Achieving that mouth-watering premium reserve beef product starts on the farm. Silver Fern Farms is a company of proud, passionate farmers and marketers, dedicated to doing the right thing – collaborating, innovating and sharing that with the world. They are all about creating goodness from the farms the world needs, a philosophy that’s deeply embedded into Patoka Station in the Hawke’s Bay.
On Patoka Station, in the foothills behind Napier, Ben and Suzie Crosse’s ethos of animal first is paying dividends; their beef consistently meets the standards of the Silver Fern Farms’ Eating Quality System®. The practices the couple and their staff employ on the land sees them get a high pass rate for their stock. “It’s not just good for the animals,” Ben says. “I’m also getting the benefits because it produces such a fantastic product.”
Ben makes sure his animals are regularly moved on to new pastures, so they have access to high-quality feed year round. “If they have got a bit of condition on their backs they can withstand the vagaries of the seasons.” He makes sure every move is a conscious one. “I try and handle them consistently – I give them the same commands when I am moving them, it is all about trying to keep them calm.
I suspect they don’t understand what you are saying but they can understand authority or a calming presence. You take them into the yards and everything is nice, quiet and settled. I farm animals in a low-stress environment and I think that is reflected in their quiet nature and that shows in the Eating Quality System.”
Thanks to farmers like Ben and Suzie Crosse, Silver Fern Farms Reserve Beef is a consistently beautiful product with fantastic eating quality; grass-fed and finished, free from hormones and certified halal.
A CUT ABOVE THE REST Silver Fern Farms’ reserve beef range
When it comes to premium meat, Silver Fern Farms’ Grass-Fed Reserve Beef delivers the ultimate eating experience. Backed by the company’s rigorous Eating Quality System®, Reserve beef is the result of rigorous grading with only four in one hundred carcasses making the cut, meaning it’s Silver Fern Farm’s rarest selection yet.
The Eating Quality System® stands behind Silver Fern Farms’ Master Grader’s promise of beef that consistently meets the highest standards of taste, tenderness and juiciness. Each Master Grader must first gain accreditation through a programme restricted to only a select few and once qualified, they are retested every eight weeks.
So how is each carcass assessed and how do these Master Graders ensure customers get the very finest beef, every single time? In addition to standard measures, such as carcase weight, a set of six specific criteria are considered in the grading process – all backed by science. Each carcass is measured for an ideal pH level (making sure animals undergo minimal stress and ensuring they have enough energy reserves through adequate finishing assists in achieving this). They are also assessed for marbling (to maximise marbling, cattle must be on a high-quality diet), ossification (effectively a “weight for age” measure) as well as rib fat and meat and fat colour.
Together, these criteria show the animal’s quality of life, the condition of the muscles and the level of beneficial marbling that creates consistently excellent beef. But that’s not all – to ensure the highest possible consistent quality, all animals must be assessed on the same part of the carcass, and all criteria must be assessed within a specified time. A special torch is used to maintain light consistency and that torch must always be held in the left hand, positioned at the correct angle. It’s a tightly managed selection process that ensures customers are supplied with the finest beef, every single time.
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