At Midwest Best Beef, we mix all our own feed to ensure the quality and the content of our feed. We do not buy any premixed additives. The individual ingredients are added to the TMR (Total Mix Ratio or basically a giant mixer) and mixed to provide uniform consistency of the ingredients. Life on the farm includes this process; it is considerably more time consuming and expensive than that of the industrial feedlots, but we feel it is the only way we can ensure the quality and the composition of the feed we provide our beef.
Hay is added to the TRM first since it’s the largest ingredient by volume. Our feed recipes are primarily hay by volume, grown on our own farm.
Ingredients are measured by weight using a scale built into the TRM.
Distiller corn is added for protein. Distillers corn is the byproduct of the alcohol distillation process. It’s what is left after the carbohydrates have been consumed during distillation, and is a high protein corn by-product used to balance the diet. It’s the only minor ingredient that does not come from the farm.
Calcium carbonate is added as a trace ingredient to balance the mineral requirements of the beef.
We add the corn as the final ingredient to the final “finishing” ration. Using corn in the final finishing ration provides the traditional taste and texture people have come to expect from high quality aged beef.
Here is a picture of both the starter and the finishing ration. The starter is an early ration with a low corn content. The finisher ration is the final ration with the highest corn content. If you look closely, you can see the individual ingredients in our feed mix. We use 7 different recipes depending on the stage of develop of the beef (new calf, intro, starter, grower transition, grower, finishing transition, or finishing). The corn content is increased with each recipe until we get to the final “finishing” recipe. You can see that high quality hay grown on our farm (unlike industrial feedlots) still constitutes a significant amount of the the diet even in the finishing ration. We believe this allows us to retain a significant amount of the advantage of grass fed without compromising the taste and texture. The finishing recipe has the largest corn content to provide the “corn finished” taste consumers have come to expect of high quality beef.
Feed is transferred into the cement bunk. Cement bunks are used for the ease of feed handling, durability, and comfort for the cattle.
