Animal Health: Never, ever hormones or antibiotics

Since our ranchers own their beef to retail, following a strict protocol to assure our federally approved label claims on never using hormones or antibiotics is critical to our program.

Any animal that requires antibiotic treatment is identified and sold through outside, traditional channels -- and never allowed to enter into the Country Natural Beef system.

Humane, compassionate handling of livestock in an environment well suited for beef cattle is an initial requirement of membership. We have such a wide distribution of ranching areas because we want only ranchers with an extraordinarily strong land ethic including respect for their plants, animals, land and people.

Furthermore, we want each cow with her calf and the yearling that calf grows in to, to have lots of space -- our average is 70 acres per individual cow/calf unit per year.

Each ranch is entirely separate and the acres per individual cow/calf unit will vary greatly, depending on the unique environment.