. They are members of the “land,” just as we are. If we require the transformation of their lives into our own as our food, this is a perfectly natural relationship, as is theirs with the grassland plants that sustain them. The only way we can desecrate animals that have become our food is by living lives of dishonorable character. We honor our food animals by making our own lives as integrated into the life of our communities as theirs were.