FAQs

According to Dr. Joseph Graham, cardiovascular surgeon at St. John’s Medical Center in Joplin, MO, straight Longhorn beef is comparable to boneless, skinless white meat chicken with regard to its health properties. Beef is a great source of protein, zinc, vitamin B12, and selenium. Selenium can reduce the risk of heart disease and certain types of cancer, and can also enhance the body’s ability to fight infection.  Longhorn meat has higher percentages of all these health benefits and – on average – contains 10% less saturated fat than the meat of other cattle. On top of all that, our beef is grass fed, grass finished and free of vaccinations, hormones and antibiotics. That's kind of like having icecream with hot fudge on top - except, you know, healthier! 

Yes, we really raise our animals from birth. We feel that having the honor of being involved from birth to death is very important. We raise our animals with love and respect from their first breath. Our goal is to ensure our animals happiness as that provides a great life for them and a great product for you.

We find that our beef is at its juiciest and most flavorful when it is cooked to a medium rare (130-135 degress fahrenheit). Because our beef is lean, over cooking it can dry it out. Over cooking our beef can also eliminate some of its health benefits.

We find that our lamb also tastes best when cooked to a medium rare (145 degress fahrenheit).

Our pork, well all pork, needs to be cooked well. According to the USDA, all ground pork should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degress fahrenheit and all pork roasts, chops, and steaks should be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 145 degrees fahrenheit.

We raise angus and longhorn cross animals for our beef. The combo is amazing!

Our lambs are Suffolk crosses with great attitudes and amazing, sweet meat.

We move our cows on foot. They come when we call them, they know where to go and what to do. Because of the friendship that we build with our cattle from day one we are able to work WITH them instead of WORKING THEM.

We utilize the skill and knowledge of Mountain Meat Processing. They are a USDA inspected facility located in Fruita, Colorado.

100% grass fed and grass finished means that our cattle are either grazing on fresh green pastures or eating top quality hay. We do not give them corn or grains because they don't need it! Cattle are designed to thrive on just grass and that's what ours do.

We don't vaccinate our cattle. Period. We want to provide an extraordinarily clean meat that you can feel great about eating. We have a closed herd which means that we don't bring in outside cattle allowing us to reduce the risk of sickness. We also have our cows calve later in the year which reduces the risk of cold and wet conditions that our calves are born into. Sunshine and comfortable temperatures make us feel good and our cows enjoy that too!

If an animal does get sick or injured to the point that antibiotics are needed we will treat them appropriately. However, an animal that needs antibiotics will NOT be used for meat. We ensure the health and comfort of our animals at all times but we also make a promise to you that your meat will be antibiotic free.

We ship your meat frozen solid in a very well insulated box. In that box you will find either dry ice (be careful when removing the dry ice! Don't touch it with bare hands! Just pick up the corner of the bag the dry ice is in and put it in your sink to melt. Toss the bag once the dry ice is gone.) or freezer packs to ensure the appropriate temperature for your meat during its shipping journey to your door.

No, we only ship on Mondays and Tuesdays. Shipping your order out on a Monday or Tuesday gives us the longest window for your package to arrive without sitting in a warehouse over the weekend. We don't want your order sitting anywhere but with you!

What our satisfaction guarantee means is that we want you to be happy with what you are recieving from us! No, you can't order $500 worth of meat, eat it all, and then say you want your money back. But you can open your product box and find that after a shipping delay your meat is no longer frozen; you can try a steak and hate the taste (we can't imagine that though); you can open your product box and find that the honey jar broke in transit; etc. Those things we want to know about and we want to make it right with you! So, if you have any questions, comments - bad or good, or concerns we want to hear from you! Please email us at lissa@bluespoonranch.com or call us at (970)201-5525 .

We feel so strongly about our meat that we would give it away if we could! But we can't. Remember those 3 kiddo face's from our home page? We do actually have to feed them - crazy we know. Lol! We do everything we can to keep our prices as low as possible. We want to have our meat accesible to everyone who is interested in great, healthy, tasty meat.

As a side note on price, if you are able to come to Blue Spoon Ranch to pick up your order please do so. We are able to knock off a little bit of money from the orders we don't have to ship! So in other words - locals supporting locals!

The amount of meat that is cut and wrapped for consumption when processing is all said and done will be much less than the live weight of the animal.  For example, a 1400-pound beef animal will have a hanging weight of approximately 880 pounds.  Once deboned, trimmed and cut, there will be approximately 570 pounds of product to fill your freezer. These figures are just examples and every animal weights a bit differntly. To make sure you have enough freezer space for your order here is a general idea of the freezer space you will need. A quarter of beef takes up approximately 4.5 cu. ft. of a chest freezer or 5.5 cu. ft. of an upright freezer.  A side (half), requires around 8 cu. ft. of space, while a whole beef will need 16 cu. ft.

Here are the rough figures for a lamb that has a live weight of 130 pounds. Hanging weight will be approxamitaly 70 pounds and once processing is all said and done there will be roughly 50 pounds of consumable, take home meat.

These figures and terms can be confusing. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us for further explination!