Pasture-Raised Hereford Beef & Heritage Breed Pork
The Experts
On Beef & Pork
At Broad Brook Beef, we raise Hereford cattle known for producing consistently tender, flavorful beef with excellent marbling. Our animals are born and raised on our farm and spend their lives on pasture, where they are cared for with a focus on health, natural growth, and responsible land stewardship.
Pasture Raised
All of our animals are raised on our Connecticut farm, where they have access to open pastures, fresh air, clean water, and a low-stress environment. We believe animals thrive when they are allowed to express their natural behaviors, whether that’s cattle grazing pasture or hogs rooting and exploring outdoors. This approach not only supports animal welfare but also produces healthier animals and higher-quality meat.
Clean Diet
Nutrition plays a critical role in everything we do. Our livestock are fed an all-natural, plant-based diet consisting of quality pasture grasses, carefully prepared ensiled forages, and balanced rations designed to support steady, healthy growth. We also incorporate locally sourced spent grains from whiskey production, providing a natural source of energy and protein while helping reduce agricultural waste. We never use added hormones, growth promotants, or unnecessary shortcuts. Instead, we focus on wholesome nutrition that allows our animals to grow naturally at their own pace.
Genetics
Our cattle are primarily Herefords, a breed known for producing consistently tender, flavorful beef with excellent marbling and exceptional feed efficiency. Our hog program features heritage-breed genetics, including Mangalitsa influence, which are renowned for producing richly marbled pork with outstanding flavor and texture. By selecting genetics that excel in our pasture-based production system, we are able to deliver premium-quality beef and pork with remarkable consistency.
Throughout every stage of production, we emphasize low-stress handling and attentive management. Health, temperament, structural soundness, and overall performance are carefully monitored to ensure our animals remain healthy and productive. Because we are involved in every step of the process, from breeding and raising livestock to delivering finished products to our customers, we maintain complete oversight of the quality and care behind every cut we sell.
The result is premium Connecticut-raised beef and pork with exceptional flavor, tenderness, and quality—raised naturally, responsibly, and with a commitment to doing things the right way.
The Broad Brook Beef Difference
Many farms sell local meat. At Broad Brook Beef, our goal is to produce meat that rivals the finest steakhouses and butcher shops while remaining rooted in the values of a Connecticut family farm. When you purchase from Broad Brook Beef, you’re not simply buying local meat. You’re buying products backed by generations of experience, a commitment to quality, and a farm family dedicated to producing the very best beef and pork possible.
How We Raise
Our Animals
At Broad Brook Beef & Pork, we believe exceptional meat starts with how the animals are raised—and every decision we make reflects that.
Our Hereford cattle are raised on pasture, where they have the space to graze, move, and grow at a natural pace. We actively manage our land through rotational grazing, improving soil health, and maintaining strong, diverse pastures. This approach not only benefits the land but produces beef with deeper flavor, better texture, and consistency you can taste.
Our heritage breed pigs are raised outdoors in a system that allows them to root, forage, and develop as they should. We take our time raising them, focusing on animal health and husbandry for proper finishing to ensure richly marbled, high-quality pork.
We don’t rely on shortcuts or trends—just proven practices, careful management, and attention to detail from start to finish. Our beef is dry-aged to enhance tenderness and flavor, and every product we offer reflects the same standard we hold ourselves to on the farm.
Our hens are cared for with the same attention to quality and animal care that goes into everything we raise. They have room to move, scratch, forage, and enjoy life on the farm, while receiving a wholesome, plant-based diet to support their health and the quality of the eggs they produce.
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Learn About Our
Local Farming Program
For decades, we’ve proudly served families throughout the Connecticut River Valley with carefully raised livestock, high-quality genetics, and a commitment to producing consistent, trustworthy meat from animals raised the right way.
From the pasture to your table, every part of our program is built around animal care, quality nutrition, and producing beef and pork we’re proud to feed our own family.
Built Around the Cow
Everything starts with the mother cow.
The cow herd is the foundation of our entire beef program, and every animal on our farm is carefully selected for the traits that matter most: structural soundness, muscle quality, maternal ability, temperament, and longevity. Whether cattle are born here on the farm or sourced from respected breeders across the country, every decision we make is focused on building a healthier, more consistent herd.
Most cows remain part of our program for 12 years or longer, so their ability to thrive on pasture and raise quality calves year after year is essential. We believe strongly in the Hereford breed for its efficiency, disposition, and ability to produce flavorful, well-marbled beef.
You’ll often find us exhibiting cattle at regional livestock events such as The Big E, the New York State Fair, and the Keystone International Livestock Expo. These events allow us to continually improve our breeding program and stay connected with some of the top cattle genetics in the country.To us, better genetics don’t just matter in the show ring—they directly impact the quality, tenderness, consistency, and flavor our customers experience at the dinner table.
A Natural Feeding Program
Raising livestock in Connecticut comes with unique challenges, especially when it comes to land availability. Because farmland is limited and expensive, we work closely with local farmland partnerships and state-owned agricultural land to grow the grasses, hay, and silage needed to feed our animals year-round.
We believe livestock should be raised on clean, natural diets without added hormones, animal by-products, or unnecessary antibiotics. Instead of relying on shortcuts, our program focuses on strong genetics, quality nutrition, fresh air, sunshine, and low-stress environments that allow animals to perform naturally.
Our cattle spend the majority of their lives on pasture, grazing and growing at a steady pace. During the colder months, they are fed stored forages harvested from our fields to maintain a consistent, healthy diet throughout the year.
We also believe that responsible farming means making full use of every resource on the farm. Manure from feeding areas is composted and returned to our crop fields as natural fertilizer, helping to improve soil health and support future feed production.
When our steers reach market weight, they are harvested through a USDA-inspected processor. The beef is then dry-aged for 21 days to improve tenderness and flavor before being cut into retail portions, vacuum sealed, frozen, and returned to our farm store.
Our Pasture-Raised Pork Program
In addition to our beef operation, we work closely with a trusted pasture-raised pork producer in Upstate New York who supplies us with feeder hogs throughout the year. Their farming practices closely align with our own standards for animal care, outdoor access, and responsible livestock production.
Pigs are very different animals than cattle, both in behavior and nutrition. While hogs enjoy rooting, exploring pasture, and cooling off in mud during warm weather, they cannot efficiently digest grasses the way cattle do. Instead, their nutritional needs depend primarily on high-quality grains that provide the amino acids necessary for healthy growth and proper marbling.
We believe one of the greatest benefits of pasture-raised pork is the animal’s quality of life. Hogs raised in lower-stress outdoor environments tend to develop better muscle quality and richer marbling, resulting in pork with exceptional flavor and texture.
Our hogs are raised to approximately 280–300 pounds before harvest and processed through a USDA-inspected facility where the pork is carefully cut, vacuum sealed, frozen, and prepared for our farm store customers.
Frequently Asked
Questions
Are your animals pasture-raised?
Yes. Our cattle spend the majority of their lives on pasture, and our pigs are raised outdoors with room to root and roam naturally.
Do you use hormones or growth implants?
No. We do not use added growth hormones or implants in our animals.
Do you use antibiotics?
Animals are treated if medically necessary, but we focus heavily on preventative health, clean living conditions, and low-stress handling.
What do your animals eat?
Our cattle are pasture-raised and fed a balanced diet. The grasses in New England lack the protein that growing cattle require, so we do supplement our herd with the spent grains from the whiskey making process. It makes up about 15% of their diet. We believe that feeding the cattle a consistent, all-natural, all plant based diet adds to the flavor and quality found in our meat products.
Is your meat grass-fed?
Our cattle are pasture-raised and fed ensiled forages throughout the winter and spring. Everything that our animals eat is all natural and 100% plant based.
What does “pasture-raised” mean?
It means our animals are raised outdoors with access to fresh air, pasture, and space to behave naturally.
Why does your meat taste different from grocery store meat?
Small-scale farm-raised meat typically has better flavor, texture, and freshness because it comes from carefully raised animals and is processed in smaller batches. The secret is we process the whole animal only once after harvest. This locks in the flavor and tenderness of our farm raised meats.
Purchase a Meat Farm Share
Get our choicest cuts of premium, restaurant-quality beef and pork all year round. Our subscription boxes are available for local pickup at our farm and provide a variety of options for healthy, farm-to-table meals.
Buy a Half Cow or Hog
Customize the meat products you receive when you place a half beef or pork order. Easily make your selections online and pick up your products at our River Valley farm–open every week.