Who Are the 2 Coots and What Are We Doing Here?

Why air chilled chicken is superior to 97% of the other chicken that's dunked.

Most of the chicken you've eaten in your life took a bath after it died. A big communal one. Here's how it works: after processing, the vast majority of commercial chickens (about 97% of what's sold in the United States) get dropped into large vats of chlorinated ice water to bring their temperature down quickly. It's efficient. It's cheap. And it means your chicken spent time soaking in a cold tub with hundreds of other birds and whatever they brought to the party. That's the standard. That's what's on the shelf at basically every grocery store in America. There's a better way, and it's what we do with our pastured chicken. First, what actually happens during chilling After any chicken is processed, USDA regulations require the internal temperature to drop to 40°F or below within a set window of time. It's a food safety requirement, and a reasonable one. The question is how you get there. Water chilling solves the problem fast and cheap. Drop the birds in cold, chlorinated water, cycle them through, pull them out. Done. The chlorine is there to manage bacterial load (because when you're dunking hundreds of carcasses into shared water, bacteria from one bird can spread to all of them). The antimicrobials are doing cleanup duty on a problem created by the method itself. The downside: chicken is porous. It absorbs what it's sitting in. Studies show water-chilled birds can absorb anywhere from 2 to 8% (sometimes more) of their body weight in that water. Which means when you pick up a package at the grocery store, a meaningful percentage of what you're paying for is bath water. It also shows up in the package (that pink-red liquid pooling in the bottom of the tray isn't just chicken juice, it's also the bath). Air chilling takes longer and costs more. Each bird is hung individually and moved through a series of cold air chambers over the course of a few hours until it reaches safe temperature. No water contact. No shared vat. No antimicrobials needed because there's no communal bath creating the cross-contamination risk in the first place. Nothing gets absorbed. Nothing gets added. The bird comes out of processing weighing what it actually weighs. Why it cooks better This is the part that should matter to anyone who's ever wondered why their chicken skin came out pale and rubbery instead of the golden, crispy situation they were picturing. Water is the enemy of browning. The Maillard reaction (the chemical process that creates a proper sear, a crispy skin, real flavor development) requires surface heat. If the surface is wet, the moisture has to cook off before browning can even start. By the time that happens, the interior is often already overcooked, the skin is steamed instead of crisped, and everything looks a little sad. Our air-chilled chicken comes out of processing with a drier surface. Put it in a hot pan or a hot oven and it browns faster, more evenly, and with more flavor. Skin gets genuinely crispy. Not "pretty good for chicken skin" crispy, but actually crispy. It also absorbs marinades and dry rubs better because there's no water barrier sitting on the surface preventing contact. It cooks a little faster too, since you're not burning time and energy cooking off absorbed moisture. Why it's cleaner The chlorine in a water-chill tank isn't there by accident. It's doing active work managing bacteria in shared water. That's the honest reason it's in there. The birds are cross-contaminating each other in the vat, and the chlorine is the solution to a problem the process created. Some processors have moved away from chlorine toward alternatives: peracetic acid (a vinegar and hydrogen peroxide compound), lactic acid rinses, or cetylpyridinium chloride, which is also in your mouthwash. Some market these as more natural or consumer-friendly options. Apple cider vinegar rinses show up occasionally from processors trying to make the intervention sound wholesome. They're all solving the same problem. The problem exists because of the method. Air chilling removes the problem at the source. Each bird stays separate through the entire chill process. There's no shared water, no bacterial mixing, no antimicrobials needed to manage what the method introduces. Research has found air-chilled chicken carries significantly less bacterial load than its water-chilled counterpart (one University of Nebraska study put the difference at 80%). Our pasture raised chicken isn't treated with chlorine, peracetic acid, lactic acid, or apple cider vinegar. Nothing but cold air touches it after processing. Why you're actually paying less (in a way that matters) Chicken is sold by weight. The water that water-chilled chicken absorbed is part of that weight. So when you're comparing prices at the meat counter, the water-chilled bird has a built-in padding on that number that air-chilled doesn't. Beyond the pricing math, there's the cooking yield. That absorbed water cooks off. You're not eating it, you're evaporating it... and then paying to heat your oven or pan long enough to do so. Air-chilled chicken loses less weight during cooking because there's no added water to cook off. What you buy is closer to what actually ends up on the plate. Why 97% of chicken is still water-chilled Simple: it's faster and it's cheaper to operate at scale. The equipment costs less. The throughput is higher. When you're processing millions of birds, speed and volume run the math. Air chilling requires more space, more time, and more upfront investment in equipment. Smaller processors can make it work. The massive industrial operations optimized for volume and margin generally haven't made the switch... though that's starting to change as water costs rise and consumers start asking more questions. Europe figured this out a while back. Air chilling has been the standard there since the 1960s. The EU eventually banned water immersion chilling altogether because of bacterial concerns. The US is, characteristically, a couple decades behind on this one. The bottom line Air chilling is better because nothing gets added and nothing gets in the way. Better flavor, better browning, cleaner process, no hidden water weight. The only thing you're paying for is chicken. That's a straightforward reason to do it, which is why we do with our pastured chicken.

Cows and vaccines. Here's what we do with a common sense approach.

Cows and vaccines isn't exactly dinner table conversation. But it's a question we get, so let's talk about it plainly. A Quick History of Vaccinating Cattle Vaccinating livestock isn't new. Louis Pasteur developed a vaccine for cattle and sheep anthrax back in 1881, and not long after that, the Pasteur Institute introduced blackleg vaccination kits around 1895. At the time, blackleg was causing heavy losses to cattle herds across the western United States. That kit was about as low-tech as it gets: a mortar and pestle, a glass funnel with linen filters, and packets of vaccine that had to be ground up and mixed with water before injecting. The point is, the blackleg vaccine isn't some new development. It's one of the oldest tools in the cattle world, and it's been doing the same job for well over a century. What's changed is everything around it. As cattle operations got bigger and more animals started moving through fewer facilities, the list of vaccines needed to keep a herd healthy got longer too. What Conventional Cattle Are Usually Given A typical calf in the conventional system gets anywhere from 3 to 8+ separate vaccinations, depending on the operation. Nearly all cattle entering feedlots get vaccinated for BVD and IBR (two of the major viral causes of respiratory disease) and about 95% of cattle receive these. Often that respiratory shot is a combo vaccine covering four viruses at once: IBR, BVD, PI3, and BRSV. Then there's the clostridial vaccine, usually a "7-way" or "8-way," which in a single shot covers blackleg along with several other clostridial diseases (black disease, malignant edema, gas gangrene, and a few types of enterotoxemia). Only about a quarter of cattle entering feedlots get vaccinated for the bacterial causes of respiratory disease specifically, like Mannheimia or Pasteurella, so that's often a third shot for calves considered higher-risk. Add it up, and a calf can be vaccinated against 10+ different viruses and bacteria before it ever sets foot on a feedlot. And it often this happens more than once, with another round of shots given again at branding, at weaning, and again on arrival. On top of the vaccines, antibiotics often get added to feed or water, mainly to prevent the kinds of problems that come up when a lot of animals are kept close together. None of this is a knock on other farmers. It's just what it takes to manage cattle packed together, eating a diet they didn't evolve to eat, dealing with the stress of transport and crowding. Some research even suggests that cattle who get more rounds of vaccination before reaching the feedlot end up with worse health outcomes... which says less about the vaccines themselves and more about how stressful that whole system is on an animal's body. What We Do at 2 Coots One vaccine. Blackleg. That's it. Here's why we still give that one. Blackleg is caused by a bacteria that lives in the soil and can survive there for years. If cattle have ever grazed land, the spores are probably already there. It's not contagious, but it's almost always fatal, and animals are often just found dead with no warning. There's no real treatment once it sets in. So this isn't a "just in case" vaccine. It's protecting against something that's already in the ground, that can take a healthy animal down fast, and that you can't treat after the fact. That's common sense to us. Skip it, and you're gambling on an animal's life over something cheap and easy to prevent. For what it's worth, it's also about as old-school as vaccines get. It's not mRNA, not new technology, not anything experimental. It's a toxoid vaccine, a type that's been used in cattle for decades with barely any change in how it's made. The vet equivalent of a tetanus shot. Same basic idea Pasteur was working with over a hundred years ago, just refined. Why People Care About This Stuff in the First Place We get why this matters to people. When animals are raised in crowded, high-stress conditions, they need a longer list of vaccines and routine antibiotics just to stay healthy enough to make it to market. Some of that ends up being a question people have about what's in their food, and a lot of it is really a question about the system the animal came from. We're not here to tell you what to think about any of that. But we can tell you what we do, because it's simple: one vaccine, no antibiotics, and a way of raising cattle that doesn't require either one. Why That's the Only One We Need Our cattle live outside, on grass, in small herds, the way cattle have lived for most of history. They're not packed into pens. They're not eating a diet that messes with their gut. They're not getting shipped across the country and mixed in with cattle from a dozen other farms. Take away the crowding, the stress, and the unnatural diet, and you take away most of the reasons disease spreads in the first place. Cattle raised outdoors and in less intensive conditions tend to need far fewer antibiotics than animals raised in confinement, and that tracks with what we see on our own ranch. We don't reach for antibiotics because we don't need to. It's kind of wild how much changes when you just... let cows be cows. It's just common sense. ----- Sources Revisiting Blackleg: Frequently Asked Questions about the Disease and Its Prevention with Vaccine in Cattle — Ohio State University Beef Cattle LetterBlackleg: A Preventable Disease of Cattle — West Virginia University Extension Veterinary Vaccines and Serums — Smithsonian InstitutionFeedlot Vaccination: Does It Really Matter? — PubMedAPHIS Feedlot 2011 Report (Part IV) — USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection ServiceGlenn's Response to the mRNA Vaccine — Organic Beef Matters

Why Soil Quality Matters When It Comes to Healthy Animals and Food

When Phil and Kim bought their 1,000-acre ranch in Tennessee, the land had been farmed conventionally for years. Row after row of soybeans. The soil was tired, compacted, and stripped of life. They knew they wanted to do things differently. Raise animals on pasture the way it's supposed to be done. Build soil instead of destroying it. It just made sense. Since 2023, they've been transforming those soybean fields into regenerative, biodiverse pastures. They built infrastructure (a house, ranch store, three solar-powered wells, irrigation lines). They installed almost 10 miles of fencing for rotational grazing. They cleared thousands of pounds of invasive weeds. They brought in cattle and chickens and started the work of rebuilding the soil. The soil is coming back to life. And that matters more than most people realize. The Conventional Farming Problem Conventional farming treats soil like dirt. Just a medium to hold plants upright while you dump chemicals on them. Heavy machinery compacts it. Synthetic fertilizers kill the beneficial bacteria and fungi. Monocultures strip the same nutrients year after year. No organic matter goes back in. The result? Soil that's basically dead. How Regenerative Farming Rebuilds It Regenerative farming does the opposite. Animals graze and move on. Their manure feeds the soil. Deep-rooted diverse pastures (grasses, legumes, forbs) support a thriving ecosystem of microorganisms. Birds and mammals make homes there. The more biodiversity, the healthier the soil. The cycle builds on itself instead of breaking down. That's the foundation. Now here's why it matters for the food you eat. See It For Yourself Want to see what our cattle are actually eating? Phil took a quick walk through the pastures in April to show what rotational grazing looks like in action: how the cows move to fresh grass, how the pasture recovers, and how it all keeps regrowing. The Soil-Plant-Animal-Human Chain There's a direct line from soil quality to the nutrition in your food. It's not theory. It's biochemistry. Step 1: Healthy Soil Grows Nutrient-Dense Plants Soil isn't just dirt. It's a living ecosystem. When soil is rich in organic matter and teeming with beneficial microorganisms, plants can access a full spectrum of minerals and nutrients. Recent research from Southern US grass-fed beef systems found that pastureland soils had 1.4 times higher organic matter and 1.7 to 3.0 times higher levels of key minerals (potassium, phosphorus, calcium) compared to conventional feed croplands. That's not a small difference. Plants growing in this kind of soil don't just grow bigger. They grow better. They produce higher levels of phytonutrients (beneficial plant compounds like polyphenols, carotenoids, and antioxidants) because they have access to the raw materials they need. In the same study, forage consumed by grass-fed cattle had 118 times higher phytochemical content than the total mixed ration (grain-based feed) given to feedlot cattle. Let that sink in. The plants growing in healthy, regenerative soil are nutritionally incomparable to plants grown in depleted, chemical-dependent systems. Step 2: Nutrient-Dense Plants Create Healthier Animals When cattle and chickens eat plants grown in healthy soil, they're not just filling their stomachs. They're taking in a complex array of nutrients that conventional feed can't provide. Species-Appropriate Diets Matter Cattle are ruminants. They're designed to eat grass. Their digestive systems evolved to break down fibrous plants, not process grain for months on end (and especially not their entire lives). When cattle eat what they're supposed to eat (grass from biodiverse pastures), their bodies thrive. Now, cattle love grain. It's like candy to them. And just like humans, too many treats can lead to problems. That's why care and moderation matter. At 2 Coots, cattle spend their entire lives on pasture. Some get grain in the final month before harvest, but it's carefully managed to keep them healthy while giving them that rich marbling people love in their steaks. Chickens are omnivores. They ideally need more than just grain. Fresh grass, bugs, seeds, plants. When chickens can scratch in the dirt and forage for insects, they're getting the diverse proteins and nutrients their bodies are designed for. Living Like Animals Should There's another factor here that matters: lifestyle. Animals living outside in fresh air and sunshine, moving around freely, are healthier. Exercise, natural behavior, access to pasture... these things affect animal health in measurable ways. Stress levels are lower. Immune function is better. Healthier animals produce better meat. At 2 Coots, cattle spend their entire lives on pasture eating grass. In the last month or so before harvest, some stay on pasture (grass-finished) and some get non-GMO grain finishing (corn and other grains, no soy). Either way, those cattle spent 18-24 months building their nutritional foundation on healthy pasture. That matters. Cattle grazing biodiverse pastures consume different grasses, legumes, and forbs. Each plant brings different minerals, vitamins, and phytonutrients to the table. The animals' bodies absorb these compounds, and their health reflects it. Research shows that grass-fed cattle have measurably different metabolic health markers than grain-fed cattle. Their bodies aren't fighting nutritional deficiencies. They're not living on synthetic supplements. They're thriving on what nature designed them to eat. And here's the kicker: those phytonutrients from the plants don't just stay in the plants. They accumulate in the animals' muscle tissue and fat. When you eat meat from these animals, you're getting those compounds too. Step 3: Healthier Animals Produce More Nutritious Meat This is where it gets really interesting. Grass-fed beef from animals raised on healthy, biodiverse pastures is nutritionally superior to grain-fed beef in ways most people don't realize. Higher Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Grass-fed beef has a better omega-6 to omega-3 ratio (around 3:1 or better) compared to grain-fed beef (which can be as high as 35:1 to 55:1). Omega-3s reduce inflammation, support heart health, and promote brain function. The imbalanced ratio in grain-fed beef contributes to chronic inflammation. More Vitamins: Grass-fed beef contains 2.9 times more vitamin A and 4.2 times more vitamin E than grain-fed beef. Vitamin A (from beta-carotene in grass) supports vision, immune function, and skin health. Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant that protects cells from damage. Higher Phytonutrient Content: Here's where it gets wild. Grass-fed beef contains 3.1 times higher levels of phytochemical antioxidants than grain-fed beef. These are plant compounds (polyphenols, terpenoids, carotenoids) that you'd normally associate with fruits and vegetables. But when cattle eat diverse pastures, these compounds concentrate in their meat. Specific phytonutrients found at higher levels in grass-fed beef include: Hippurate (2x higher): linked to improved gut microbial diversity and lower risk of metabolic syndrome in humans Cinnamic acid (1.4x higher): anti-inflammatory, linked to reduced risk of Parkinson's disease and certain cancers N-methylpipecolate (5x higher): reduces oxidative stress, has anti-tumor activity Stachydrine (from alfalfa in pastures): beneficial for metabolic health These aren't trivial differences. These are compounds with measurable anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and disease-prevention properties. Better Mineral Content: The minerals in the soil transfer to the plants, then to the animals, then to you. Grass-fed beef from nutrient-rich pastures has higher levels of iron, zinc, and other trace minerals compared to beef from animals raised on depleted soils and grain-based diets. Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA): Grass-fed beef is significantly higher in CLA, a fatty acid associated with anti-cancer properties and improved metabolic health. What About Grain-Finished Beef? At 2 Coots, even the grain-finished cattle spent their entire lives (18-24 months) on pasture eating grass from healthy soil before getting grain in the final month. That's fundamentally different from conventional feedlot beef where cattle are grain-fed for 6+ months (or their entire lives). The nutritional foundation was built on pasture. Grain-finished beef from 2 Coots still benefits from all those months of nutrient-dense forage, though the final month does moderate some of the nutritional advantages (slightly lower omega-3s and fewer phytonutrients compared to 100% grass-finished). It's still far superior to conventional grain-fed beef in terms of nutrient density and beneficial compounds. The takeaway? The quality of the soil directly determines the nutritional quality of the meat. It's a cascading effect that starts underground and ends on your plate. What This Means for You So why does any of this matter when you're deciding what to buy for dinner? The Taste Difference Is Real Meat from animals raised on healthy pastures tastes different. Richer flavor. Better texture. The yellow fat you see in grass-fed beef? That's beta-carotene from real grass. You won't see that in feedlot beef because those animals didn't eat grass long enough for it to show up. The phytonutrients also contribute to flavor. Grass-fed meat has depth and complexity that grain-fed meat lacks. The Nutrition Difference Is Real You're not just eating protein and fat. You're eating all those phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, and beneficial fatty acids that come from healthy soil and healthy plants. Higher omega-3s. More vitamin A and E. Polyphenols with anti-inflammatory properties. CLA. Compounds linked to better gut health, reduced inflammation, and lower risk of chronic disease. Your body knows the difference even if you can't taste it. You Can Feel Good About It When you buy meat from 2 Coots Ranch, you're supporting farming that builds soil instead of destroying it. You're not contributing to the system that's stripping the land. You're part of the solution. Animals raised the way they're supposed to be raised. Regenerative practices that support biodiversity and ecosystem health. Soil that's better off because of farming, not worse. That's common sense farming. And it starts with the soil.

Who Are the 2 Coots and What Are We Doing Here?

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Why air chilled chicken is superior to 97% of the other chicken that's dunked.

Cows and vaccines. Here's what we do with a common sense approach.

Why Soil Quality Matters When It Comes to Healthy Animals and Food

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