When you think of beef, you likely think of steak or hamburgers. Maybe you think of your favorite beef recipe to cook, or a great meal with beef you had recently. Over 60 percent of the total weight of beef cattle can be used for meat products we can eat, like roasts and sirloins. However, 99 percent of the animal’s weight is used for beef and beef byproducts. By efficiently using as much of the animal as we can, we’re helping to save the environment by not being wasteful with our resources. To learn more about our operations here at Dark Hammock, we invite you to visit our ranch for an agritour.
Leather Products
This category might be the most obvious out of beef byproducts, but it is expansive and might surprise you. Leather comes from the cowhide, and it’s used to make a variety of sports equipment, like basketballs, baseballs, volleyballs, footballs, soccer balls, and baseball gloves. Let’s not forget the many other uses for leather, like office chairs, luxury purses, and watch straps. Rawhide bones that we give to our pet dogs come from the inside of cowhide too.
Kitchen Products
Does your dish soap have an additive that helps keep your hands soft? That additive might come from beef fat. Gelatin, which comes from the connective tissues in cows, is used to make marshmallows, Jell-O, and fruit snacks. Gelatin is also present in nail polish remover and the coating on a roll of film.
Household Products
Stearic acid is a fatty acid that comes from cattle, and it’s used in making everything from drywall, to tires, to toiletries like soap, lotions and makeup. The sticky part of a bandage also comes from animal fatty acids. Enzymes from cows are used for laundry stain treatments, and a variety of first aid creams contain animal byproducts.
Beef is versatile, and so are beef byproducts. Dark Hammock Legacy Ranch looks forward to continuing our partnerships with our community to provide them quality beef products, all processed through Chop-N-Shop.
