A Uniquely Exceptional Beef

At Fox Gap, our goal is to grow the best beef in the world. Period. We started farming because we wanted to make the absolute heathiest meat that we could to feed our family. What began as hobby, grew into a business. After learning how other beef is fed and raised, we believe that the beef we're producing here is the best tasting, best textured, beefiest flavored, cleanest, healthiest, and most sustainably grown beef on the market today. Our beef is not the cheapest you can buy, but we think it's truly exceptional quality and unlike anything else you'll find.

What makes our beef better?

Organically-produced. We use fully organic practices in growing our beef. This means that we use no chemical fertilizer on our hay fields and pastures, and no non-organic feed.

Grass-fed and finished. A healthier and more flavorful choice for your beef. Grass-fed and finished beef has a flavor and texture that can't be found in typical grain-fed animals. Some grass-fed beef is finished on fattening grains. Ours cattle forage green pastures to eat only what nature intended for ruminant species; a diverse mix of grasses and forbs.  

Dry-aging. Like the dry-aged meats available at fancy steakhouses, our beef is hung in a temperature and humidity-controlled environment for a full 21 days before cutting. This dry-aging process adds a depth of flavor and tenderness that is simply not available in most markets.

Clean and additive-free. Our animals receive no hormones, vaccines or antibiotics (unless needed to save the life of a sick cow). We keep our stocking rate low to prevent the spread of disease. 

Regenerative farming practices. While we try to avoid buzzwords like "regenerative", the practices we follow are consistent with principles of the regenerative farm movement. We graze our cattle rotationally to manage weeds, fertilize our pastures, improve soil health, and balance our carbon emissions. 

Sustainably produced. We hear a lot about the lack of sustainably in the beef industry. For the most part, and particularly for large industrial operations where most beef is grown, that criticism is completely fair. Truly, the only way to produce beef in a sustainable fashion is on a small, closed-system farm like ours, with a stocking rate low enough to prevent stress on the land and water resources that we all rely upon. 

Ethically-raised. We raise our cattle to the highest standard of animal husbandry and humane care. We keep calves with their mothers until they wean naturally, not before. Our animals free-range across open pasture, not cramped feedlots.

Climate resilient. At Fox Gap, we spend a great deal of time working to improve the resilience of our own pastures, as well as the resilience of our local community to climate-driven impacts. For example, we're working to develop baseline carbon assessments for our soils, grasslands, forestlands, and farming operations. We are using our cattle to help increase carbon capture and storage by grazing rotationally to increase soil heath and our pastures' resilience to climate-driven drought by raising the moisture content and water infiltration capacity of our fields. We are also pursuing forest and stream restoration actions to improve forest composition for wildlife habitat, and the climate resilience of both our farm and the local Catoctin Creek watershed. These actions help to buffer against future projected impacts of acute climate-driven events in our region such as extreme precipitation and flooding, as well as longer-term chronic impacts of more episodic precipitation, heat, and drought.