Brinkmeyer Family Ranch Beef

It’s National Pollinators Week! US’s most common and most important pollinator is the Honey Bee. They play a huge role in our food supply and ecosystem. And we love their honey! 😊

Our ranch in Southern Iowa has some great soils for growing corn and soybeans and some more fragile soils. Because of that, we grow grass on 80% of the ranch to protect and strengthen the lower quality soils, keep the water clean, support wildlife, and benefit the environment overall. The most efficient and environmentally sound way to harvest the grass is with beef cows. During the summer and fall (May - October) we use a rotational grazing system whereby our six different groups of cows have at least four pastures each where they graze a short time then move to the next pasture on a constant rotation. So, pastures get utilized for about 25% of the time in total and only for short periods so that 75% of the time the pasture rests and regrows. That’s sustainable agriculture. Pictures taken on June 13 show cows moving into fresh pastures for the first time this summer.