Production Philosophy

We are committed to growing organic vegetables that are nutrient dense and taste delicious. We always ensure that the surrounding waterways and wildlife are protected when we plant our crops or graze our beef cattle.

Kerr Farms has been responsive to the public’s concerns for drug-free beef and has made the decision to raise our animals the way Mother Nature intended. Our practice of raising Ontario Angus beef involves absolutely no use of hormones, antibiotics or animal by-products.

We hope that you and your family will enjoy our organically grown vegetables and our traditionally raised Angus beef.

	Regular Beef: Including Branded Beef	Regular Organic	Kerr Farms
Antibiotics	yes	no	no
Hormones	yes	no	no
Animal By-Products	no	no	no
Humane Treatment of Animals	maybe	yes	yes
Local	maybe	maybe	yes
3rd Party Audited	no	yes	yes
Traceable	maybe	maybe	yes
Breed Specific	maybe	no	yes
Angus Specific	maybe	no	yes
Control of Herd	no	no	yes
Corn Finished	Alberta – no | Ontario – yes	yes	yes
Organic Corn Finished	no	yes	no
Organic Grass Pastured	no	yes	yes
Federally Inspected Processing	yes	maybe	yes

What is the difference between your beef and organic beef?

Our beef is not certified organic although it is very close. Our cattle are grass-fed just like organic cattle, however, we do not feed our beef organic corn (just regular corn), thereby voluntarily disqualifying ourselves from the organic program. You could say we are ‘a corn kernel away from organic’. The common names given to our style of beef are “Naturally Raised” or “Traditionally Raised” or “Artisanal” or “RWA (Raised Without Antibiotics, Added Hormones, Animal By-products)”.

Why do we feed corn?

The main reason why we feed some corn to our cattle is to sustain the animals energy requirement as it is growing. This is especially a concern in the winter months when an abundance of fresh, high energy forage is not available.  Corn is actually from the grass family. Cattle are ruminant animals and therefore by design are meant to eat a diet high in forage, however they do consume some grains from seeds in plants on pasture and in fields.  Cattle are meant to have a balanced diet with increased energy requirements as they grow.  As we do not use any form of antibiotics or growth promoting drugs to alter the digestive system or health of the animal the amount of grain is naturally limited to what is biologically appropriate.  A mixture of whole plant corn including the stalk and leaves, (again, corn is actually from the grass family) which includes soft corn kernels is often fed as it contains the necessary energy while being balanced with forage.  In other cases hay and other wet forages are mixed with dry corn.  We have found with years of experimenting and experience from feeding large amounts of corn to feeding purely grass that a natural balance of forage and grain produces a consistently juicy and ideally flavourful eating experience without compromising the Omega 3 / Omega 6 fat balance of the meat.