NOTE: This post was one of the first posts shared on Live Simply, making this blogpost over 5 years-old. I still love and purchase Kerrygold butter for my family. That said, I still stand behind the words shared in this post. I welcome comments on this post; however, comments that are rude (a direct insult to me, name calling, or written in a nasty way) will not be approved. Differing opinions are always welcome, rude and insulting comments are not welcome.
I guess I have developed a reputation.
A reputation for loving good high-quality, pastured butter.
Rich, yellow, creamy, delicious butter.
Last week several of my friends sent me, with great concern, a post titled, “Why I Stopped Buying Kerrygold Butter” by hopecentric It is a very well-written post and worth a read. Her two main reasons for no longer buying Kerrygold are:
It’s not 100% grass fed. It is almost 90% grass fed, and supplemented with feed that includes soy and corn.
It’s actually only 97% GM free.
After reading the post, my first reaction was “What?”
“What am I going to do with the pounds of Kerrygold Butter in my freezer? Not 100% grass-fed?”
The writer also suggests several alternatives, such Organic Valley and Natural by Nature as well as a few other brands I haven’t found to be locally available.
I decided to do some investigating!
I was curious!
I wanted to make sure I had my facts straight before calling it quits with my Kerrygold obsession.
If I were to make the switch to a different butter, as the writer suggests, I would be spending double even triple per pound vs. what I am paying for Kerrygold at Costco. I wanted to make sure the higher price of these butters really meant I was getting a better, grass-fed product, free of as many GMO’s as possible.
I realize buying straight from a local farm is always best! For some this may not be an option. For me it is.
I am able to purchase 1/2lb tubs of butter through my raw milk farmer. I make it a priority in our family’s food budget to purchase raw milk, raw cream, raw sour cream, and raw cottage cheese from this farm. I love supporting a local farm and feel good about how the farm cares for the cows and their pastured lifestyle. There are many times the machine which the farm uses to churn butter simply isn’t working which means no butter. I know, people will write and say,
“Buy the cream and make your own!”
I have done this many times and often when cream is available I purchase it for this reason. But there are times when I just need the convenience of pre-made butter. At $5 for a 1/2lb of butter I can’t afford to purchase lots of this butter.
It’s a special treat!
That’s where Kerrygold comes to the rescue.
At $6.50 for 3 sticks of butter at Costco, I can feed my family pastured butter without Dustin needing an extra job just to support our butter habit.
I’ll admit, I’ve lost some sleep over the issue of butter this week.
It’s probably not too healthy to loose sleep over butter!
Let’s consider a few things:
1. 90% Grass-Fed: According to Kerrgold,
Approximately 2/3 of the land in Ireland is used for farming and agriculture and 80% of this land is used to grow grass. This grass gives the Irish countryside its green color and is the basis for the description of Ireland as the Emerald Isle. This abundant supply of natural fresh grass is also what makes the Irish dairy industry and Irish dairy products unique.
Irish dairy cows graze on fresh grass in pastures all day long for up to 312 days a year. In fact, Irish cows graze outdoors on grass for longer than almost every country in the world.
I’m not a math wiz, but from my simple calculations this means the cows are supplemented (not consuming grass) only 44 days a year.
I’d say that’s pretty awesome!
I know 365 days of pure pasture grazing would be pretty darn awesome, but let’s think about something…winter!
I’m a Floridian, however, I know enough about winter to know when snow falls grass is going to be scarce which means cows aren’t going to be grazing on grass. Hungry cows need to eat!
Regarding this issue Kerrygold states,
…like so much of what we do, our feeding pattern follows the cycle of nature. During the winter, when grasses stop growing, Irish cows are fed dried grass (known as silage). This grass is grown throughout the year, cut fresh and stored to be used when the winter comes. Cows in Ireland calve in the spring and are therefore outdoors, grazing on green grass when they are producing milk. After calving, cows are provided with supplementary feed to help restore protein and nurture them through this period.
After talking to several farmers here in the States, I am beginning to realize 100% grass-fed with zero supplementation is a nice idea, however, not realistic.
I’m not surprised or disappointed to learn Kerrygold cows are only 90% grass-fed. I am pleased to find affordable, good quality butter that is pastured for 312 days a year on fresh grass!
That’s a lot of grass eating!
2. Supplementing: When the cows are not grazing on fresh grass supplementation is needed. Kerrygold explains what this supplementation is comprised of,
Supplementary feed makes up about 10% of a cow’s diet. The supplementary feed is used to give the cows a healthy and balanced blend of nutrients, providing them with protein, energy and fiber. The majority of the cow’s supplementary feed is from locally grown Irish crops, such as wheat and barley. The balance of this feed can be composed of distillers grain (rapeseed, soy and citrus pulp – a blend of dried peel, pulp and seeds of oranges, grapefruit and other citrus fruit).
3. The GMO Issue: The biggest alarm from the post is the issue of GMO’s. I went straight to Kerrygold:
Our ongoing discussions with the grain and dairy industry have established that of this approximately 10% grain/supplements, approximately 20 to 25% may be from GM sources. This means that approximately 3% of a cow’s total typical annual diet may be from GM sources…
At present, the Irish Dairy Board cannot guarantee that grain supplements used by farmers will all be GM free…
We can confirm that Kerrygold butter and cheese do not contain GM ingredients.
Some have raised concern that even though Kerrygold’s butter may not contain GMO ingredients, the feed may.
I feel comfortable with Kerrygold disclosing that 3% of the annual feed their cows eat may contain GMO’s. Considering the fact that GMO’s are fairly new to Europe and most of the supplementation is coming from local sources of wheat and barely along with possibly corn and soy, I feel confident in this very small percentage.
Our family just recently adopted two laying hens, because of this I also have a great appreciation for how difficult it is to find guaranteed GMO-free feed and the great cost involved in using such feed is amazingly high.
I congratulate Kerrygold for being able to keep this percentage so low.
Bravo!
4. Kerrygold butter comes from fresh Spring cream/milk:
Cows in Ireland calve in the spring and are therefore outdoors, grazing on green grass when they are producing milk.
The cream/milk produced to make butter comes from cows that are grazing on pasture. Cream is not produced and churned into butter during the winter when the cows are being supplemented.
5. Consider the Alternatives: I personally choose not to purchase butter (or meat) based on the organic label alone.
Organic does not equal grass-fed.
Many organic brands of butter, cheese, milk, and meats are nothing more than glorified corn-fed cows, simply free of antibiotics and hormones. Although these products may be GMO-free (organic), the diets of such animals are far from normal or healthy.
I decided to look into a couple other sources for butter.
Pastured, grass-fed sources.
The first, Organic Valley. I spoke to Organic Valley over the phone. I was told the milk/cream used for their line of Pastured Butter is not 100% grass-fed. Just like Kerrygold, Organic Valley supplements with grains including corn and soy. Although they didn’t disclose how much supplementation occurs, they do use GMO-free corn and soy. The representative also confirmed that 100% grass-fed was far from reality for the majority of farmers.
The second source was my local raw dairy farm. Again, I found supplementation to be a small part of the cows diet when needed. The farm also recently switched over to a new organic and GMO-free feed which also drove the cost of the dairy much higher.
Dustin may need to start looking for that extra job now.
To Buy or Not:
After a week of pondering and researching (and loosing sleep) I have decided I will continue to buy Kerrygold.
I feel it’s important to continue to support a company that strives to feed their cows grass, a practice which is not widely practiced today.
While I will pick up a 1/2lb tub of butter from my local farm and stock up on Organic Valley Pastured Butter when on sale, I will continue to confidently buy pounds of the creamy, yellow grass-fed Irish Butter I love so much.
Kerrygold.
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From their website, Kerrygold butter is 100% grass fed without any supplemental feed whatsoever:
https://www.kerrygoldusa.com/our-way/#grass-fed
I could not find a FAQ page that apparently used to exist.
Needless to say, I have my suspicions here, especially coupled with Ireland’s beer industry that could easily supply dairy farms with cheap spent grain. I’m no beer maker, but I can only imagine that some of the dark rich brews like Guinness could provide an exceptionally sweetening effect on milk.
From my experience with homemade butter the flavor can hardly compare to Kerrygold. Online reviews of various commercial butters agree, Kerrygold is some of the best tasting butter out there. If it means a compromise to my family’s health and possible support of GM feed, we’ll be learning to live without it, period. The devil is in the details folks…
Hey Ryan, I don’t see a 100% grass-fed statement on there. Maybe I’m missing it?
When you go to the link in Ryan’s comment Scroll down till the cow comes to the center of page and then Click on #4. That leads me to believe Kerrygold is implying 100% grass fed. There is no statements anywhere that I can see of any grain given to these cows.
Thanks, Siobhan. It’s hard to navigate that page.
Hey! THANKS so much, for sharing this information.* I really like KerryGold salted butter. & I get it at Walmart, for 2.88 for 8oz. I don’t shop at Costco; just don’t have money to buy in bulk & with just me, don’t need to do that. I love the color & my Mom always bought SALTED margarine..Yuk! I know….but that was in the 50’s & 60’s. I switched to real butter a long time ago. QUESTION: Is the KerryGold UNSALTED butter different than the SALTED butter? Do you know?? I read on the label, that the salted is pasteurized cream & salt. But the UN-salted says it’s CULTURED pasteurized cream. Well, Thanks again!*
Hey Susan, They do make unsalted butter that’s not culture. But cultured butter is amazing, and so good for you. If you can find cultured, I would definitely go with that.
Hi, the difference between “sweet” cream butter and cultured butter is that sweet butter is churned immediately, and in cultured butter, the cream is allowed to sit for a time, and live cultures (beneficial bacteria) are added into the cream before churning. The result is a tangier or slightly piquant flavor to the cultured butter, and the beneficial cultures that are good for gut health.
Some folks don’t care for the taste of cultured butter, but if you grew up on a farm, had farmer relatives, or access to farmstand milk products, you probably prefer it and pine for it…. it’s hard to get.
Cultured butter on sourdough pancakes with maple syrup – sweet and tangy…. mummmm!!!
Yum!
Hi Kristin,
I ran in to this blog post when I was researching, for the third time, whether we should keep buying Kerry Gold butter.
You may have missed a critical bit of weasel-like wording from Kerry Gold’s website, which you quote: “Irish dairy cows graze on fresh grass in pastures all day long for up to 312 days a year.”
This sentence sounds great but it has always bothered me, because “up to 312 days a year” could mean anywhere from ZERO to 312 days. UP TO 312 days. What it really means is that the cows could be supplemented with grain UP TO 365 days a year.
When I asked for clarification from the Kerry Gold company, they directed me back to the same website, so there was no real answer to my question.
Does anyone else see what I’m talking about? This little bit of vague language seems to me a nice piece of misdirection.
Hey Linda, Personally, I’m okay with this wording. It would be misleading for them to say exactly 300 days at pasture (for example), and someone would probably sue them for providing such an accurate time when winter may come early or another reason may cause the cows to come off pasture early. There’s a lot that can happen when you’re dealing with nature and farming, and I think we need to have grace with farmers because of this. I’ve learned this from working with the farmers in my area and can only imagine it’s the same for farmers in Ireland. I think this terminology is a bit of a buffer for them. I could be wrong, and I definitely don’t represent Kerrygold. Hopefully you’ll be able to get a clearer answer from Kerrygold. There are quite a few brands that sell grass-fed butter these days, too. That’s my “two cents.” 😉
I am a 75 year old pharmacist/attorney with 50 years experience in the dairy industry. Kerrygold Butter is no doubt better than the typical US Butter. A Cadillac is no doubt better than a Chevrolet. But I am very happy to use private label butter (Kroger brand etc,) and drive a Chevrolet as I personally don’t see the difference to be worth the difference in price. Kroger periodically sells their butter for 99 cents a lb, limit 5. As for raw milk products, I will not take the risk of consuming raw milk products nor raw seafood. As for GMO feed, there is no evidence that the GMO feed has any effect on the milk or the meat from a cow..
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Jake.
A few reasons not to buy/import Kerrygold butter. 1-If one wants to create and nurture a local economy then we are ‘importing’ a product that can be produced locally or closer than 4700 miles awy. 2-Mother’s milk, not just the milk of human mothers but of all mamals, has been contaminated for at least a century. It carries in it dozens of contaminants. The burning of fossil fuels like diesel gas, produces contaminants found in mothers’ milk. 3-By buying products that come across the ocean via airplane or container ships contributes to the contamination of air and water and to global warming.
Thanks for sharing your opinion, eduardo.
How can CO2 (significantly) impact climate when it constitutes only .005 of greenhouse gases? Water vapor constitutes over 90% of greenhouse gases. Far, far bigger impact on climate. Why does the UN IPAC not mention water vapor’s impact?
I use Kerrygold unsalted butter in my bullet proof coffee daily. I must say, I feel great, I covered it a bit in my recipe https://www.guideyourhealth.org/single-post/BulletproofCoffeeRecipe Do you drink bullet proof coffee?
Hey Calvin, Yes, I do.
Hi,
I know this was quite awhile ago, but… to be frank: I don’t care that KerryGold’s cows are not 100% grass-fed, it’s better than the crap we’re still buying, which we still buy because my brother goes through it too fast… therefore there’d be no grass-fed butter left before 2 weeks are up. But, when I eat the whole-gmo butter it doesn’t agree with me, but the 3% of gm in Kerrygold doesn’t bother me at all… in fact it seems to soothe my stomach… I use mostly Coconut Oil, virgin and unrefined as I love that slight coconut taste, certainly keeps me from adding sweeteners of any kind. Though I do use Raw honey in my tea, but have to use that at least only 3 times a day or it causes me digestive issues… damn FODMAPS! Onions and Garlic seem to be the worst offenders, though.
I would like us to buy grass-fed meats, but because we aren’t near a farm, and though there’s a place these farmers collect to meet their buyers, it’s kind of a little out of the way still… because my dad would have to get off work before they pack up and go home… at least by half an hour or more if he’s working overtime.
Anyway, Aldi sells Grass-fed ground beef, but it’s expensive, I of course have the option of buying myself 1 pack lb of the beef, and use it sparingly through-out 2 weeks, but it would have to be at 1/2 lb and not 1/4 lb, as I don’t think I could do that as I love the taste of the grass-fed beef. I already buy low-price sardines, sometimes tuna, always avocados, sometimes other fruit, sometimes ground turkey, sometimes cookies, and most often tea, and almost always Honey… through I’m not sure how raw the honey is, but I feel it’s still better than the other pasteurized stuff from the store.
Sometimes I also buy a 56fl oz of Coconut Oil and it costs $15…. though I’m thinking of maybe buying smaller ones for less money, but if I’m baking with it the 14 oz are not going to hold me.
…. Not sure why I’m confessing to you; could be because my family don’t pay attention to me when I’m telling them something… like I ate gluten after 2 or 3 years of not intentionally eating it and I felt such pain and bloating in my stomach – my father goes and blames it on the little amounts of soy in the other cookies I ate and my mother goes and blames it on the so-called potency poppyseeds from a store-bought mix that was with the gluten…. they’re always going to deny the fact that gluten is the culprit! — Oh, no, it couldn’t have been the Evil corn syrup or the modified Food Starch in the poppyseed mixture either!!! — it was the gluten… I’ve eating those other things many times before and they’ve not caused any issues, but the gluten on the other hand.
I also had to cut back on the honey consumption [is that the right word], because it was causing issues with my teeth and overwhelming the good bacteria with bad. In other words, I had to find my balance of sweet…. can’t drink sweetened tea if I’m eating sweets, so I drink water or if my tea is unsweetened at the time, I’ll drink it with the sweets… and I’ll still have to find my balance with one or two other foods… I love Legumes, so I try to balance those out, love Sweet potatoes, too! – I have to balance those, too. most of the time I don’t eat grains! I try to balance the legumes out to once or twice a week… and I always wash them really well and Then I’ll cook them in boiling water… even if their a snack… lol.
Anyways, sorry for the long-winded reply… I probably peeved off a few gluten/wheat-eaters, but I don’t care, I feel great without it!!!! I also don’t care what my parents say, I feel great without the wheat!
I have been using Kerrygold for years as well. I live in Spain now and still use it. The main problem with the term “organic” which is way overly used in the US, is that word tells nothing of what the cow is consuming. The EU, which includes Ireland, has a strict law prohibiting the use of antibiotics in any animal used for the production of food. The US has almost the opposite practices. Most all cow farms use GMO feed and antibiotics. The farmers go on record admitting it is cheaper for them. Corporations’ profits are a higher priority than health, so many products can be labeled dishonestly.
Kerrygold does not say “organic” on the label as that term in Europe strictly relates to pesticides used on plants. I love living in the EU as the food laws are so strict.
Off the topic, the same goes for wine. EU laws prohibit the manipulation of wine, meaning if there is a bad year for vineyards, the wine will be bottled as it is. California in particular, wineries manipulate the wines a lot to keep the same flavor as most people in the US drink wine as a cocktail and not in the cultural tradition of old world wine. I have been in the wine industry for years now and old world wines are superior.
Thank you for your post.
Daniel
Thank you! I’m vegan, but after reading this article, I will begin introducing Kerrygold back into my diet. It sounds WAY healthier than the vegan butter I have been using. Thank you!
if it tastes good initially, and you find out it is not from 100% grass fed cows, you deem it not delicious?
LOL.
Quick question. Do you feel comfortable including Kerrygold butter in your plan to live simply given that shipping or flying it across the Atlantic means that its carbon footprint must surely be huge compared to butter made in the US?
Hi Andy, I would love to support local (grass-fed) butter options, but in my area, I haven’t found such a source. Organic Valley is the only other grass-fed butter option in our area, but it’s also much more expensive. Considering that living simply is also about living within our means, Kerrygold is the best option for right now. If you have any suggestions for American grass-fed butter that I could source, I’m open to them :). I’d much rather fly butter from Ireland than support conventional dairy farming. We do the best we can–that’s part of living simply to me. It’s not about perfection, but finding what works for our family.
Yes, you are awesome!
Hi Kristin. I’m also Irish and I must say that the lady from Dublin who claims that all the grass is ‘planted’ is absolutely wrong. I’ve lived on a dairy farm and the grass is about as natural as you can get and in fact it’s our natural mixture of grass and clover that makes our milk more nutritious than almost any other. Here’s a link to some information about re-seeding of unproductive fields and as you can see less than 2% of fields are re-seeded annually.
https://www.teagasc.ie/media/website/animals/dairy/pocketmanualforreseeding.pdf
Irish butter and beef are about as good as you can get anywhere in the developed world. As for the lady who was speculating about large ‘consortiums’ of farmers supplying Kerrygold, that raised a smile. I don’t think people realise just how tiny Ireland is! Herds are often fewer than 55 cattle and when you buy irish beef in the supermarket in Ireland it is labelled in such a manner that it can be traced back not only to the farm but to the herd itself. They can almost tell which cow it was.
I am living in Poland now and can vouch that their milk is like water and their butter is tasteless compared to Irish. I buy Kerrygold here though it’s hard to get the salted stuff as they prefer un-salted in Poland. Anyway you’re looking great on your diet of Kerrygold so keep it up! Best wishes :))
Thank you for sharing, Angela! It’s so great to get an insider’s scoop.
I have some intuitive discomfort here, knowing how quickly Kerrygold went from being a relatively unknown producer to now finding it in as huge a country as the USA, in every outlet from Walmart to Costco. This is a massive increase in production, but how did they achieve that with small farms and a tiny country? How has the quality stayed the same, and how did they bump up production like this without massively adding to each farm’s capacity, or adding many, many new farms? The math on this is kind of a blackout….
Hi Kristen,
Nice article, I thought I would leave a comment to help understand the Irish grass-fed system better, (I’m Irish with a Bachelor’s of Agricultural Science, studied for a few months in Michigan State Uni, so I know a bit about the differences between the US and Irish systems! 🙂 )
While the cows graze 312 days of the year, the other days when they are housed indoors (outside is too cold and wet and can harm the animal/illness, etc) and also mainly fed grasses. During the summer months, (those few months where it is not raining everyday here!) we have too much grass, it grows faster and is much thicker than normal, we close off some fields during this time, and rotate the cows around different fields for a few weeks to let the ‘closed’ field get really long, thick & luscious grass! We then either cut the grass, let it dry naturally, (and it becomes hay) or else cut it, let it wilt for a day or two to decrease the moisture content and then make silage, which is a preserved grass. The quality of the silage isn’t known until you open it up when it comes to winter and the cows need to eat it! (It needs to be kept under anaerobic conditions to be preserved, by being wrapped up into tight bales covered in a wrap, [and yes, this wrap is then recycled so don’t worry!).
Silage is measured by its DMD (dry matter digestibility), and other than grass it may include molasses (like a thick sugar, or treacle), which is made from the sugar beets (Ireland used to have a booming sugar industry!). The majority of cows are only fed this, with maybe a little bit of concentrates (which is like dried cornflakes, and some essential minerals, etc), but this is very expensive so farmers opt for the hay or silage when available!
It is actually fascinating looking at the Irish dairy system compared to other systems, in the use of grass and the cost savings than needing to use meal or anything else! (and besides, after years of grass grazing and silage eating, I think the old-Irish farmers would have a heart attack if they were expected to fork out a ridiculous amount of money to feed their beloved cows anything else!)
Thank you so much for sharing, Rachel!
Honestly, I’m a little more worried about the fact that they use antibiotics and vaccines on their cows. :/
I absolutely LOVE and appreciate your post about this. I am also on a quest to change my entire diet to organic, it is SO important. Where I reside in the Caribbean, it is a bit difficult to obtain these options off the shelf; however, there are a few places offering the option, it certainly comes at a cost, but, as we become a lot more aware, I know the opportunity of purchasing ALL my items organically will exist. I am also educating myself about nutrition and preventing/reversing diseases. Thank you for this So Much!
Hi, Thanks so much. So glad the post was helpful. Enjoy that butter 🙂
Certainly will. thank you.
Interesting post. New Zealand here where 100% of our cows are grass fed and the industry is just like that of Ireland. The answer to your problem of attempting to avoid butter made during supplemented feeding is really quite simple.
Buy extra stocks of butter during the Irish summer and autumn, and up till the approaching winter, and freeze it. Use those stocks during the Irish winter and well into spring. Start buying from the supermarket again a FEW WEEKS AFTER the cows have gone back to pasture. Date checking and careful planning will ensure that you will eat from ONLY grass fed cows throughout the year. There is absolutely nothing wrong with butter that has been frozen.
Thank you for sharing, Linda! I love to freeze butter–great suggestion!
Linda, that’s exactly what I was thinking, and wondering why no one in two lengthily commented blog posts about grass-fed butter, had mentioned it (until you)!!
The question I have is….there is usually a ‘good until’ date or ‘best by…’ date, but I’m not sure the label tells us anything about WHEN it was produced. Are you saying it’s probably just safe enough to assume that butter in my local Costco will have come fairly expeditiously from Ireland? How do we know these stocks don’t experience big lags in delivery, etc.?
I want to assume that buying butter in August means I’m safe, but not sure….
Well done job of investigation. I too will continue to eat the rich gold butter.
The problem with Soy is that 90% of the worlds soy is GM the bigger question is what percentage of that is left behind in the milk – a very tough question to answer. I’m hoping one day enough people will buy organic in an effort to lower the prices because the demand will eventually justify it. Thanks for this post!!
Thank you for the info!
FYI I found Kerrygold 8oz at Target for $2.33. They had both salted and unsalted. (We do not have a Cost-co here and this is a lot cheaper than Publix! (@ 2/$7.00))
Thank you. That’s wonderful that Target carries it! Great price.
Thank you very much! I had seen the article but had decided to stick with Kerrygold anyway. To me, it tastes like butter should…aka food from my youth 🙂