If you’ve read anything on our website or social media you’ve surely seen me say that every chicken we raise is raised on pasture, moved to fresh grass everyday. I say that for a reason. I say that because that explains what pasture based livestock farming is. Animals in nature move. Whether it be a herd of buffalo or a flock of birds, they do not remain stationary or confined. Movement is relative to their size and ability to move (walk, slither, fly, etc) but they all do it. This is because a stationary animal would exhaust its resources and live in a world overflowing with feces. To achieve optimal animal health, therefore soil health and people health too, we mimic nature.
On our farm, all of our poultry live on grass, and move to fresh grass. Every morning I get up and move our broiler (meat) chickens to fresh grass, then I refill their water, then their GMO free feed. Chickens must receive some grain to thrive but we do that last in the process because that allows them to forage through the grass, snacking on some clover or bugs, before I bring the grain in and they belly up to the bar. This daily movement to fresh grass is what allows our chicken to have the superior quality, taste, and texture that our customers have come to expect.
I have written in the past about the misleading nature of food labeling. These shortcomings exist when it comes to pasture raised meats too. A major grocery store chain, that is well thought of in health conscious circles, has a six tier grading scale that it uses. They even use the term pastured. There is one term that, unfortunately, you won’t find in any of those descriptions, movement or move or rotate. You get the idea, none of these truly define what pastured poultry really is. Very few large producers truly define and use pastured poultry correctly. Instead they carefully manipulate terms to fit these very narrow definitions; they charge a premium while selling a sub par product.
In my next blog post I will go through what you should know about the meat you’re buying, the questions you should be asking to ensure you get the quality you are paying for. Until then, you have our word that everything we produce is raised on grass, moved to fresh grass daily. To learn more about what we do, sign up for our email list or shoot me a message. I’d love to have a conversation with you.