Eventually she settled VB Farms on a 160-acre plot a few miles up the road from the home place. Her dad, thankful she finally decided to live nearby, marry, and farm, made her a gift of Bossie, the family milk cow. Today, all of her cattle are Bossie’s progeny, the only remaining descendants of her great-grandfather’s herd.
Nancy has raised three children from the seat of her tractor. Only the youngest, Isaac, still lives with her. She has grown soybeans for tofu, seeded hay for feed, and bred Bossie to build her herd. When she became a single mom, Nancy did whatever was necessary to keep the farm and send her kids to college, even if that meant taking a job in a nearby envelope factory. There, on the graveyard shift, she began doodling her plans for Bossie’s Best on the back of envelopes. She laughs, “Let’s see—how can I make a million hot dogs?”
None of the math on Nancy’s farm seems that simple to me. The entire herd winters at VB Farms. Her oldest son, Noah, and her daughter, Ali, return at Christmas to help sort the animals into groups: twenty-five pregnant heifers, some young steers, a handful of two-year- olds feeding for slaughter, weaning nine-month old calves, and a massive bull named Flash. They forage a bit on pasture stubble, and Nancy piles up hay here and there from the stash she has cut during the summer.
As the weather warms, calving season begins, and the size of her herd might swell to 100 head. Nancy delivers all the calves herself, despite having suffered a stroke three years ago. She’s strong, scrappy, and fearless. Come summer, Nancy coaxes her half-ton heifers and the 2,000-pound bull into a truck for a short ride to—literally—greener pastures. July is breeding time, and she’s selected an isolated spot one county over for Flash to do his job. This field is certified organic grassland she rents from another farmer. She has a similar pasture over at her brother Joe’s on the home place. Meanwhile, her youngest cows are grazing at VB Farms, and one by one the fed cattle—those that have been eating an organic grain ration for the past several weeks—are taking their last rides over to Ron Hards’s place.
Nancy’s rich, loamy Kansas soil is so productive, she can pull three or four cuttings of alfalfa each summer, enough to keep her animals in hay all winter. Her pastures are divided into seven separate plots to run a somewhat complicated seven-year rotation of oats, alfalfa, and red clover. She buys whole-ear organic corn from a nearby farmer and a few salt licks. Everything else she produces herself.
As we walk the farm, Nancy’s thoughts turn toward the discussion of the real value of our food and a living wage for farmers. She dreams, she says, of selling more hot dogs, of quitting her job in the factory to devote herself to full-time farming, and of leaving a viable legacy for her children.
A large chunk of her land is still virgin prairie grass. Never-tilled land is a rare treasure in these parts, and watching her cows amble through the field as she talks about the future brings tears to her eyes. “The prairie is a symphony,” she pauses. “If you’re quiet you’ll hear it.”
For more information about VB Farms and Bossie’s Best, visit Nancy’s Web site at www.bossiesbest.com.
A Beef Buyer’s Guide
Our story on Nancy Vogelsberg-Busch and her organic beef cattle may have convinced you that eating locally raised, certified organic meat is the way to go. But she’s in Kansas, and maybe you’re in Florida. How do you find a producer in your area? If you’re buying beef from a grocer or butcher, what do you look for? The meat may be labeled “natural” or “grass-fed,” but does that mean it’s healthier? Are the animals treated humanely? And how does it taste? If it doesn’t have great flavor, what’s the point? We had the same questions. So we did some research, taste-tested steaks, and devised a concise guide to navigating the jungle of buying beef.
You Are What They Eat
About 97 percent of American beef cattle are finished on grain (made from feed corn, primarily; most animal by-products can no longer be included), and for conventionally finished cattle, that grain most likely contains added antibiotics, as treatment for sick animals and as a preventative for healthy ones. The ripple effect of treating cattle with antibiotics is currently being studied; the scientific and medical communities are particularly concerned about its possible impact on human resistance to antibiotics. Growth hormones are also routinely administered to these cattle. So if you buy “conventional” beef (that is, the majority of beef available at your grocer), there’s a good chance that the animal it came from was exposed to both. To understand what’s in the beef, read the label and ask questions.
The Name Game
Natural: In order to label beef “natural,” the USDA requires that the product contain no artificial flavors, coloring, ingredients, or chemical preservatives, and that it be no more than minimally processed. Does that mean that it doesn’t contain antibiotics or hormones? Or that it’s 100 percent grass-fed? That depends on the producer. Some ranchers who produce natural beef do treat their animals with antibiotics and/or hormones, while others use neither.
Organic: The USDA organic certification program requires that these cattle never be exposed to antibiotics, growth hormones, pesticides, genetically modified ingredients, or irradiation. If an animal becomes ill and an antibiotic is administered, it automatically becomes ineligible for the organic market. The “organic” label, however, does not mean that the cattle were 100 percent pasture-finished. Like Vogelsberg-Busch’s cattle, they may be raised on a mix of organic grass and organic feed (usually corn, soy, or other organic grains).
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