Opportunities in Animal Agriculture

Managing animals on a pasture based farm gives us the opportunity to raise animals in what we consider a more “natural way”. With that said, we do experience the loss of animals on occasion as death is part of the natural cycle of life. It is extremely rare to lose mature cattle raised on pasture but we do lose a calf now and then for various reasons. Day-old chicks are another story. When ordering chicks, the hatchery will actually send an extra chick for every 25 chicks ordered, some death loss is assumed. In some cases we have grown out more chickens than what we actually ordered because of the added chicks! Unfortunately, this spring we have experienced chick loss beyond the expected one per 25 chicks.

USPS versus a HEN

Day old chicks arrive in the mail from the hatchery. This part of raising chickens is far from natural! Without a mother around, the chicks have a challenge at the start to their life, the most critical portion of their existence. We do our best to provide for their needs in our brooder chicken coop. Feed, water, and a warm dry, draft-free climate.

When our boys were young, we had a small 4-H chicken flock of bantam hens and a rooster. We let a hen set on a clutch of eggs and hatch out her brood chicks. It was simply amazing how mother hen was able to raise her young chicks. We didn’t provide her chicks special feed, water, and a controlled climate, she did it all.

Other young animals on our farm

The calves born on our farm are raised by their mother and stay in the same herd their entire life. There are just very few health issues with cattle raised “naturally”. The calf learns from its mother and herd mates early on in life. Transgenerational learning on what to graze and how to act provides many health benefits to a herd. If we bring in other animals to raise, such as a steer or pig, these individuals will have been raised by their mothers elsewhere giving them a great start in life.

Sustainability

Is our chicken operation sustainable? No, relying on a hatchery and the mail is not sustainable in the long run. It works under the current agriculture system, and we feel the chickens that we order from the hatchery live out a very good life on our farm versus a life in a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO). A future goal would be to transition our chicken operation to a better source of chicks. Having a breeding flock would be an option but there are only so many things we can do. We would prefer to source chicks from another local farm that specializes in caring for a breeding flock.

Opportunities in Ag

There are many opportunities to change our current agriculture systems for the better. We are trying to do our part by raising high quality pastured meats for our customers. Please reach out to us if you know of anyone interested in raising meat bird chicks. We would love to be a customer to someone that has the drive to change this portion of our current agriculture system for the better!