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by Owen O'Connor

It’s hard to overlook the vast environmental impact of animal agriculture. Animal agriculture uses 57% of the agricultural land in the U.S., either for growing animal feed or as pasture/range land. Every day, farm animal operations in America consume almost 2 billion gallons of water, which does not include any of the irrigation water applied to arid farmland for growing fodder. The threat of water contamination from concentrated feeding operations is real, and fertilizer run off from feed crop fields and animal farms have caused serious problems in aquatic ecosystems. It should have come as no surprise when, in 2006, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization released a report citing Animal Agriculture as one of the main contributors to the build up of greenhouse gases. The report blamed farm animals and their raising for 18% of human-made greenhouse gas emissions, more than is produced by transportation. It went on to point the finger especially at cattle, which produce large amounts of methane as they digest their food. While few would challenge the idea that the cattle industry has a tremendous impact on the environment, the report spawned a debate about whether 100% grass-fed, pasture raised cattle had an equally damaging impact as conventionally raised cattle, whether they might have less of a carbon footprint, or whether they might have an even worse impact.

In the wake of the increasing popularity of grass-fed meat, and its promotion a more environmentally friendly alternative, researchers have been lining up to try to show that grass-fed isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. An Australian study concluded that cattle being finished in a feedlot and fed a corn-based diet will produce 38% less methane than grass-finished cattle. The difference is attributed to two reasons: First, that grain-finished cattle are slaughtered at a younger age, so they have less time alive to emit methane. Secondly, their forage contains less hard-to-digest cellulose, leading to less methane burping on the part of the cow. Out of Washington State, another study received a lot of press, though it was not published in a peer reviewed journal. The study determined that it takes three times as much land to finish a grass-fed beef animal, and that the centralization of resources and factory production model of feedlots results in beef that takes less energy inputs to produce than grass-fed cattle.

As many grass-farmers and advocates before me have responded, the assertion that grain-finished cattle contribute less to climate change and use less energy is a bunch of bull. Yes, by living shorter lives and consuming an unnatural diet, the grain-finished cattle do, as individual animals, produce less methane. The focus of that inquiry, however, overlooks the carbon impact of producing the animal’s food. Corn and soy are highly mechanized, high fossil fuel, high input crops that require plowing of the soil (which releases carbon) or herbicide applications. The rotational grazing of grass-fed cattle also has the potential of sequestering carbon in the earth. As plants grow, they pull carbon from the atmosphere. As they are grazed, their roots die off, leaving the organic matter in a stabilized form in the soil. Yes, plenty of the greenhouse gas is released by the animals, but it is speculated that with responsible grazing management, the animals can be close to carbon neutral or even carbon negative.

The Washington State study looking at energy use and land use was comparing apples to oranges. The claim that feedlot beef are finished with less energy consumed obfuscates the subtleties between different kinds of energy use. Grass-based cattle are positioned to use solar energy in the form of growing grass which they harvest themselves. What does it matter that more energy is used if it is clean energy from the sun trapped by grass that doesn’t need pesticides sprayed on it? The feedlot industry may be very efficient but it’s very efficient at doing the wrong things: using crops that need much input of fossil fuels to feed cattle in concentrated areas. The land-use comparison assumed that the grass-finished cattle were finished on rangeland. This doesn’t really happen. Grass-fed cattle are usually finished on land that supports a denser sward of grass. Also, it means that the author is comparing nine acres of rangeland to three acres of cropland. Generally, rangeland is used for low density grazing because it is unable to grow crops at all.

Grass-fed cattle are not exempt from scrutiny of their environmental impact. Certainly, you can grass-finish beef animals in ways that are more or less harmful for the environment. However, grass-based agriculture has the potential to use permanent pastures to trap carbon and reduce erosion, and it can produce food on land that cannot produce crops. More research is needed to clarify whether grass-fed beef can actually improve the greenhouse gas situation, but attempts to label grass-fed beef as less sustainable than feedlot beef are just using narrow studies to back up an established but flawed industry.

Owen O’Connor runs Awesome Farm, ltd with his partner KayCee Wimbish. They raise and sell grass-fed lamb and beef in Red Hook and Claverack, NY. Owen grew up in Clinton Corners, and was working in organic vegetable farms before he and KayCee started their own project.

Tags: animal agriculture, Awesome Farm, cattle, Claverack, climate change, conventionally raised, environmental impact, grass-fed, greenhouse gas emissions, Owen O'Connor, Red Hook
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by Owen O'Connor

As I refill the mineral feeder with salt, the sheep start to crowd around it. The cattle, who are even more skittish than the sheep, are still keeping a safe distance. But the sheep are craving the salt pretty bad, an experience that I think we’ve all had. Animals, you and I included, have a shockingly specific and strong desire for salt, one that I experience whenever I can’t resist buying a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips, or can’t help thinking that these beans would be a lot tastier with a little soy sauce on them. As cooks, most of us have accepted salt as a given. A dash here, a teaspoon there. We’ve built it in to the American diet so much that many people struggle to reduce the amount of sodium in their diet. Sheep and cattle, much like us, have a taste for salt and a biological need for it.

Processed table salt contains sodium and chloride, both elements that your body needs to keep fluids in balance and to perform other functions. Even if you didn’t add salt to your food, a person eating meat or animal products will naturally consume enough sodium in their diet. However, grazing animals must have a supplemental source to function at optimum health. In the wild, deer and other herbivores will travel far to access areas where salt rock has been exposed by the elements. This is also why some people put out salt licks for deer, either as a service or a bait. As an extreme example of animals seeking out salt, check out the Planet Earth segment on elephants teaching successive generations to travel deep inside a cave to mine for salt!

Two springs ago, I had the pleasure of snooping around outside of the Cargill salt mine on lake Cayuga, near Ithaca, NY. My friends and I were sifting through rock fill, looking (successfully!) for trilobites, ferns, and other fossils. Beyond the gates, there were piles of salt that was being extracted from deep below the lake. The Finger Lakes region has a number of salt mines and refinery operations. The United States is itself the number one producer of salt in the world, though many countries produce both mined salt, and sea salt, which is evaporated from the brine of the ocean.

Various salt products are available for those looking to feed salt to animals. There is loose salt as well as salt formed into blocks. You can get the salt plain, or mixed with other minerals. One can purchase pure salt, or pay handsomely to get unrefined salt that claims to provide important trace minerals. Fancier salt/mineral mixes include kelp, diatomaceous earth and other supplements. Because animals can only take in so much salt in a day (imagine yourself shoveling spoonfuls of salt into your mouth), salt can be used to limit the intake of some other supplement, such as grain or alfalfa meal.

We’ve tried various home-made salt feeders, and not had much luck. My design/building skills have yet to produce a homemade feeder that can keep out rain, stand up to abuse by cattle, hold plenty of salt, and be transportable. The wooden one was too bulky and left us with wet salt. Another one was constructed using truck tire mudguards as a rain-protector and seemed very promising until it fell apart. I eventually buckled and purchased a premade one which is very sturdy and holds 100+ lbs, though its still a little cumbersome to move around the fields.

Along with good grass and clean water, salt completes the trinity of vital needs for the ruminant herd. Salt also plays an important part in the history of meat because of its uses post-slaughter as a preservative. For us, it is one of the few inputs that is imported into our farm ecosystem. And as the sheep and probably hundreds of people seasoning their soups as you read this feel, things just taste better with a little salt.

Tags: Awesome Farm, cattle, Claverack, New York, Owen O'Connor, Red Hook, salt, sheep
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by Owen O'Connor

While many people might be suffering from Cabin Fever at this time of the year, I have a particular strain of the disease. The symptoms for me are a feverish desire to actually be inside a warm, cozy cabin. My disposition is such that I could be pretty happy bunkered permanently in a reclining chair, book on lap, tea at hand, with a woodstove within radiating distance. As our duties on the farm call us outside on a regular basis, I am not feeling cooped up at all. In contrast, I am looking for an opportunity to snuggle back into my coop.

I am not one to complain about the weather. Sun, wind, rain, snow, hot, cold . . . I like the variety and extremes of the Northeast’s seasonality. But since raising livestock the past few years, the extremes of weather have brought me a new sense of unease. It’s a shame, really, because I would like to just appreciate a powerful thunderstorm without wondering whether a sheep is going to get hit by lightning. An ice storm has become a reason to worry about temporary fences sagging, and a gusty rain a cause for fret over whether the chickens are staying dry. I had imagined that farming commercially would put me more in tune with the weather and seasons. Certainly I am more aware of atmospheric activity, but there is a dread accompanying it that I did not anticipate, a feeling that each act of weather presents a new and unforeseen problem for me.

If you’ve read my column before, you may have caught the article a few months ago about winter grazing. Well, in case it wasn’t obvious, this has been a terrible winter for extending the grazing season. Our sheep valiantly grazed past the Christmas-time snow, and into January. But when January gave us a foot of snow and then an inch of ice and then another foot of snow on top of it, it was time to give up on any hopes of further grazing. The sheep have been on hay ever since. Our main home base for the animals is what you might call the “back 40” of our landlord’s farm. It’s the furthest area from the road, and dramatically hilly. From where you can reach with a car when the snow is at its worst, there is a half a mile and more than a 100 ft rise in elevation to where the sheep are. I’ve never been that interested in snow shoeing, but after slipping down these slopes of ice enough times, I developed a keen interest. Ever since, I’ve used the snow shoes religiously to tromp to where we have our hay stacked and tarped in the field near our sheep.

Certainly it’s our fault for not anticipating an extreme winter like this one has been. I’m told that an “average” year only comes two years out of 10, so it makes sense to expect the unexpected. I certainly didn’t expect that I’d be transporting hay around with a sled because the truck can’t navigate through the icy snow; or that there would be no respite period where we could pull net fences out of the snow, move things that needed to be moved, and just regroup a bit. As I’m snowshoeing out of the pasture through the freezing rain, I daydream a little bit about how I’d like to do things differently next winter. For now, I’m eager for any excuse that keeps me locked up inside. More snow doesn’t mean that I don’t get to have plenty of time outside, it just means that I get a more intense cardio workout while I’m out there.

Tags: Awesome Farm, cabin fever, farming, Owen O'Connor, sheep, weather
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by Owen O'Connor

There is a cold fog pouring out of the cooling unit at the far end of the room. The space is at least two stories tall, and longer than it is wide. I’m in the back corner, where little light reaches, holding a steak up and trying to discern if it is a rib steak or a porterhouse. The baby strapped to my front has been patient about our visit to this zero degree freezer room, but his confidence in me seems to be waning, and he is starting to try to wiggle out of his carrier. A pallet of heritage turkey to my right casts a shadow over our boxes of meat. Behind me, long sheets of raw wood are waiting, frozen, for a purpose I have yet to figure out. My eyes adjust, and I can see that the steak is the rib steak that I needed. We’ve got all the meat that we came for, and I wheel the cooler out of the room and shut the 8 ft square door behind me. My son and I are in one of the most unique places that our errands take us to, the strange and wonderful cold storage building.

We, like many other small farms in the area, have our frozen meat stored here. Some have their meat in sturdy, lidded boxes with inventory numbers. Others use the boxes that the butcher gives them or ones the liquor store has discarded. The freezer room isn’t all farms, though. Big boxes of organic almonds are waiting to be made into trail mix some day. Three pallets of Tyson chicken breasts are stacked atop each other. Some sealed containers on wheels hold dry ice for customers interested in buying a chunk.

While that freezer room is our main destination, it represents only a small part of the cold storage’s business. The two big-ticket items are stored in the behemoth refrigerated areas: Apples and Hot Dog buns. The apples come, as you might expect, in the fall. At first, there are just a few bins in the front room. Then, in a few weeks, huge rooms are filled to capacity with apple bins stacked 5 or 6 high. Trucks are constantly out front, loading or unloading their fruity cargo. Some rooms are sealed off to give the apples special conditions. In just a few months, though, the place is cleared out again, the apples off to wholesalers or farmers markets.

The hot dog buns make dramatic and short-lived appearances in cold storage. Leading up to July 4th or Labor day weekend, the building suddenly becomes inundated with baking carts lined with hot dog bun bags, to the point where you can no longer navigate through the space. Fans are set up to keep fresh air circulating through the space. Then, as suddenly as they appeared, they are gone again. Some bun arrivals coincide with traditional hotdog eating times of the year, but other shipment times seem random to me, but I’m just a lay person when it comes to the hot dog industry.

The staffing at cold storage is lean: usually just one or two people working besides “the boss.” But they always have time to lend a helping hand. When we come in, they might be emptying one of the big barrels that fills with water from the cooling systems, or sweeping the dark hallways, or figuring out a new aspect of their growing u-haul franchise, but they pause and help us carry our cooler or break up some dry ice for us. They show us where our pallet has been moved or tell us some news about the hotdog bun world. There is an employee of the week parking spot outside, but I am not sure what process is used to decide who gets to park there.

To someone driving by the cold storage building, it may not seem very remarkable, but inside, it is a strange world of industrial sized refrigeration. We are lucky, as a small meat business, to have this place located so close to us. There are not very many in New York state that offer similar services for storing meat, and I doubt that few are such a pleasure to work with.

Tags: Awesome Farms, meat, New York, Owen O'Connor, small farms
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by Owen O'Connor

When I opened the back of the van, the ram just lay still in disbelief. The past couple of months must have been rough for him. First, the ram was weaned off of his mother. Then, he watched as his lamb buddies, who had not been chosen to become breeding stock, were shipped off the farm. In order to prevent him from breeding ewes at the wrong time or getting beat up by older rams, he was put in with a group of older male goats (or bucks). After a few months with only the tall, smelly bucks as company, a strange man (me) showed up and lifted him into the back of a 1995 Dodge minivan. He had never experienced a ride in a motorized vehicle. Surely he expected that this ride was the culmination of his woes and would come to some sort of terrible end. So when the van hatch opened onto an open pasture with 75 ewes just waiting for a ram to arrive, the ram couldn’t believe that this was the end of his journey. In reality it was just a beginning for him, the beginning of the breeding season and the start of his career as a ram.

As our new ram gathered his wits about him and jumped out of the van, the first animal that greeted him was not the ewes that he was headed for, but Joshua, our guard llama. I was watching closely, because we had had trouble in the past with guard animals greeting new additions to the flock. Two years ago, we bought some lambs from a friend’s farm, and as we introduced them to the rest of our flock, our guard donkey marched right up to one of the lambs and took a bite out of him! For that, and other infractions, our guard donkey was eventually relieved of his duties. Though I had more faith in this guard animal’s judgment, I was cautious nonetheless. The llama did in fact try to detain the ram, to block him from the other sheep until a more thorough assessment could be done. The ram, however, was impatient, and in a rushed move towards the llama, signaled to the llama that he should “back off.” He pranced right in to the middle of the pasture and elicited a response that even Justin Bieber would be jealous of. The ewes instantly swarmed the young ram, the flock circulating as each ewe attempted to be the closest to their new guest.

For ewes, the fall is when their bodies are ready for breeding. For many sheep breeds, ewes only start to be “in heat” when the days start shortening in the fall. Some breeds are more likely to breed year round, especially breeds that were developed near the equator, where there is less of dramatic seasonal difference in length of daylight. Once they begin cycling, the ewes come into heat every 17 days or so. During these periods, they are ovulating, and they will stand still for the ram.

Our new ram, on his first day on the job, seemed to have a fairly poor sense of which ewes to pursue. He would focus in on a particular ewe, and trot after her, his lip curled up in a characteristic look of a ram in longing. The ewes that he chose kept moving away from him. Meanwhile, an ignored group of five to ten desperate-seeming ewes trailed right behind the ram, practically begging for his attention.

The start of the breeding season is the kick-off moment for the flock’s year-long project of lamb production. Gestation takes almost five months, so ewes that are bred in December will mostly give birth in May. But for now, birth and lamb-rearing are far away concepts. It will be a long time before this ram proves his worth as a sire of future generations. But right now, our ram isn’t worried about how he might be evaluated down the line. He is just living in the moment, ever glad that he took that strange van ride with me.

Tags: Awesome Farm, breeding season, Claverack, ewe, lamb production, ram, Red Hook, sheep
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by Owen O'Connor, photograph courtesy Columbia Land Conservancy

When people find out that I run a farm with my partner, they often ask me if I grew up on a farm. Yes and no, I reply. I grew up on subdivided farmland, as many raised in Dutchess County did. Both of my parents worked for the postal service, and while we lived in a rural area, most of the people that we knew did not have a direct connection to agriculture or land-based business. And while the culture of gleaning one’s livelihood from the land was largely absent in my early life, the land itself was very present. From our house in Clinton Corners, I could see a wide spread of our county’s hills, and the Catskills and Shawangunks past the Hudson. Enough time has passed that I can admit to having very little respect for property lines as I rambled through the forests and fields of central Dutchess county. I had very little connection to agriculture, but I fell in love with the land. In many ways, my journey thus far is a playing out of a love affair with the land of the Hudson Valley.

Certainly, there is a lot of politicking about land use. And as we have structured land as a commodity, many people have large economic interests tied up in land. But I feel like these issues and interests can sometime distract us from connecting with a real sense of gratitude for the place where we live. Whether your ancestors came to the Hudson Valley 10 or 10,000 years ago, in the 1970’s or the 1770’s, we are all immigrants to this place. All guests. The valley will still be here when all of our descendants have moved on. That the gift of this place has been passed on to us, and that we are responsible for it being passed onto future generations, should elicit a spirit of stewardship and care from everyone that deals with the land.

My child will grow up with farmers as parents, but it matters very little to me that he pursues agriculture as a profession or even as a passion. I do, however feel grateful that I am able to take him with me as I work, to have him experience the relationship that I am trying to cultivate with the fields that we manage, to have him see me try to make a career out of a land ethic. I feel proud to be able to raise him in the landscape that I hold so dear. And glad that he can see me pursuing my own version of what it means to feel gratitude for this place.

Owen O’Connor runs Awesome Farm, ltd with his partner KayCee Wimbish. They raise and sell grass-fed lamb and beef in Red Hook and Claverack, NY. Owen grew up in Clinton Corners, ans was working in organic vegetable farms before he and KayCee started their own project.

Tags: agriculture, Awesome Farm, Catskills, Claverack, Clinton Corners, Dutchess County, ethic, farmers, gratitude, Hudson, Hudson Valley, land use, Red Hook, stewardship
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by Owen O'Connor

As the days get colder, graziers around the Hudson Valley are preparing for the long season of winter feeding for their sheep, cattle and goats. By now, the pasture grasses have dramatically slowed their rate of growth, and many have found that their pastures are starting to run out of food for their animals. For most, pastures will not be a primary source of feed until spring growth renews the fields in May. That leaves about a half a year in “winter feeding” mode. The default winter feeding option for most people that raise ruminants is hay. A big bank of hay at the onset of winter gives a farmer a sense of security. Hay can be accurately evaluated for quality as a feed, it is easy to count how much you have, and good hay is enjoyed and appreciated by grazing animals. Hay, however, has one major drawback. It is expensive. While $30 for a 600 lb round bale seems like a good price, the problem isn’t that a pound of hay is expensive, but that the amount of hay an animal eats over the winter costs quite a bit in comparison with the income that that animal might produce. It is very easy to feed away the profit that might have been generated that year. One of the ways that producers try to avoid the costs of hay feeding is by extending the grazing season as far into winter as possible.

There are two basic paths to take when pursuing winter grazing: stockpiling permanent pasture or growing annuals to be grazed. With stockpiled permanent pasture, a portion of pasture is set aside in late July or early August to be grazed when the grass is no longer growing. A pasture that is left to rest longer produces more standing forage, but quality declines with time as the plants become more mature and coarse and nutrients are leached by rain. A pasture that is rested a shorter amount of time will be more palatable and nutritious, but there will be less total feed available. Tall grass also makes it easier for the animals to access the forage when there is some snow or ice on the ground. Different pasture plants hold their quality in the dormant season better than others. Tall fescue and orchard grass stay at least partially green through much of the winter, while reed canary grass becomes brown and unpalatable after a few hard frosts.

Annuals offer an array of options to those that have the means to grow them or have access to crop fields for grazing. Many different crops provide good winter grazing. Winter rye and winter wheat can give good green grass all winter. Winter rye really takes the prize as being the greenest plant in the dead of winter. Tall brassicas such as broccoli, kale, collards, cabbage and brussel sprouts may have much of the plant still in the field after harvest. Not only do these plants provide good feed for ruminants, but they are very easy to find in the snow because of their height and sturdyness. Turnips have also been widely used as a winter grazing crop.

But what about the snow? The ice? Certainly, a thick layer of ice can totally halt grazing. Cows and sheep can paw through only a thin coating. If there is enough desirable forage underneath, snow presents less of a problem. If it is sufficiently fluffy, animals can graze through it to some extent. Grazing through snow is a learned behavior, however, and animals can’t just be dumped into a snow-covered field directly from being fed hay in the yard.

Sheep and cattle do fine out on pasture in the winter. The biggest consideration is how to provide a respite from cold winter winds. A grove of trees or a human-built windbreak can be sufficient shelter to take the edge off of the wind. Staying warm takes energy, and being out in the elements will increase the feed requirements of a ruminant. However, with the animal harvesting the feed themselves, it is still a more profitable option. Winter grazing offers a more variable and weather dependant feeding option than hay, but for those that can do some winter grazing with their herd, it can be a significant cost saver.

Tags: Awesome Farm, brassicas, cattle, Claverack, grasses, grazing, hay, Hudson Valley, New York, Owen O'Connor, pastures, Red Hook, ruminants, sheep, winter
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by Owen O'Connor

There is a lot of buzz these days about “Grass-Fed” meat, and even many conventional supermarkets are starting to carry grass-fed beef or lamb. A number of popular books and movies have highlighted the problems with the commodity meat system in America, and a growing consciousness around personal health and environmental impacts has inspired consumers to seek out more grass-fed meat. But what does “Grass-fed” mean, really?

Part of the confusion stems from the fact that almost all beef cattle, lambs and goats eat some grass or forage during their life. Forage is often the lowest-cost food option, and because of that, most cattle and sheep spend significant portions of their life out on pasture. For many beef animals, it is only in the later part of their life that they are shipped to feedlots to be fattened, or “finished.” It is the finishing stage in the process that is the most centralized and industrialized, and is concentrated in grain-growing areas because of the corn and soybean rations that are fed to cattle while they are at the feedlots. Some producers that finish their own animals with grain while on pasture describe their meat as grass-fed, and it must be admitted, these animals are fed with grass. This inspired some producers that are trying to promote the exclusive feeding of grass or forage, even through the finishing stage, to label their products as “grass-fed and finished.”

In October of 2007, the USDA put out a statement of what “Grass-fed” means when used on meat labels.

Grass (Forage) Fed – Grass and forage shall be the feed source consumed for the lifetime of the ruminant animal, with the exception of milk consumed prior to weaning. The diet shall be derived solely from forage consisting of grass (annual and perennial), forbs (e.g., legumes, Brassica), browse, or cereal grain crops in the vegetative (pre-grain) state. Animals cannot be fed grain or grain byproducts and must have continuous access to pasture during the growing season. Hay, haylage, baleage, silage, crop residue without grain, and other roughage sources may also be included as acceptable feed sources. Routine mineral and vitamin supplementation may also be included in the feeding regimen. If incidental supplementation occurs due to inadvertent exposure to non-forage feedstuffs or to ensure the animal’s well being at all times during adverse environmental or physical conditions, the producer must fully document (e.g., receipts, ingredients, and tear tags) the supplementation that occurs including the amount, the frequency, and the supplements provided.

In summary, meats labeled grass fed should be from animals that received only grass, hay or other forage, and not just some grass. Besides the USDA, there are a few other organizations that provide more detailed standards, as well as third-party certification such as the American Grassfed Association.

There are a number of benefits gained from solely feeding sheep and cattle grass and forage. It reduces the need for conventionally grown soybeans and corn, which take fossil fuels and synthetic pesticides and fertilizers to grow. The industrial raising of these grains is a major cause of soil erosion and fertilizer run-off in the middle of America. Creating an animal agriculture which does not need feedlots avoids the pollution and animal treatment concerns that have been raised about these institutions. It also reduces the need to ship animals long distances to feedlots, and allows the animals to finish their life without the antibiotics and growth hormones standard in industrial feedlots. Grass-fed advocates such as Jo Robinson and the Weston Price Foundation also cite health benefits for the consumer from eating grass-fed meats.

But doesn’t grain-finished beef and lamb taste better? In a word: No. Good tasting meat is a combination of flavor, tenderness and fats. Longer finishing times give grass-fed steers plenty of time to develop flavor. With proper finishing, grass-fed animals can be just as tender and develop sufficient fat as well. Of course, if you slaughter any animal before it is ready, or expose them to nutritional or environmental stress, you can wind up with tough meat. But grass and forage is the time-tested feed for sheep and cattle, and with careful management, it can produce fine meat. A common mistake that can turn people off to grass-fed meat is cooking the meat to too high a temperature. For tips about cooking grass-fed meat, check out: www.sustainabletable.org/features/articles/grassfedbeef
If you are interested in finding out more about grass-fed meats, or finding local producers, you can visit Jo Robinson’s website: www.eatwild.com

Owen O’Connor runs Awesome Farm, ltd with his partner KayCee Wimbish. They raise and sell grass-fed lamb and beef in Red Hook, NY. Owen grew up in Clinton Corners, and was working in organic vegetable farms before he and KayCee started their own project. In this continuing column, Owen offers his reflections on starting and running a livestock farm in the Hudson Valley.

Tags: Awesome Farm, beef, environmental, grass-fed meat, health benefits, KayCee Wimbish, lamb, New York, Owen O'Connor, Red Hook, tips about cooking
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by Owen O'Connor

At our animal farm, we get a lot of questions from people about who slaughters the animals and how. As people become more conscious of where their food comes from, they are more and more interested in what happens at the end of the line – the slaughter. And rightly so . . . recent news stories have reinforced concerns about disease contamination and animal cruelty. Here in New York, our slaughterhouses are much smaller than the handful of slaughterhouses that process the majority of America’s meat. Being smaller doesn’t necessarily mean cleaner or more sensitive to the animals’ experience, but it does mean that many fewer animals are processed in a day and there is less of a factory feel to them. Regulations related to animal slaughtering vary from state to state. New York State condones different slaughter situations based on what kind of animal is being slaughtered and how the final product is going to be sold.

Pigs, lambs and cattle can be slaughtered in two kinds of facilities. Custom slaughterhouses were originally for farmers needing their animals slaughtered for their own use. They still perform this function today, but New York State interprets their function in a way that really helps out small farms that are trying to sell directly to consumers. If the customer preorders the animal, the state considers them the owner, and they can have their animal slaughtered at a custom slaughterhouse. Taken a step further, a customer can order just a half of the animal, and they are still considered to be an owner of the animal. There is some grey area here, but at least for now, the state’s interpretation creates an opportunity to have direct marketed meat processed at small custom slaughterhouses. Any animals that are not pre-sold, or are going to be resold at any point, must be slaughtered in a USDA inspected slaughterhouse. This would include meat that is sold at a farmers market or other retail location, as well as any meat sold to wholesalers. At these institutions, a USDA inspector is on site whenever they are doing the actual slaughtering. Custom slaughterhouses are inspected multiple times a year, but they do not need to have an inspector there in order to do killing.

Because the USDA inspected slaughterhouses in the Northeast have a relatively small capacity, custom slaughterhouses are helpful because they can be easier to book a date and coordinate with than the very busy USDA slaughterhouses. One option that some meat customers take is to buy their animal live and slaughter it themselves. Farmers can make this option available to people at their farm, or the customer can butcher the animal at home.

There is a Federal exemption that allows an individual to slaughter up to 1000 chickens per year without having a USDA inspected slaughterhouse if the chickens are to be sold directly to the end user and not to a wholesaler. New York State considers turkeys to count as 4 chickens. The farm must be able to kill and process the birds in a clean and sanitary manner. Last year, our farm slaughtered meat chickens by renting a trailer from a friend that had all the necessary equipment welded onto it. There were kill cones, a scalder used to loosen the feathers of the birds, a feather plucker, stainless steel tables and water hoses for eviscerating, and stainless steel water tanks for cooling down the birds once they were cleaned up. This trailer allowed us to process a decent amount of chickens in a day (about 120) and it was easy to use and keep sanitary. Farmers that raise more than 1000 birds or plan to sell wholesale must get their facilities inspected and approved or use a custom or USDA inspected slaughterhouse.

There are many rules and regulations concerning animal slaughter and butchering, of which we have just skimmed the surface. Farmers and consumers have to keep up with changing guidelines and interpretations and try to find solutions that give the customer what they want while satisfying the inspectors. With luck, farmers can find a slaughter option that allows them to market their products the way they want, and achieves the goal of keeping our meat supply clean and safe.

Tags: animal farm, Awesome Farm, beef, cattle, chicken, clean and safe, direct marketed meat, grass-fed, KayCee Wimbish, lamb, livestock, meat, meat supply, New York, Owen O'Connor, pigs, slaughterhouses
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by Owen O'Connor

They say that good fences make good neighbors. I can relate to that. For the past two years we have grazed sheep on land adjacent to our friends’ vegetable farm. We were never really at ease unless we could see the sheep and be assured that they had not somehow penetrated the old woven wire fence that separated our pastures from the gourmet salad mix and organic kale that tempted them from the other side.

And there were enough breakouts that our worries were well founded. An ice storm took down some of our temporary electric fence, permitting the sheep to give themselves a self-guided tour of our landlord’s orchard. An unnoticed hole in the fence resulted in a neighbor herding the sheep back through the woods with his ATV. One summer evening, I arrived at another one of our leased properties to find zero sheep inside our fenced-in paddock. It had been 24 hours since I had checked on the sheep. My heart was sinking as the sun set on the horizon. I fully expected to get home to have messages on my answering machine from the Red Hook, Rhinebeck and Hyde Park police departments, all informing me that our animals were marching down Route 9, causing havoc. Thankfully, the flock was in a nearby field, and though herding in the dark was tricky, I was able to get them back into their paddock that night. But the lesson was well learned: good fences keep our animals safe, and keep everything else safe from our animals. So when we signed a new lease this year, we set out to have a long-lasting, dependable fence built around our pastures.

There are many different choices available when fencing in animals. In our area, you can see woven wire, board fences, electric fences, and non-electrified high-tensile wire fences. We chose a high-tensile electric because of its low cost in comparison to other options and its reputation for effectiveness and flexibility in a grazing system. Docile cows can be contained by two strands of electric wire, but to keep lambs or goats in, five strands is the recommended minimum for perimeter fences. You need that many wires to keep dogs and coyotes out as well.

Pressure-treated wooden fence posts are widely available and have a predictably long lifespan, but the chemicals that they contain make the pasture ineligible for organic certification. While we have no short-term plans to get certified, our operation is so close to organic standards that it seemed shortsighted to put in pressure treated posts in a fence that would be there for more than 20 years. We went with black-locust fence posts, which are naturally rot resistant, though quality and size are less consistent.

We hired a fence contractor to put the fence in, but before he could begin, the fence line needed to be cleared. Over the years, fallen tree limbs had been mowed around rather than cleared. Brush grew around the limbs, and the once straight edge of the pasture eventually became jagged and uneven. Besides that acreage that would be lost if the fence-line wasn’t restored, a straight fence is both stronger and less expensive. My friends and I went at the fence line for more than a week with chainsaws, loppers, and leather gloves, making a clean path. I rented a walk-behind brush mower to clear leftover vines and brambles and finish the job.

By now the fence is finished. Anything touching the fence gets a zap of more than 6000 volts of electricity. The fence charger electrifies the fence in very short bursts, so you can’t be electrocuted by the fence, but the kick is enough that all animals, humans included, remember not to touch the fence again. The fence needs vigilant maintenance to maintain its power. In order to prevent the wires from shorting out, grass and brush needed to be mowed or grazed under the fence-line. Old wire from previous fences can also cause shorts if they come in contact with the fence. Tree branches need to be trimmed in order to keep them from growing into the fence or from dropping dead limbs onto the wires.

The costs of installation and maintenance are fairly high, but the payoff is worth it. Temporary electric fence can be run off of the perimeter fence to provide intensive management of the pastures, allowing us to take full use of the abundant and low-cost feed available in grasses and clovers. The perimeter fence provides a strong barrier that will contain the animals even if ice or wind brings down the temporary fencing, allowing us to sleep well at night. Besides the animals themselves, the fence is our biggest investment in our grazing operation. But the investment in a good fence provides returns not only in good neighbors, but in sound sleep, efficient use of labor, and productive pasture management.

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