What makes our meat better?

Dakota

FREDERICK, S.D.
David Losure & Heidi Marttila-Losure

BEEF
Our cattle spend two summers on grass before being sent for processing. The cattle are fed some oats along with hay over the winter for energy and in order to get some marbling in the meat. Typical feedlot cattle only get one summer on grass before being pushed to reach butcher weight quickly on a high grain diet. Our cattle are never pushed onto a high grain diet, implanted with hormones, or given antibiotics in order to promote fast weight gain. We believe that healthy cows make healthy meat.

F A R M
39038 105th St. Frederick, SD 57441 605-290-3333
dave@dakotasisufarm.com

SISU

PORK
Our pigs spend their days outdoors, with lots of room to run, root and forage. They have small huts in their pens for shelter from the sun and wind, and straw to sleep on. The only time they are ever on concrete is when they come into the old barn to farrow (have piglets) and during blizzards. They are heritage breed hogs, so will have more fat (and avor) than the ultra-lean connement hogs sold at the grocery store. We dont use antibiotics to promote weight gain or other drugs commonly used to make pork leaner.

CHICKEN

As long as the weather allows, our chickens travel about the farmyard in portable shelters. They are too tasty to be allowed to roam freely. New baby chicks start in the chicken coop, and laying hens over-winter there. Otherwise our birds are out mowing and fertilizing grass for us. They are never given drugs of any kind. Meat chickens are butchered outdoors using a scalder and plucker, then wrapped and frozen. The chlorine bath step that supermarket chicken go through is left out. The weight that you buy is all meatnot a mixture of meat, chlorine/saline solution and, umm, other things.

EGGS
Our laying ock includes three breeds: Buff Orpington and Rhode Island Red, which lay brown eggs, and Ameraucana, which lay greenish-blue eggs. Like Easter eggs without the dye! The chickens are fed local grains, and in the summer they also forage on grass and bugs, which not only helps the farmyard (they do a great job cleaning up in the garden) but also makes the eggs tastier and the yolks a beautiful bright yellow.

Special notes about this beef (January 2014)

Dakota

FREDERICK, S.D.
David Losure & Heidi Marttila-Losure

THE COW

F A R M
39038 105th St. Frederick, SD 57441 605-290-3333
dave@dakotasisufarm.com

SISU

This beef is from a steer born in April of 2012. He spent two summers on grass. The winter of 2012 he ate only hay. Fall 2013 up until going to Frohlings his diet included both hay and oats. He was never implanted and never received any antibiotics.

This is due to miscommunication between myself and the locker at which this cow was processed. Frohling Meats in Hecla, S.D., does both custom processing for individuals and processing for retail sale. Their facility is USDA-inspected, and an inspector is on site daily. When they process game animals or livestock for the owners personal consumption (custom processing), the not for sale label is placed on the meat. Legally, a locker that only did custom processing would only have to pass occasional USDA inspection. Frohling also does meat for retail sale, so they have the inspector on site daily. There is no difference between how they handle their custom-processed animals and the animals processed for retail sale. When I called to set the date to have this cow processed, I requested that they label the meat for retail sale. However, when I actually dropped the cow off and gave cutting instructions, I was talking to a different employee, and failed to repeat the request that the meat be labeled for retail sale. Therefore, the not for sale labels were used. We discussed repackaging the meat with Frohling employees but decided there was no reason to go to that trouble or expensethe meat processing was inspected by a USDA inspector. The meat just has the wrong label on it. For future processing, meat from Dakota Sisu farm will be labeled correctly.

Why is this meat labeled Not For Sale?

If you have any questions or concerns about the labels on this meat or how this meat was processed, you are welcome to talk to me, or you can also call Frohling Meats directly:

David Losure 605-290-3333

Frohling Meats (605) 994-2632

Thanks for the opportunity to serve you. We appreciate your business!