Legacy Pastured Beef is a partnership between two families who are passionate about local farming, healthy food and creating a family farming legacy for their children. Our farmers are Bryan Strzelec & Mary Snyder and Julianne & Ethan Hansen.

Farmers Bryan and Mary along with Bryan’s two daughters own and operate Erba Verde Farms in East Aurora NY. Erba Verde focuses on grass-fed dairy, pasture raised chicken and pasture raised pork. Bryan has decades of experience in the dairy, meat and restaurant industries across the country.

Ethan & Julianne Hansen live in Elma NY with their two young sons. Ethan has worked with Bryan & Mary at Erba Verde Farms for several years and is a local high school physics and agriculture teacher. Ethan & Julianne are passionate about sustainably raised, healthy meat.

Legacy Pastured Beef combines all the passions and skill sets of our families into one farm.

In late 2022, we were approached by a pair of local farmers looking to sell their established grass-fed beef herd. When we visited their herd we were impressed with the animals’ calm demeanor and amazing condition. We couldn’t pass up the chance to acquire their herd and continue the work they were doing raising healthy meat for local families.

In the spring of 2023 we officially completed the acquisition of the herd and are continuing to raise them naturally on the same 80 acres of pasture in Niagara County that the herd has been on for several years. While Legacy Pastured Beef is relatively new, our herd has been together for almost a decade and we are excited to continue these animals’ legacy of providing the healthiest meat possible to Western New Yorkers.

We apply the concept of “you are what you eat” to ourselves as well as our animals. We give our animals access only to a natural diet of grasses, legumes, herbs and supplemental minerals as well as high quality grass hay in the winter. Eating grass might sound bland to you but our animals act like this stuff is a field full of ice cream! This is the diet they were designed for and evolved to eat. This diet along with daily rotation through pasture means they repay us and our customers with healthy, nutrient dense meat that doesn’t contain pesticides or other medications.

Our cattle move daily to fresh sections of pasture. This prevents the pasture from being over-grazed and trampled which would stunt its growth. Rotational grazing also allows for a rest period for the grass to recover for our next rotation. This rotational grazing system mimics the natural movement of ruminant herds of bison across the vast grasslands of America prior to settlement and creates the conditions for amazing improvements in soil health and biodiversity. Moving animals daily also prevents them from living in unsanitary conditions that occur in the conventional beef industry feed lots. When you eat Legacy Pastured Beef you can be assured that your beef comes from an animal that lived a happy, healthy life eating a natural diet.

Our herd is a mix of Black Angus, Red Angus, Red Poll, South Poll and even a few White Park cattle. As we move forward we hope to integrate more Red Devon genetics into our herd as this breed excels on a grass-only diet. Every animal from our herd that goes to harvest has been born and raised in this herd and on the same beautiful land in Niagara County.

We believe in the natural cycle of life and death and that our animals have a very noble purpose for their lives – to provide the most healthy and nutrient dense food available anywhere in the world. We believe animal agriculture is an essential component of a sustainable environmental future for our children and we are proud to take part in the cycle of life and death. We won’t shy away from showing you cute photos of calves – we embrace the beauty of new life while appreciating that our animals will live a happy healthy life on pasture until they are ready to nourish you and your family.

To understand the terms grass-fed and grass-finished it’s important to discuss the way that “conventional” grain-fed beef is raised:

All beef is “grass-fed” for some portion of its life. The mother cows are fed grass before and after calving. The calves are raised on their mother’s milk and slowly transition to eating grass or other crop residues like corn stalks. The major difference between conventional beef and grass-fed/grass-finished beef is the last few months of an animal’s life. Conventional beef is finished on high calorie grains like corn and soy to rapidly add weight and fat to the animal. This allows a grain-finished animal to reach market weight in less than two years. To “finish” an animal on grass takes longer and requires careful management to develop the preferred fat profile in the meat.

At Legacy Pastured Beef, our cattle are grass-fed throughout their life and continue to be grass-finished until harvest. The process takes about 2 and a half years but we believe it is better for the animal, the environment and healthier for our customers who eat the meat. It is possible for farms to mislead customers by stating that beef is “grass-fed” but leaving out the fact that the animal was finished on grain. When we say “grass-fed” we always mean “grass-fed” AND “grass-finished”.