FAQs

Five J’s Farm is located in the northwestern part of Johnston County, the largest county in  North Carolina. Our farm is located approximately 5 miles outside of the Clayton city limits in  the “Cleveland School” community. 

You can buy meat directly from us at our online market.

Katahdin and Suffolk Sheep 

Berkshire, Hereford and Chester White Pigs 

Hereford and Santa Gertrudis Cattle

No. The meat we sell at Five J’s is always 100% antibiotic-free. We only administer antibiotics to animals on the farm if they are needed for life-saving situations or illness. If an animal needs  medical intervention that involves antibiotics, they are immediately “tagged” and pulled from our meat program. Despite the fact that animals given antibiotics in their lifetime are perfectly safe to eat after the standard withdrawal period, we choose to have a clear distinction for our customers on this matter that all meat sold from Five J’s Farm is 100% free of antibiotics. 

Grass-Fed or Grain-Fed? It is one of the most popular topics discussed when speaking about beef production and we often see that a person’s alliance to one versus the other is already firmly established when the discussion begins. However, since all cattle spend a large part of their life foraging for grass, the more accurate question for discussion would be Grass-Finished or Grain-Finished?  

Grass-Finished beef has always been presumed healthier than its counterpart because it alludes to an idea that cattle has been raised solely on grass, never receiving supplemental grains or feed. Grain-Finished beef is considered less healthy because many assume the grains being offered to the animal are not only unhealthy but that they are often unknown and therefore unable to be managed and monitored with the transparency needed to allow consumers the ability to fully know the key components of the product they are purchasing.  When deciding what type of beef to eat, one must also remember, not all grass is the same and not all grain is bad. 

Five J’s operates on a grain-finished system because of the product quality grain-finished cattle yield. Grain-finished beef is known for it’s tenderness and exceptional marbling, two of the most important factors in determining the overall flavor and taste of the beef produced. We also prefer the milder steak flavor grain-finished cattle produce as opposed to the gamier taste and overall toughness grass-finished beef is known to render.  

It is important to understand that beef can be labeled and sold as “Grass-Fed” while the animals are actually force-fed grass pellets, in confined spaces that adhere to commercial feedlot standards. Industrial beef companies succeed by growing and producing the biggest cattle in the shortest amount of time. They don’t want consumers to know their production practices or that the USDA prime-cuts they are buying from grocery stores or large meat distributors often come from high production, low-cost feedlots or foreign beef sources.  It is also very important to understand that our feedlot is not the same type of feedlot used by many other farms and commercial beef producers. Our finishing lot, as we prefer to call it, is an open pasture where cattle can freely graze while also eating a specific diet used to “finish”  them before slaughter. Standards for commercial feedlots allow producers to run 100 head of cattle on approximately one acre of land. Five J’s finishing lot runs only 3-4 head of cattle on one acre of land. This is a high standard we set from the beginning of our operation that we will not waiver from. Animals are God’s creation and as the caretakers for God’s creation,  stewardship over the livestock we are entrusted to raise is very important to us. Our family strives to be the stewards of the land and animals we tend that God calls us to be. We believe good stewardship doesn’t end when an animal is removed from the herd and prepared for harvest. These beliefs are the foundation our farm is built upon and they will never change.  

We live in an age where the products we eat can be labeled and marketed at standards that consumers don’t realize are subpar and misleading. This reality makes knowing where your food is being grown and produced the key component in obtaining healthy food for you and your family. Pasture-raised, grain-finished beef produced by effectively run, carefully-managed farms can actually be as healthy or healthier than its grass-finished counterpart while providing the unmatched flavor and tenderness it is known for. The “effectively-run, carefully managed farm” is the key. Five J’s prides itself on being an effectively-run, well-managed farm that is able to consistently produce delicious, healthy, sustainable products for our customers and our community.  

An “effectively run, well-managed” farm is responsible for maintaining a high standard of care for every animal, every day of their life. Five J’s upholds those high standards for every animal through a well-organized operation that carefully oversees each animal from birth until harvest.  

Calves born on our farm spend the first 7-8 months of their life by their mother’s side. They nurse freely while also grazing pastures alongside her, giving them a diet consisting solely of their mother’s nutritious milk and grass. Calves are then weaned from their mothers and free to graze with the herd. The gestational period for cows is 283 days, approximately 9.5 months.  We breed our cows once a year and by weaning calves at 7-8 months of age, our cows are able to take a break from mothering 2-3 months a year.  

We breed our cattle on a consistent schedule, leaving us with busy “calving seasons” the same time every year. We plan our calving seasons carefully so that when calves are weaned, they are able to spend months grazing lush green pastures without a need to supplement them with any alternative feeding options. We sow every pasture to produce winter rye in the colder months. When the grass begins to die, our cattle continue to graze and eat any available winter grass while also having a free choice of hay that we provide to them daily.  

During the last 110 days before slaughter, cattle used in our beef program are separated from the herd and placed in our finishing pasture. There, our cattle begin a diet consisting of 60%  hay, 25% alfalfa, and 15% high fiber grains. The 15% feed mixture is a custom blend of grains and minerals that we spent many years researching, testing and perfecting until we created the precise combination needed to create the distinct taste, texture and quality that our family and our customers love. We have been using this precise diet to finish our cattle for years and credit it for distinguishing our beef from the competition and for consistently producing the marbling, tenderness and flavor that our family loves and we hope you will also.  

Our pigs are fed a carefully blended mixture of protein and minerals based on their age and stage of life. Our gestating mothers get one mixture, nursing mothers get another, weaned  piglets another and feeder pigs their own.  

Yes, our lambs and sheep eat only our pasture grasses and alfalfa. 

Yes, all of the livestock feed we use is 100% GMO-free. 

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Every animal is different but we strive for a fat ratio between 85/15 and 90/10 for our ground  beef. 

You can see a list of the cuts we sell and our current prices here. 

Yes. You can purchase a whole, half or quarter cow directly from Five J’s Market. You can find a detailed explanation of how to order, selecting cuts, pricing and the freezer space you will  need here.

Yes. All of our pasture raised meats are 100% free of any kind of growth hormones or any other  hormones. 

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