We are a 171 acre family farm in northeastern Boone County, Missouri, specializing in grassfed beef. At Covered-L grassfed means 100% grassfed. We never use antibiotics, hormones, insecticides, herbicides nor grain, of course. The cattle get grass, mineral which includes Redmond sea salt, water, air and quality hay in the winter once they have grazed all the grass.
That’s it. Very simply: simply beef.
Sherry and I moved to Missouri in 1992 after I served over 26 years in the Air Force. We had raised a few head of cattle at assignments in OH and TX and I wanted to continue doing that in MO. I called the Animal Science Department at the U of MO soon after moving here and was referred to a professor who was starting a beef capstone course the next spring semester. I soon learned what ‘drinking from a fire hose’ means. But it was an opportunity of a lifetime because the featured instructor was Jim Gerrish, one of the recognized grazing and grassfed gurus in the world, not just in the United States.
I’m still learning, of course, but Jim and that course gave me an amazing jump-start for what we are doing at Covered-L Farm. In a never-ending cycle, we increased our customer base, then needed more cattle to supply customers, then needed more land for additional cattle, then needed more customers, etc. After about 14 years, we had grown enough and learned enough to evolve into our current form, becoming 100% grassfed in 2007 on our 171 acres.
It’s been a good run but we are a long way from finished. We continue to enjoy improving the soil for the billions of biota within, which improves the forage, which helps the cattle grow better, thus producing the quality nutrient-rich beef we proudly provide to you, our customers.