What is Pasture Farming?
All of our attention here is on the pastures. Pasture is the setting for raising animals naturally in the great outdoors. We measure the health of our pastures by how much grass they produce, how quickly the grass returns after harvest, how many worms we see in the soil, and how quickly the soil digests the nutrient mix left behind as the animals go about their business.
Our time and energy is spent moving animals. Moving animals is the best way to care not only for the animals but also for the soil that grows their food. By bringing the cows, sheep, chickens, and turkeys to fresh pasture every day or two we are able to provide them a constant diet of nutritious diversity. The soil is stimulated, refreshed, and fertilized by the movement, eating, and digestion of the animals. Everybody wins.
Why is “Grass Fed” Better?
Feeding animals a diet of diverse grasses and legumes is better for you, the animals, and the environment:
Better for you:
from eatwild.com
Score Ten for Grass-Fed Beef
Grass-fed beef is better for human health than grain-fed beef in ten different ways, according to the most comprehensive analysis to date. The 2009 study was a joint effort between the USDA and researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina. Compared with grain-fed beef, grass-fed beef was:
- Lower in total fat
- Higher in beta-carotene
- Higher in vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)
- Higher in the B-vitamins thiamin and riboflavin
- Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium, and potassium
- Higher in total omega-3s
- A healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (1.65 vs 4.84)
- Higher in CLA (cis-9 trans-11), a potential cancer fighter
- Higher in vaccenic acid (which can be transformed into CLA)
- Lower in the saturated fats linked with heart disease
S.K. Duckett et al, Journal of Animal Science, (published online) June 2009, “Effects of winter stocker growth rate and finishing system on: III. Tissue proximate, fatty acid, vitamin and cholesterol content.”
Better for the animals:
Cattle, sheep and chickens raised on grass are happier, healthier animals. These animals are not crowded, dirty, or forced to exist in conditions outside the range of their natural habitat. Cows and sheep were meant to eat grass, by providing them a fresh batch of green pasture each day they are harvesting the best nature has to offer them. We bring our animals to their feed rather than truck the feed to the animals. Our animals deposit fertilizer where it is needed rather than in a barn where it needs to be trucked back out on to the field. Because the farm focuses on maximizing the production of grass, the soil is maintained in a way that boosts ecological biodiversity and health. Our animals become the central part of a seasonal dance aimed at maintaining the best possible conditions for healthy soil and grass production.
Our birds are avid grass eaters as well. Chickens and turkeys will spend much of the day foraging for certain plants and other forms of life to nibble on. The nutrition and diversity contained in the layer of pasture between the soil and the animals is incredible. Allowing the birds access to this bounty results in tremendous flavor and nutrition.
Better for the environment:
Managed grazing systems have a host of benefits to the environment. In short, grazing a paddock naturally harvests the forage there, deposits nutrient rich fertilizer, stimulates the soil, and then the animals have moved on allowing the space to re-grow and regenerate. No toxic amounts of manure or waste of any kind build up, no fossil fuels are burned in the process, very little top soil is lost, and vibrant soils digest and cycle nutrients to keep it all going. Over the long term the soil and pastures become more productive and biologically diverse, the soil is not “mined” of nutrients only to be bolstered with chemical solutions, the soil is literally better each year as nutrients cycle through soil, roots, plants, and animals.
Grassfed Educational Website sponsored in part by the California Food & Fiber Future Grant and the CSU, Chico Agricultural Research Initiative.
Is Your Meat Organic?
We are applying for our MOFGA Organic Certification this year. We will have organically certified land, pastures, broiler chickens, turkeys, and eggs. We will not be able to certify our beef as they are born on another farm that feeds them a non-organic diet for the first six months of their lives. However, the cows are raised organically for their entire lives thereafter. We never give any of our animals hormones, antibiotics, conventional or synthetic feeds.
Farm Transparency = Clean Food
We want our farm to have no secrets. Anyone is welcome to come visit, tour, or photograph anything here. We are proud of our approach and the health of our animals and we want to share all we know and enjoy about farming. Raising animals on pasture is not only scientifically, environmentally, and nutritionally sound... it’s also very pleasing to the senses. When a farm is alive and diverse, it does not have toxic pockets of odor or disease. The food produced is clean, natural, and all that went into its production is in plain sight and available for inspection. We use only organic feeds. We do not use hormones or antibiotics in raising our animals. When we encounter a problem we pursue a multitude of natural and homeopathic approaches resorting to medication only in matters of life and death.
