As the weather moderates, many of us start to use an outdoor grill.

In fact, three out of four U.S. households own a barbecue grill and Americans are grilling a whopping 2.9 billion times a year.

Most often, one of the foods we grill is beef.

We are truly blessed with a wide range of beef production systems from which to pick what we will grill and consume.

Whether I buy from a local grass-based farmer or the traditional grocery store, I can be assured of a nutritious product.

According to the University of Iowa, most of the beef in the United States today is "grain-fed" or "grain-finished."

These cattle spend most of their lives grazing on grass in pastures, but are "finished" for the last 120-200 days in a feeding operation where they are fed a balanced diet.

Most male cattle (bulls) are neutered early in life and become steers.

Bulls produce natural male hormones that can cause aggressive behavior and injury to themselves and others.

But these hormones cause bulls to grow faster, produce more muscle and protein, and deposit less fat than steers.

Heifers also produce hormones, but young heifers produce much less than older or pregnant heifers.

Providing small amounts of these or similar hormones to young steers and heifers allows them to regain some of the growth rate of bulls and older heifers.

This occurs even though the amounts of hormones given are a fraction of the natural production of mature bulls or heifers.

Supplemental hormones will typically improve growth rate from 10 percent to 20 percent and decrease the cost of beef production by 5 percent to 10 percent.

Studies show the benefits of lower costs are passed on to the consumer.

More efficient beef production requires less feed and land resources.

Additionally, hormone implants are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and extensive toxicological testing is conducted prior to approval of any new growth promotant.

Residues of the synthetic hormones are routinely monitored by the Food Safety Inspection Service of the USDA to ensure safety of the beef.

Beef marketed under the label of "naturally raised" must be grown without growth promotants and verified by enrollment in a process verification program administered by the USDA.

Beef marketed as organic beef also is not implanted.

Hormones and other growth promotants have been used in agriculture for more than 50 years without any negative effect on human health.

Hormones, such as estrogen, are naturally occurring and are found in all plants and animals.

A 3-ounce serving of beef from a steer treated with hormones contains 1.9 nanograms (nanogram equals 1 billionth of a gram) of estrogen.

A 3-ounce serving of beef from a steer raised without hormones contains 1.3 nanograms of estrogen.

A recent study at Washington State University shows grain-based beef production using hormones uses 45 percent less land and releases 40 percent less greenhouse gas than grass-only beef production.

By using safe, FDA-approved hormones, beef farmers can produce more pounds of beef per acre of land while significantly reducing the amount of emissions from methane gas produced by cattle.

One of the benefits of living on the East Coast is the wide range of foods available to us.

Conventionally raised beef, pasture fed, organic and other production systems abound.

Depending on our needs, our economic resources and our comfort with food regulators, we have enough choices to feed ourselves as we wish.

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Editor's note: John Berry is the Lehigh County 4-H extension educator for Penn State Extension.