A Great Meal Starts With a Great Source
At Gibson’s Custom Meats right here in Lacey, Washington, we believe you have the right to know exactly what you are buying and feeding your family. We are proud of the relationships we have built with our suppliers to ensure we always stock high-quality, flavorful, and consistent products. Transparency is our top priority. Here is a straightforward look at how and where we source our beef, pork, and chicken.
📚 Educational Resources For Consumers
There is so much misinformation out there! We want our customers to make fully informed decisions without being misled by clever marketing claims and terms such as "Free-Range," "Natural," "Basted," and other animal raising claims .
For official federal standards and definitions regarding terms consult the official federal guide:
[USDA FSIS Meat and Poultry Labeling Terms]
You will be surprised at the definitions despite what marketing terms and misnomers you have heard in the meat retail environment that grocery stores push!
🥩 Our Beef
Our daily fresh-case beef sourcing philosophy is simple: we partner with top-tier programs to guarantee consistent marbling, rich grain-finished flavor, and reliable quality. We carry grass-fed grain-finished beef. Grain-finished beef has more marble, flavor, and tenderness then grass-finished beef.
Many of our customers prefer grain-finished beef, but we are happy to source grass-finished if you prefer. Come on in and talk to us about it and we can see what options are available we can source for you in bulk quantitiy!
Pacific Northwest Roots (90%): We source the vast majority of our beef locally to support regional agriculture and deliver unmatched Northwest quality.
Midwest Grain-Finished (10%): To maintain peak consistency and provide some of the finest marbled beef programs in the country, we source select cuts from premium Midwest producers.
Primary Daily Beef Partners:
Agri Beef: A premier Northwest network featuring Snake River Farms, Double R Ranch, and St. Helens Beef. (Agri Beef)
Swift® Black Angus: Known for consistent marbling and exceptional quality, sourcing from regional cattle ranches. (Swift Black Angus)
IBP Trusted Excellence: We source specific cuts from this program, which purchases cattle directly from Pacific Northwest family farms. (IBP Trusted Excellence)
Regional Processors: We work hands-on with trusted regional facilities like Rainer Pure Meats in Woodland, WA, and Ray's Wholesale Meats in Canby, OR.
Our Policy on Hormones & Antibiotics in Daily Retail Beef: Because our daily retail beef is conventionally raised, United States ranchers utilize standard, USDA-approved growth protocols (implants/hormones) and administer antibiotics when an animal gets sick to ensure proper animal welfare, husbandry, and veterinary care.
However, the USDA strictly enforces a mandatory withdrawal period for all medications. This requires the animal to completely clear any medication from its system long before harvest. While our daily retail beef is not labeled with "raised without antibiotics" marketing claims, all meat is tested and 100% free of active antibiotic residues prior to entering the food supply.
To read more directly from our primary ranch partners on their animal welfare and medical protocols:
A Veterinarian's Perspective on Growth Hormones (Agri Beef)
Why We Use Antibiotics (Agri Beef)
Animal Well-Being at SRF (Snake River Farms)
Looking for "Never-Ever" or 100% Pasture-Raised Beef? If you prefer beef raised entirely without hormone implants or antibiotics from birth, we highly recommend purchasing a quarter, half, or whole beef share directly from a specialized local farm. We are a licensed WSDA Custom Facility! You can purchase straight from reputable local producers across the South Sound, including:
Cadillac Ranch Beef (Rainier, WA)
Colvin Ranch (Tenino, WA)
Riverbrook Ranch (Tenino, WA)
You can arrange an on-farm harvest with an independent mobile slaughter unit—such as She’s The Shot Mobile Slaughter, Rahn’s Mobile Farm Butchering, or another licensed mobile harvester of your choice—and have the carcass delivered to our shop. We will professionally hang, age, custom-cut, and butcher-wrap it to your family's exact freezer specifications.
🐖 Our Pork
We believe pork should always be fresh, flavorful, and free of misleading gimmicks. Every cut of pork we sell is 100% free of added hormones, as federal regulations strictly prohibit the use of hormones in raising hogs across the United States.
Pacific Northwest Partners: We prioritize top-tier regional producers like Carlton Farms and Hill Meat Company, both based in Oregon.
Midwest & National Partners: To ensure steady availability of high-demand cuts, we also partner with national Unites States Midwest networks like Smithfield and Seaboard Foods.
🐔 Our Chicken
Our chicken is always all-natural and raised with absolutely zero added hormones or steroids, as prohibited by federal law for all poultry in the Unites States!
Most importantly, we refuse to sell "plumped" poultry. Unlike many commercial supermarket brands, our chicken is never pre-injected with water, broth, or sodium solutions to inflate its weight. When you shop with us, you pay for pure chicken, not added water weight.
Pacific Northwest Partners: We proudly stock regional staples like Draper Valley Farms and Foster Farms.
U.S. National Producers: To meet community demand and maintain fair prices, we supplement our fresh counter with high-quality birds from Koch Foods, Wayne-Sanderson Farms, and Amick Farms sourced from the "Broiler Belt" in the Southern United States.
Staying in Stock for You
This list represents our main partners for our core products. We also proudly work with a variety of other smaller suppliers to fill in the gaps. This gives us the flexibility to source specialty items or to ensure we stay in stock on a certain primal cut if a main distributor is out.
Have questions? We love talking about our craft! Stop by the shop counter anytime—we're always happy to answer your questions and help you find the right cuts for your table.
Quality You Can Trust: Where Our Meat Comes From