I monitor Google alerts for grass fed since I'm in the biz. Most of what is written is naive nonsense by journalists, eco-wackos and consumers. I'm more interested in the volume than the content since it's a sort of indicator about the buzz level, but sometimes something interesting is written.

I asked Wegman's about their choice of suppliers. Here is their response, supposedly from one of their buyers:

"There is really no such thing as grass fed meat in America. This is because there is no source for fresh grass in the winter. U.S. grass fed claims are false in that dried hay or dried grass is fed or worse they are left to forage through the snow for what little brush they can find. Bison are not put on feedlots they are given a ration that consists of 60% grain (corn, oats, milo, barley and wheat are all used depending on what is available to the particular ranch) and 40% grass only in the final 110 days or so of their 800-900 day lives. They do this to improve the eating quality of the meat and to give the consumer a consistent, high quality product year round. They do not get the levels of grain fed to beef and so do not get as fat. The animals spend far more of their lives "out" than "in". There is a huge difference between the nutrients in fresh grass and dried grass. Imagine if you went to a restaurant for a salad and they gave you dried lettuce. For truly grass fed beef that is leaner than bison and processed in state of the art facilities, we offer Organic grass fed Angus / Herford beef from Uruguay. We went 7,000 miles south to find a place that had fresh grass all year to substantiate our grass fed claim. The USDA allows hay fed animals to be called grass fed but this was in my opinion not correct to do."

Well, yes there is grass fed meat in America. There are places that can graze 12 months of the year. I do. And hay is not the only option for stored forage. Sophisticated graziers make and feed direct cut grass silage. That means that the grass is harvested at the same level of maturity as it would normally be grazed by equipment that cuts it clean without mangling it and letting the juices bleed out. It never touches the ground. It's blown into a wagon alongside the swather. When full the wagon is hauled to a "silage clamp" and dumped.

A silage clamp isn't the usual kind of silage system that squashes the air out of the forage since this would mangle the grass and burst its cells. Instead, the silage is covered top and bottom with an airtight material - typically plastic sheeting. Perforated pipe was laid on the bottom sheet before the grass was dumped and left sticking out a bit. When the edges of the top and bottom sheet are sealed to one another, usually by piling some dirt on them, an air tight chamber is created. Then a small vacuum pump is attached to the end of the perforated pipe and all of the air is sucked out. In this way the air free environment needed for vegetation to ensile is created without mashing the forage and so losing many of its nutrients as effluent, and without wilting the material first. No dried lettuce.

All during the grazing season pastures can be well managed. Any paddock that seems like it will get too tall and rank before it can be grazed back can be cut for silage instead. By the time the grazing season is over there may be several silage clamps since you can't reopen a silage clamp to add more material, you just make another one.

Such silage is almost as good as fresh grass. Animals fed such stored forage are truly grass fed and healthy. You don't have to go 7,000 miles to get grass fed beef.