DS Family Farm
Worried about what you are "really" eating? Have peace of mind with pasture grazed meats.
Labels, certifications, what do they mean?
We advertise our beef herd as “Animal Welfare Approved” and “Certified Grassfed by AWG“, but what do these labels mean? I don’t know about you, but when it comes to checking out claims, I turn to Consumer Reports. In August 2015, Consumer Reports published a “Beef Report“:
Let’s take a look at some of the report findings:
Consumer Reports – Sustainable Beef-Production Practices:
- Cows are ruminants—their natural behavior consists of grazing. Allowing beef cattle to graze on well-managed pastures from birth to slaughter (often referred to as 100 percent grass-fed) is at the core of sustainable beef production. What’s good for animal welfare is also good for the environment and for consumers.
- … pastures can only feed herds of a certain size, and in a properly managed pasture, the stressful and crowded disease-promoting conditions of the feedlot are eliminated. Healthier, less stressed animals need fewer antibiotics and other drugs to stay healthy.
- Soils of grazing land can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Managing cattle carefully to ensure that pastures are grazed moderately means restoring soil quality and cutting greenhouse gases by keeping carbon in the soil as organic matter rather than releasing it into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
- More water is conserved in grass-based systems compared with conventional ones.
- Grass-fed beef isn’t just better for animals, public health, and the planet; it may be healthier for individual consumers as well.
If you have followed our past blog posts, the above findings are familiar information. It is nice to have the credibility of Consumer Reports back up what we know as common sense observations in the natural world.
OK, but what about labels?
The 2015 Beef Report had plenty to say about labels. From “Highly Meaningful” labels to labels that have no meaning at all. Please refer to the full report for all the label categories. A quick look at the first two labels under the “Highly Meaningful Labels” as “Verified” we find:
- Animal Welfare Approved
- Certified Grassfed by AWG
In a January 26, 2017 update at http://greenerchoices.org/, Certified Grassfed by AWG, is one of the four “labels to look for” when “choosing grass fed”.
Curious to read more?
Our farm is third party reviewed for Animal Welfare Approved and Certified Grassfed by AWG. For more information on these specific labels we direct you to these resources:
- A Greener World (AWG) — “North America’s most trusted and transparent farm certifier.”
- Animal Welfare Approved (Program of AWG), remains the only label in the marketplace to ensure the following:
- Meaningful, verified, outdoor pasture and range based systems–not just a door at the end of a building or an outdoor concrete run
- No cages, crates or feedlots–ever
- Verified environmentally sustainable farming and ranching
- Responsible stewardship of public resources like air, water, soil and antibiotics
- Independent farms/farmers meeting the highest animal welfare standards in the U.S. and Canada
- Prohibit the use of hormones (like rBST), animal byproducts or routine antibiotics
- Industry-leading high welfare handling and management from birth through slaughter
- Independent standards for the inspection of slaughter plants
- (January 2017 AWA Press Release)
- Meaningful, verified, outdoor pasture and range based systems–not just a door at the end of a building or an outdoor concrete run
- Certified Grassfed by AWG
- Guarantees food products come from animals fed a 100 percent grass and forage diet, raised outdoors on pasture or range, and managed according to the highest welfare and environmental standards on an independent family farm.
This is all good and well, but remember:
We invite you to come see the farm and our animals for yourself. Join other past visitors of our farm. We urge you to know your farmer and your food. We prefer to be certified by YOU, our customer.
Mirror or Selfie your microbiome
Back in the day I remember hearing “take a look at yourself in the mirror”. Today one could probably just say, “take a look at yourself in your selfie”. Whatever your choice (mirror or selfie), why don’t you take a look at yourself? What do you see? Hello – your microbiome!
We are looking at a huge walking micro organism ecosystem. The same goes for the dog next door or the cow in our pasture. How you look and feel has a great deal to do with the state of your “microbiome”.
Our goal should be to keep the good “bugs” we carry around happy. With a healthy supply of good microbes surrounding us, it is hard for bad bugs to make us sick. The foods we consume will have a huge impact on the bugs living inside of our stomachs. With most of our immune system linked directly to our gut, our mental and physical health is directly linked to the company we encourage to live within us.
A recent webinar put on by the folks at the Society for Risk Analysis pointed out that our unique microbiome will decide how our body reacts to:
- drugs
- food additives
- minerals (such as heavy metals)
That is why there are so many “side effects” listed in drug commercials, our microbiomes react differently. The Food and Drug Administrations prior testing on drugs and food additives for “safety” have not accounted for the biology living within us.
So what’s safe to eat?
Refer back to our “Traditional Food” post. Keep it simple and eat foods that our Grandparents would actually recognize as food. When you learn more you will probably want to encourage those good bugs in your microbiome.
Eating locally raised foods is a great place to start, including grassfed beef. Eating right can be an important part of your overall life/health plan. For a holistic approach to life consider the 7 spokes in Zig Ziglars Wheel of Life:
- Mental
- Spiritual
- Physical
- Family
- Financial
- Personal
- Career
Here’s to a happy healthy YOU (microbiome).
Gut Health
All disease begins in the gut. – Hippocrates
In an earlier post we introduced the benefits of bone broth as part of a healthy diet. Here we focus on bone broth as it relates to gut health. “Tens of millions of Americans suffer from digestive disorders.” This statement from Nourishing Broth book, hits home, really close to our home. It was Doug’s struggles with acid reflux that started us down the path of learning about grassfed beef and real food as the true source of healing.
Back in 1937, Dr. Francis Pottenger and others may not have known the exact science behind the healing power of bone broth, but these were a list of gut related conditions they knew broth would relieve:
- nervous digestion, slow digestion
- diarrhea, gas formation
- heartburn, vomiting
- children allergies
We brought up Dr. Pottenger in a prior post. (If I just could have understood in elementary school how his cat research related to my health, oh how much pain could have been avoided!)
So what has happened over the years that millions of folks deal with gut issues daily? For one thing, broth went out of style. With the advent of antacids and other pills to pop, broth was just “old school”. Broths disappearance and the appearance of the modern standard American diet (SAD) and our guts were primed for trouble.
Current science points out a number of digestive power components in broth. First of all it is rich in glycosaminoglycans, used by the body to form healing mucus. The mucus in our intestinal tract protect us from foreign substances entering our body including food, microbes, heavy metals and toxins. When our mucus secretion becomes depleted, the result is a “leaky gut”.
Have you heard the term “microbiome”?
Early on in our cattle operation we learned that cows cannot digest grass! A cow is entirely reliant on trillions of bacteria (microbiome) within their gut to digest grass. The bacteria break down the grass and release nutrition to the cow for life. We have a number of visual techniques to quickly diagnosis the status of a cows microbiome on a daily basis. Guess what, we are entirely dependent on trillions of microbes everyday to stay alive also. When our microbiome is happy we, are happy.
The mucus in our digestive system provides a safe home for our microbes. The mucus protects the bacteria from our bodies normal process that tries to expel them. The presence of the bacteria stimulates production of mucus, a wonderful cycle, that is if our bodies are healthy. The happy beneficial microbes help us absorb and transport nutrients across the gut barrier within our body. Unfortunately a compromised “leaky gut” allows foreign microbes and toxins to keep us in a state of inflammation or disease.
As science learns more about our microbiome, pharmaceutical companies will surely look to develop pills to help manage and promote healthy gut microbes. WHY WAIT? Broth is a tried, true traditional food added to all gut healing diets to help address:
- allergies, candida, parasites
- bloating, gas, acid reflux
- constipation, diarrhea, IBS
- and all other leaky gut issues…
Looking for more information?
- Broth Is Beautiful – WAPF
- Why Broth Is Beautiful – WAPF
- Book – “Nourishing Broth” (information used in this post)
Want to try making your own broth?
- Certified Grassfed Beef BONES at DS Family Farm, drop us an email!
- Dr. Axe Beef Bone Broth Recipe (try it in your crock pot)
True Peace
In a recent post titled “Peaceful“, we related a story of a visitor to our farm. After spending a little time with the herd our visitor mentioned “this is peaceful”. We feel blessed to have the opportunity to work in God’s creation with our small Grassfed beef herd.
Looking for a little “peace” in the hustle and bustle of life? Contact us for a farm visit.
- Walk/Hike the pasture
- Identify tallgrass prairie grasses and flowers
- Bird watch
- Bring a lawn chair and sit with the herd
Many people turn to the outdoors and creation for relaxation and peace. For true peace, we hope you took sometime this past weekend to worship and celebrate with family & friends the birth of Christ, when the Creator visited the earth.
Matthew 2:1-2English Standard Version (ESV)
The Visit of the Wise Men
2 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
Bone Broth – what’s the big deal
About a year ago national news carried the story of a Bone Broth drive through opening in New York City (move over espresso). Yes bone broth, you have probably heard it is good for you? Here at DS Family Farm, the most requests for additional product information is for BONES!
So here are some basics on bone broth with an emphasis toward beef bones.
There are three kinds of bones:
- Meaty, for flavor = oxtail, short ribs and shank/soup bones
- Collagen, for body, think gelatin = knuckle bones
- Marrow bones, for “essence” a delicacy
Flavor, actually all bones will impart some flavor and all broth recipes will call on other ingredients for more flavor (vegetables, spices, herbs).
So lets talk about collagen or the gelatin, think Jell-O, like consistency of broth. Note here that broth from your local store will most likely be in liquid form, lacking the gelatin results of home-made bone broth.
Collagen, it is needed every where in our body and actually makes up about 30% of our body’s protein. These proteins contain thousands of amino acids. Collagen production in our body slows with age. Think of sagging skin, stiff joints and increasingly prone to injuries as we age.
Marrow, think fat and brain food from this bone source. Actually there isn’t a lot of data on marrow. This soft white tissue (marrow) is actually one of the largest organs in our bodies and we don’t know much about it!
What about minerals in the broth?
Actually broth does not contain high levels of minerals. When you drink bone broth, the minerals you consume will be in the correct ratio, making it easy for our body to absorb. Broth is “real food” unlike a pill you take from a jar labeled “multi-mineral”. Bone strength comes from the collagen and not from the minerals we consume. Our friend Danna recently shared this interesting blog post from a person who did their own research on bone broth mineral content.
Protein
Compared to minerals, broth has higher levels of protein but is an “incomplete protein” (we cannot live on broth alone). So always plan to compliment bone broth with other high-quality animal proteins such as eggs, milk, fish, poultry or meat. Bone broth will lower the amount of protein needed from these other sources. In turn, this will relieve stress from your digestive system.
The big 3 Amino Acids found in broth:
The following amino acids are not actually considered “essential”, but supplementing your diet with the amino acids found in bone broth will aid in your search for better health:
- Proline
- Looking for healthy pain-free joints, healthy cartilage, this amino acid does the work.
- Glycine
- For healthy blood, digestion and detoxification!
- Prevents acid reflux, supports wound healing and used by our bodies to remove toxins.
- A building block for glutathione = cancer curbing, age slowing, an antioxidant.
- Glutamine
- For cell regeneration such as the lining of cells in the small intestine (Gut-Healing).
- Enhance injury recovery from wounds, stress or surgery.
- Cuts cravings for sugar/carbs.
- Prevents muscle wasting, stimulates muscle-building and repair.
- Helps with depression, anxiety and mood swings.
So how much broth should you drink? One cup per day should be fine for health maintenance and disease prevention. If dealing with a medical condition try a cup in the AM, at Noon and again in the PM.
Looking for more information?
- Broth Is Beautiful – WAPF
- Why Broth Is Beautiful – WAPF
- Book – “Nourishing Broth” (information used in this post)
Want to try making your own broth? All you need:
- WE HAVE BONES at DS Family Farm, drop us an email!
- Dr. Axe Beef Bone Broth Recipe (try it in your crock pot)
AHHHHH, pour me some bone broth please…
Reed Canary Animal Impact Revisited
With the recent warm weather, forages are green when they are normally brown this time of year. Especially down in the swamp pasture. This wetland area is quite unique, tucked between the more common rolling hills of Lancaster County. While trudging through the muck with portable fence I was struck by a change in vegetation and open water. Why the change? Please refer back to the July 2015 post “Animal Impact – Reed Canary Grass Example“. Take a moment to look at photos from 2014 & 2015 and compare what you notice in the 2016 photos below.
The first photo shows open water with small floating algae along with a number of different broadleaf plants and some cattails. Diversity abounds in this area but what happened to the Broad Leaf Arrowhead that was thick in the 2015 photo, the first year after animal impact?
In the photo below we note that the reeds canary grass still maintains a stronghold on most of the swamp area. Reeds canary is a very productive forage, good for erosion control and our herd doesn’t mind it at all. Again, my eyes are drawn to the diversity at the bottom of the photo, only made possible by animal impact.
I recall hunting this area about 20 years ago with a wildlife biologist. I asked, what could we do to increase diversity in this swamp area for wildlife? How could we beat back the monoculture of invasive reeds canary? He thought for a moment and came up with the idea of “try a burn”. We did burn this area several times before bringing the herd to the farm. Let’s just say burning had NO impact compared to what the herd was able to do in just a few weeks. In addition the “herd effect” has now proven to have a lasting impact!
So is this good, bad or does it even matter?
- From a strictly “production” stand point, the reeds canary may give more total pounds of forage for the herd.
- From an ecosystem stand point, we prefer the DIVERSITY:
- Some species may excel during different times of the year.
- Monoculture grass results in boom or bust.
- Different plant species, different nutrient values.
- Cows can choose between plants.
- Don’t you like a salad bar of choices rather than just lettuce?
- Wildlife thrive on edges of habitat.
- The herd has created an edge in a solid stand of grass!
- Some species may excel during different times of the year.
So the next time someone tells you cattle are evil to the environment consider Alan Savory’s point that a resource cannot cause environmental degradation. Rather it is the human management of that resource that causes the impact on the environment, good, bad or does it even matter?
Give us a call if you would like to stop by and see first hand the herd in MOOOO-TION.
Peaceful
“This is peaceful.”
The phrase most spoken by a recent visitor to the cow herd here at DS Family Farm.
Who was this visitor? A young man from Omaha on a mission. He is in High School and has lived a vegan lifestyle for the past seven years. He arrived by himself on a recent Saturday evening. He did not go into details why he was abandoning the vegan lifestyle but he obviously had done some research about the benefits of Grassfed beef. I asked him what brought him to our farm in search of Grassfed beef, below are a few points from our visitor:
- Cattle allowed to live and consume a “natural” diet.
- Cattle are ruminants designed for forage consumption not grains.
- Healthy meat with a low Omega 6 to 3 fatty acid ratio.
- Conventional beef maybe as high as 27:1, highly inflammatory.
- Saturated fats found in animal meat are good for us.
- Our brains main fuel is fat.
He was happy to talk about these different topics but he was more interested in seeing first-hand what our herd was up to.
We observed the herd just before sunset. Cows were grooming their calves. Some calves were grabbing a quick nighttime snack of milk. Yearlings milling around taking in one more mouthful of grass before calling it a day. Yes, I agreed with our visitor, this is peaceful. Compared to all the options high school youth have to spend a Saturday evening in Omaha, this was more than peaceful.
So what’s up with teenagers and Grassfed beef?
Earlier this month I relayed to our Farm Update Subscribers a story that my son Jacob had with a friend at Malcolm High School about Grassfed Beef. It caught Jacob a little off guard when a friend brought up the topic of Omega 6:3 fat ratio in grassfed beef. You can read our October Farm Update for the full story.
Back to our recent visitor.
Our visitor was happy with what he saw in our herd behavior. He was very interested in how the animals were handled right up to harvest. I explained our goal was to make the trip from our pasture to the locker as low stress as possible. He then asked about how the animals were treated at the locker. Since we are an Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) beef herd, part of our certification requires us to use a certified AWA Locker. He asked what was required of the locker for certification. Since I did not exactly know the answer to that question we referred him to the AWA Slaughter Guidelines.
Back at the house we showed our visitor where we store beef for sale in health department approved freezers. We discussed different cut options that he could start with. In the end, we sent our new friend home with some ground beef.
A peaceful evening? For this young man who has lived a vegan lifestyle for seven years, walking out to his car with Grassfed beef in his possession, I would call this “courageous“.
Portable fence through six foot tall grass?
Recently we shared the photo below of a white poly wire portable fence disappearing into a paddock full of 6 foot tall stockpile. If you were wondering how in the world we get that done, we give some more info here.
It is actually fairly simple, we drive our ATV through the grass to push it down and the poly wire unrolls behind the ATV in the wheel track. The tough part is walking back through the grass to put in our posts. Watch this process in action, video below:
So how do the cows know the fence is there or even find it? With 5,000+ volts surging through this wire, our herd takes good care in knowing where this wire is at all times. This little white wire is not a physical barrier but a mental barrier. This simple technology (portable poly wire) allows us to:
- Easily move cattle
- Maintain frequent moves to fresh forage, cattle are calm
- Manage forages to very precise areas
- Time of graze is highly regulated for proper forage recovery
We moved 20 head of cattle into this patch. The patch was only about 30 feet wide from fence to fence.
The results of this paddock move is shown below. The goal was to stomp most of this grass to the ground as it was next to one of our permanent fence lines. The permanent fence is along the left side of the photo below.
As you can see, the portable poly wire fence did it’s job in keeping the herd exactly where we wanted. The standing stockpile that remains in this paddock will be grazed later this winter. The herd was on this patch for just under two days and we were glad we had the forage we did as two inches of rain came before and during this move.
Feel free to stop by any time to see the herd in MOO-tion!
Water Snow and Stockpiled Grass
Grassfed beef requires grass, we are grass farmers first. For grass to grow we need water and we will take it in any form; rain, dew, ice and snow. This time of year we start to think about a few things:
- What is our current soil moisture levels?
- Are we ready for snow?
In a previous post from 2014 we wrote about how important soil moisture is at this time of the year. Soil moisture now, has a big impact on the grass (and beef) we grow next year. We are going into the 2017 “water year” in good shape.
Are we ready for snow? This summer we have been “stockpiling” grass in our pastures for the approaching non-growing season. Do you see a problem in the photo below?
Grass looks good in the photo. Pasture soils are covered to protect the stored moisture and ready to capture more moisture through the coming months. The problem? The photo shows one of our few permanent fence lines (red arrow) that is all grown up in grass. We construct daily paddocks using electrical poly wire and we count on these few permanent fence lines to supply the power. The stockpiled grass will accumulate snow and bury this fence line making it unusable.
Cows to the rescue.
The photo above shows how we are currently going around all of our permanent fence lines concentrating the herd to stomp down and eat the grass along our fence lines. The cattle love their work of preparing the fence lines that protect them year round.
Once the cows complete the job, if we do get that big snow storm, our fences will not be buried. The fence lines will continue to function, keeping cattle where we plan to move them.
What about the cows and the stockpiled grass if we get lots of snow? We do have some hay in the barn as “insurance” and to supplement as needed. In addition, take a look at our previousl post about cattle grazing snow. Our cows live in our pastures 24/7/365, snow is something they have no problem dealing with.
Feel free to contact us if you would like to see our cattle in motion. Cattle properly grazing grass is the best way to grow more grass!
Animal impact while farming grass
Year round grazing on pasture presents some interesting situations for us grass farmers. In this past post from July 2015 we demonstrated the results of planned animal impact on a wetland site heavily used through the non-growing season. Below we show what we had to deal with this past spring when Mother Nature gave us a wet spell. Here we show the results we see in our pasture now.
Background information for sites shown below:
- We know April – early May can be wet, we planned to be here!
- This site had about a year of rest since the last graze.
- This site needed some animal impact!
The red arrows identify the same objects in the photos from different dates.
- After moving them into this patch we obviously had a significant rain event.
- Before moving into the next patch, we achieved significant animal impact.
- Cattle are happily grazing on fresh/clean pasture.
What this site looks like now. You can barely see the nearest rock!
- Our future plan for this site is to avoid the next wet season.
- Will graze this fall or winter and feed some hay on the site most likely.
- We will utilize the cattle to lay the large grass stems on the ground.
Below are two more photos of a site nearby. More severe impact as a result of the prolonged wet period we experienced this spring.
- Almost looks like a tilled field!
- “Cow Tilled”
- Site absorbed a significant amount of kinetic energy.
- Hooves and Raindrop energy impact.
- Remember, this site had heavy sod from brome and native grasses.
Energy into the site released a significant amount of energy through grass growth over the past four and a half months!
- The reason for the selfie?
- I am six feet tall, some big bluestem seed heads are over my head!
- This tall rank (lignified) grass will not make good cow food.
- We will use cows to pick out what they want and;
- Stomp the grass stems to the ground
- This is how we add CARBON to the soil.
- Grass stems stomped on the soil feeds our soil livestock (microbes).
- We should grow even more grass here next year.
What a wonderful cycle. Are you worried about too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? This is how we use cattle to cycle carbon from the atmosphere into grass. Some carbon is quickly returned to the air, but a significant amount of carbon is transferred into the soil. Once in the soil we have a great chance of getting the carbon into a stable form (humus). The more carbon we can extract from the air and put into our soil the more grass we can grow to extract even more carbon!
The best part about this cycle is that cows produce calves while they are doing this work. Every once and awhile we take a grown calf (steer or heifer) to the butcher. This gives you the opportunity to participate in the healing of our environment. Just eat some grassfed beef and support our work and other grass farmers like us.
