Welcome to the Ranch!

A mama cow and her calf on our ranch.

One of my purposes in writing articles for Cross Creek Cattle Company is to educate the public on the benefits of eating grass fed beef.  I occasionally find information from news reports, talk shows, documentaries, magazines, etc. and share them with you.

Time Magazine published an article by Lisa Abend entitled, “How Cows (Grass Fed Only) Could Save the Planet.”  It is an article refuting the claims on vegetarians who say something to the effect of “Save the Planet –Eat less beef.”  The article argues that grass fed cows actually have less a carbon footprint than the soybean farms and factories that manufacture tofu.  It also states that grass fed cows eating as nature intended is actually better for the environment through pasture rotation.  If you are interested, please read the article for yourself.

Dr. Mercola runs one of the top 10 health websites in the United States.  Dr. Mercola is a big proponent of eating grass fed beef.  He responded to the Time article with his own article, “The Ominous Beef Cover Up: The Hidden Truth Behind the Meat on your Plate.”

He believes that modern farming practices have not only hurt our planet, but have also damaged our health.  Dr. Mercola advises eating only grass fed meat.  He also advises to find local sources for the beef.

At Cross Creek Cattle Company, we are more than happy to supply families with our grass fed beef.  Our location in Plantersville, Texas allows us to serve a large area.  We are close to the 4th largest city in the United States, Houston, and its surrounding area.  We are close to the Bryan/College Station area.  We are also just as close to Huntsville, Conroe, Tomball, Waller, Brenham, and all the places in between.

If you have any questions or would like to place an order, contact Lara DeHaven at 936-870-5798 or by email at lndehaven@aol.com.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Got milk? S'Mora with a milk mustache.

In the article, “New Calves,” I explained why we at Cross Creek Cattle Company prefer a winter calving season.  One year we almost lost a calf to fire ants when it was born in the summer.  The calf was born to a first year heifer, which means this was the cow’s first calf.  The heifer had a hard labor.

Through the birthing process, the calf’s leg was injured, which made it difficult for the calf to stand, walk, or nurse.  We found it cleaned up in the woods a few hours old.  The new mother had abandoned it.  The calf had fire ants all over her face and body.  They were feasting on her poor, injured body.

My husband got several bites trying to rescue the calf.  We had to spray her down with a water hose to get the ants off of her.  We took her home and gave her Benadryl.  We bottle-fed her with store-bought colostrum and later milk.  We raised her in our backyard.  This is not ideal, but we take care of our cattle.

We named her S’Mora because she always wanted some more milk.  S’Mora lived in our backyard for a year.  We helped her learn to walk on her permanently injured leg.  Eventually, she moved around very well.  She did not like it when we turned her out with the herd.  She thought she was a member of our family.  She even broke my dining room window by kicking it because she was mad that she could not go everywhere with us.

We have very docile cattle in our fields.  S’Mora began being a pest.  We could not go out into the pasture without her trying to head butt one of us.  She even jumped up on Lane and knocked him over.  His heart broke when he made the decision to sell her.  We could not have her hurting one of our children by being too affectionate and playful.  She just did not understand that she was a cow.

Bottle-feeding a calf is no small task.  It takes a lot of time to care and nurture the animal.  At Cross Creek Cattle Company we prefer to have the mama cows take care of the baby calves as nature intended.  However, we are not afraid to devote the time needed to raise a calf ourselves.  So for us, winter calf seasons are the best choice.

“Beef, it’s whats for dinner,” is a catchy slogan.  It is also how I was raised.  We did not have beef every night for supper, but we consumed it more than any other meat.  I know that some people hesitate from ordering a quarter or a half of grass fed beef from Cross Creek Cattle Company because they are not that familiar with cooking beef.  For some families cuts other than hamburger are considered a luxury.

On our website we have an entire page devoted to recipes using grass fed beef.  We have a recipe for chili, stuffed mushrooms, vegetable soup, and roast.  Today I wanted to post two more recipes.  The first one uses the round steak.

Round steaks come from the same section as the rump roasts.  They are thin cuts of meat.  You can get them tenderized or plain.   Round steaks are very versatile cuts of meat.

I use round steaks in a variety of ways.  My family eats them as fajita meat.  We use round steaks when making chicken fried steaks.  But, today I am going to use them in a wok.

Grass Fed Teriyaki Beef

1 pkg grass fed round steak
3/4 cup onion, diced
Teriyaki Sauce:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1-1/2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
2-3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 tsp ginger, ground or freshly grated

Take your round steaks and slice into long strips about 1/2″ thick.  Mine are usually about 3-4″ long.  The meat can still be a little frozen.

In a separate bowl, combine the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, oil, garlic, and ginger.  This is your marinade.  Marinate the strips of beef in the mixture for a couple of hours or longer in your refrigerator.  For the last hour, set it out on your counter.

Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan or wok.  When the oil is hot, place only enough beef strips to cover the oil.  Do NOT put too many in at one time.  Turn once to brown the strips on both sides.  Remove onto a plate.  Repeat until all the beef is brown.  Save the marinade.

Begin to saute the onions in the wok.  Add all the beef back into the pan.  Pour the marinade over the beef and allow to cook covered on low for 8-10 minutes.  Stir occasionally.  Serve over rice and with steamed vegetables.

This dish is relatively easy to make and delicious.  It is a good way to use round steak.  If you like the teriyaki flavor, you can also use it to make great hamburger patties.  If you plan ahead, you can reserve 2 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce from the above recipe to make your burgers.

Grass Fed Teriyaki Burgers

1 pound grass fed ground beef
2 Tablespoons of teriyaki marinade

Combine the beef and marinade.  Divide into four equal sections.  Form into hamburger patties.  Grill to your liking.

Eating beef can be part of a healthy lifestyle if it is grass fed.  There are many health benefits to eating grass fed beef. Check out this blog for more information on the health benefits.  Begin with the article, “Heart Healthy Foods.”

I hope that your family enjoys these recipes for grass fed beef as much as mine does.

It is calving season on Cross Creek Cattle Company.  Through many years of experience, we prefer to have our calves born in the winter.  First of all in our area, winters are generally mild.  Even this year with its many nights of hard freezes and two days of snow, it is still a relatively mild winter compared with other regions of the United States.

When a calf is born in the coolness of our winter weather, its mother cleans it up quickly.  The calf is very anxious to warm itself; therefore, it nurses vigorously.  One of the most important things for a calf to do is nurse within the first four hours of its birth.  The first milk is not milk just like in humans.  It is colostrum; however, a calf will die quickly of illness if it does not receive enough colostrum at the onset of its life.

Colostrum is full of antibodies that prove critical to the calf’s health and well-being.  Unfortunately without it, the calf will die.  In humans, colostrum is important, but it is not a matter of life and death.

Temperatures soar in the summer to well above 100 degrees.  When a calf is born in the summer, the temperature is usually very similar to the temperature in the womb.  On extremely hot days, newborn calves grow listless.  They do not feel the urge to get up and begin nursing.  It is just too hot.  When this happens, we try to intervene.  We tube the calf with store-bought colostrum.  If possible, we milk its mother and tube it that colostrum.  We do what we can, but we prefer the winter when less intervention is needed.

Another reason that we prefer to have calving season in the winter is because fire ants are not a problem.  In the heat of the summer, fire ants build mounds along the surface of the ground.  The tunnels underground reach far and wide under the soil housing millions of ants.  Usually the summer is our driest season.  Therefore, ants will be searching for water and food all along the ground.

When fire ants bite you, it hurts.  A tiny amount of poison irritates your skin.  If you are allergic, it can be life-threatening.  If you are not allergic, too many bites can make you sick or kill you without proper medical attention.  Unfortunately, fire ants have been known to kill calves.  We have not lost a calf to fire ants, but neighboring ranches have.

Soon, I will tell you about the one time we almost lost a calf to fire ants.  Today, I thought I would leave you with pictures of some of our calves.  So far we have had more heifers than bulls.  I just love how cute baby calves are.

A cow and her calf sunning on a warm, February day.

Another cow and calf pair.

A small group of calves.