When most people hear the phrase “grain finished beef” it puts a bad picture in their head, and rightfully so! The commercial beef industry has left a stain in the minds of many for how they grain finishing cattle. Commercial cattle spend their lives in full confinement, meaning they are in an open feed lot or covered barn with no access to roam pasture and graze for forage. Feeders tend to OVER FEED their cattle (50-70lbs of feed a day) to the point of causing diabetes, early onset organ failure, obesity, and other chronic health issues. The cattle might not be “sick” with an infection or virus but they are not healthy. The feed the cattle are given is full of additives, hormones and antibiotics. Antibiotics are used for several reasons, the most popular are to prevent infection due to living conditions, but also it allows them to gain weight faster. Most commercial feeders also include beta-antagonists in the cattle feed to slow their heart rate down in order to lower the cattle’s blood pressure, to counteract the unhealthy diet they are given. The goal in the commercial beef industry is to gain the most amount of weight as fast and cheap as possible. Most steers are slaughtered at 1500-1600lbs. Most of these finished cattle couldn’t live for another 1-2 years due to the unhealthy nature of their growth.