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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2010
- On a "lunatic" tour of Polyface Farms, June 18, 2010, Joel Salatin, owner, discusses the process and benefits of raising cattle on grass.
For the past 50 years, raising beef in the United States has generally been about growing beef bigger, faster, and cheaper on as little land as possible. Contrary to the pastoral image one may have of farming, most cows raised in the United States these days eat corn -- which they were never meant to eat -- and get sick from it. Cows in the US receive a fair amount of antibiotics to compensate, and their manure is collected in huge lagoons that are too riddled with antibiotics to feed back to the corn that feeds them.
Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface Farms, believes in raising animals in a way that mimics the processes of nature: Cows graze one area of grass, and a few days later, chickens graze the same area and eat the fly larvae out of the manure. The manure from both fertilizes the grass. Joel Salatin discusses a little of this process, here.
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Joel presents a cattle rasing method that "in fewer than ten years we would sequester all the carbon that's been emitted since the beginning of the industrial age." (See 7:10 - 8:00)
His farm has NOT planted a seed or bought a bag of fertilier for 50 years!
His lectures are humorous and loaded with great new and natural concepts - a good steward of the earth and great teacher.
God Bless!
Cows don't make more gases than us.
You lit the fire in me Joel, I have been working on my garden and heading to a more sustainable lifestyle
Big change from 7 years ago, love your channel, and food forests.
A lesson in biology, animal husbandry, sociology, cultural responsibility, sustainability, politics and in the wider sense humanity all in a few minutes.
Lets live well people.
It's impossible to dislike this guy.
To everyone saying "oh look at his gut" stop assuming that just because a guy has a little bit of a guy that doesn't mean what he supports isn't healthy. You don't know his daily life, if he wanted to be more fit he probably could be, it's probably just not his priority at the moment to keep a "slim" figure. He most likely does feel great and has tons of energy. People are so quick to say stupid remarks without thinking...
Also, he is about 60 years old.
And his daily work wouldn’t work every muscle area not training some areas like his gut
Six pack abs always showing is actually 'not' as healthy as having some adipose tissue in the abs. Yes, excessive belly fat is linked to heart attacks, but aesthetic notions of health does not translate to actual health. Eating healthy food is step 1 in the health bucket.
He probably drinks cofee every morning. Eats bread. And drinks beer as well. Of course he will have a belly.
Funny. I was thinking "Look how healthy that guy is!" I think people are too obsessed with being skinny, in a world where most people have at least a good start on fatty liver disease. Bet he's not struggling with a fatty liver.
Saw this dude on Food Inc.Cool guy, very passionate about farming. He actually makes farming seem fun or at the very least interesting. Definitely need more farmers like him that want to eat meat but by feeding the animals what they would naturally eat and at the same time having a sustainable environment.
I sent him your question to respond to, and posted on his behalf. He's in Australia on tour now, I thought it was really special of him to take the time to write such a thorough and considered responses.
I love this guys enthusiasm and passion. He makes me want to farm or at least watch someone else do it.
God bless this man
So much goodness from this guy.
well said, indeed! thumbs up for you! keep up the good work!
I'm glad you mentioned how cows don't naturally eat what the "conventional" model prescribes. They don't naturally eat meat, GMO corn, and GMO soy, for example, like what is in the bagged food. I do love your demonstration of salad ingredients for the animals. I grew up on a farm and that makes perfect sense. What grows in natural pastures is what is healthy (naturally) for the animals.
Not only do cattle not naturally eat GMO corn or soy - Cattle don't naturally eat ANY grain. Salatin's cattle never get any grain. NEVER. Neither does Pharo Cattle Company... and many other producers across the country.
Buying directly from a local farmer is the best way to get great beef - with healthy CLA, high in Omega 3 fatty acids - but take the time to ask about how the animals are fed and finished. Any grain at any time in the beef animal's lifetime will reduce it's efficiency on pasture & hay. 'Finishing' on grain ruins the advantages of 'grassfed meats'. So look for 100% grassfed & grassfinished beef.
They don't eat meat but they won't walk over meat you know. Ever saw that video about horse killing and eating baby chicks?
Thanks for filming and sharing this ;-)
Love Joels video and farming knowledge. ☺🤔
Just brilliant!
i think i need to visit Poly face in person this man has his shit together
as for all the vegetarians you go eat your grass and nuts and leave the people that are using our knines and incisors for what they are intended
This man is very smart and I respect him a lot
I met this awesome man in NY Hudson Valley talk....very passionate!!!
Thank you!!!!
"Why don't we entrust our food (for crying out loud) to the best and brightest in our culture?!"
Indeed!
Ben Stephens He said it! Somehow everyone wants to just whine about what to eat, not how to eat....LOL
sounds like a preacher with so much information. nice vid
I'm never looking at beef the same again. I saw food inc. And I was disgusted! ! Thank God for old school farmers.
I agree with Joel,once we can change the culture to believe and see that farmig is a worthwhile endeavour only then will we get the "A and B" students to take it up
thank u
Hes so passionate
Excellent! Thank you so much! I going to sub!
wisdom.
most farmers cycle their cattle from field to field it is the high production ones that corral them and pump them up with high protein foods.
Hey WBC, TGW tipped me off that you wrote a comment about Polyface that I should see. Joel is now in Australia for a month-long tour, so I'll certainly ask him. He does say, in one fo the videos in this series, that chicken are the weak link at Polyface. In the past farms only had a couple chickens, and relied on their larger animals for sustainence, grain was precious. Chickens before just ate the kitchen scraps. I will send your comment to him and see if he has anything else to add.
Happy cows!!!!
Can I get a list of the kinds of grass to grow for beef? I have heard some grass fed beef did not taste good because they only had one or two grasses to eat. Don't know if it's true or not...
I don't see why this video is so mind blowing to some people. This is all common sense out here in the west, every farmer knows this and has done it for years.
I do absolutely agree. Every common sense farmer in every country knows things like that.
@beefsk8er I totally agree1 I cannot believe it! Well, if any who HAVE watched it are like me, they watch this to learn how to do it and will be DOING this. For me, I plan to do this in the Oregon/Washington region.
@whitebredcharlie @ThanksgivingWalk
Joel's Response #2
2. Grain can be produced ecologically if it is part of a multi-year rotation, like the traditional 7 year rotation of 4 years pasture, 1 year legume, 1 year corn, and 1 year grain--or something very similar.
Did Polyface seed the fields originally?
Once you have good plant growth base the animals keep it fertilized from the manure they drop on the ground that is why he never has to buy fertilizer.
How many cows can you graze on an acre that is fertilized only by their manure ?
@whitebredcharlie @ThanksgivingWalk
Response From Joel...from the Down Under!!!! In 5 parts.
Excellent point and I'll address it in a couple of ways: 1. Grain can be produced ecologically if long stemmed varieties are used to create a different biomasss/ grain ratio, and all the straw either left on the field or used as bedding, composted, and spread back on the field whence the grain came.
Why the 4 dislikes? Must be 4 people that prefer the rube goldberg form of farming...
What about free-choice finishing of cattle?
These cattle are free-choice finished on high quality diverse pastures. Why would anyone want to give them grain? Grain costs more. Grain reduces the animals' feed efficiency on pasture & hay. Grain sharply reduces healthy CLA & Omega 3 in meats. Most all grain is now either GMO and nearly all of it has significant chemical residues (herbicides, primarily).
Grain was used in the past to make up for defficiencies in pasture and management, but with good management, it is not necessary. Grain feeding sets cattle up for health problems, as they did not evolve to eat the starches in grain, and feeding grain reduces the CLA and Omega 3 content of the meat. There is no advantage to feeding grain over proper finishing on pasture .
heard the mosquito and started swatting lol
@whitebredcharlie @ThanksgivingWalk
Joel's Response #4
4. Poultry and pigs getting as much of their feed from scrounged sources as possible reduces their consumption by up to 45 percent (pork), 15 percent (chickens) and 40 percent (turkeys). That further reduces the acreage required to raise the grain for a given number of these animals.
waterhead001 Just to answer your question... Some farmers have very good luck of finding land that naturally grows this way (but it's rare); and usually it is Raw or Unfarmed by traditional farmers. Trust me when I say it's a pain in the butt, because I'm currently looking for doable land right now....LOL (and the key is not to buy preused farmland or already established farms...) If the land is massacred, then the farmer must reseed and rehabilitate the land by healing the soil (and that takes years of proper management in the form of permaculture.) There are plenty of organic seed companies that are allowing farmers such as myself to do this by providing seed mixes in bulk that contain natural grasses and flowers like Joel demonstrated. But of course it all starts with the soil first.
If a farmer can build up their topsoil and the organisms that naturally exist within it, then you'll have healthy grasses for grazing cattle and yummy fruits and vegetables.
"YUMMY"?
You know that the Salatin family never planted any seed, right? 'Starting with the soil' can be simply starting with mooving the livestock across the land. The animals stimulate and innoculate the soil, and the plants - even most 'weeds' - support the animals, and the both the plants (via root exudates) and the livestock (via saliva, urine, and manure) feed the soil - which feed the livestock... Properly managed, this natural relationship between the soil, the sun, the plants and the livestock builds topsoil - carbon rich - both up and downward into the soil profile.
In extreme cases, herbivore livestock may need some hay. And poultry needs some feed in addition to pasture, but it is AMAZING what restoring the relationship between soil, plants, and herbivores (and omnivores like poultry & hogs) can do!
Is farming a "lost art" or is it constantly being re-invented? Probably a combo of both. "In extreme cases" a farmer may resort to a compromise to save the day. But the day passes, and tomorrow brings a solution to avoid the compromise, if, out of respect for and confidence in nature, the goal is to let nature tell us what is needed, to "do nothing" that gets in nature's way (and make more work for ourselves than was needed). I'll take doing nothing every time over doing the wrong thing. It takes a quiet mind, a reflective mind in touch with the land to come to inspired actions. Little by little, one day at a time, ideas come, if we are open to learning by observation of nature. What does nature do? Why? What is happening? How can I get out of the way or help it happen faster, better? How do I know I succeeded?
You just explained the answer to "Global Warming" .Carbon capturing back into the soil and plants!
Bail grazing to start out...
so he got the average cow days per acre from 80 to 400 due to the "teenage" grasses?
It's basically from years of mob grazing
ILBackyardFarm the grass stage is one component, the development of the soil over time is another
Basically yes.
If you think of it like commercial forestry, harvesting as soon as the slowing growth starts slowing the economic gains, compared to just harvesting select trees from old growth forest.
The commercial forest is managed to optimise the growth and production of timber, while the old-growth forest is basically unmanaged and unoptimised.
It's a rough example, and continuous cover forestry can be quite economic, but the point is that if you optimise the growth of the plants you can get massive improvements
@whitebredcharlie @ThanksgivingWalk
Joel's Response #3
3. If we quit feeding grain to cows, it would reduce grain requirements, assuming no changes in pork or poultry consumption, but nearly 50 percent. Imagine if 50 percent of the ground currently devoted to grains were returned to perennial prairie polycultures, or at least put into the long rotation mentioned above.
So, how many acres per cattle using his system?
+Philip Depends on how "rich" you land is. If you have poor soils it takes more. I live in WV, so part of the land has to be for hay production. My soils are poor and require 3 tons per acre lime for a maintenance dose.
+WVsilverzuk In your case how many cattle heads per acre?
+Philip I run 8 adult cattle, and calves. I have 3 pastures that I can rotate through. The main pasture is 12.5 acres. The secondary is mixed pasture and woods, and probably has 4 or 5 acres of grass. The third is also a 5 acre hay field that I pasture after I cut hay. I could run more head on that amount, but years like last year I would have to buy more hay. I feed one 4x4 roll of hay every other day and 50# of 11% cattle feed every other day. In cold weather, I feed 50# of 11% feed every day. We had a very dry August, and I thought I was going to have to start feeding hay in October. Buy rotating pastures and finally some rain and warm fall weather, I made it to my traditional start date of the Saturday before Thanksgiving before I started feeding hay. I normally feed 60 to 65 rolls of hay per winter and 2 tons of 11% feed. So to answer your question, I would estimate 2 acres per head.
+WVsilverzuk Thanks for the response. 2 heads per acre sounds good. I just wonder if stocking rate goes higher in tropical countries not affected by winter and have grass all year long..
+Philip it depends on the soil. I know once you get out near the coast of South Carolina, you don't see cattle. Then I started looking, and the sandy soils don't look like they grow grasses well.
buddy needs his hat shapped
@whitebredcharlie @ThanksgivingWalk
Joel's Response #5a
5. North Americans should probably not be eating the amount of chicken they do. In the big scheme of things, traditionally, (before things became abnormal) pigs and poultry were farmstead scavengers, sanitizers if you will. The everyman food was beef because an herbivore could harvest forage which did not need to be planted.
Does the different variaties of grass grow naturally or does he seed his pastures? Do these different grasses grow throughout the United States?
Factory farming is appalling. I'd rather pay more for meats than support it, whenever I can.
breed of cattle?
eoe oo his catlle are "mutts"
Better than inbred
The other way is factory farming. Like how it is done in the USA. Watch Food Inc.
100% agree with you Joel, except that we do (unfortunately) trust our food to the best and brightest and they put it under a microscope and screw up it's genetics.
Joel must be referring to the “dreads”.....the current meat industry that could careless about the animals, or people that eat their animals.
7:27
The cow agrees
I have to disagree on one point, allot of dregs work in the nursing home biz, so we are trusting literally our national treasures to people that are only there to steal pills.
my cow prefers to smoke his grass.
sküll düggery your cow can hang
@whitebredcharlie @ThanksgivingWalk
Joel's Response 5c
I tell our customers, anyone who will listen, the real answer is flipping our per capita consumption of pork and poultry into grass finished beef. Then we would mirror traditional resource management. Until then, our customers want poultry. Guilty as charged for getting it to them. Best, Joel
Not grass finished. Grass fed only. Or wild.
OK this all sounds sensible but isn't that how everyone farms - in New Zealand thats just how we do it - what other way is there?? Lisa
Lisa - In the USA, most cattle are 'supplemented' with grain or soy protein blocks, etc while on pasture - then shipped to feedlots and fed free-choice grain until they are slaughtered. There are a number of family-scale farms and ranches that raise beef in a similar manner to Salatin, but it is not the norm. Something over 80% of all the beef in the USA goes through about 4 slaughterhouses - and all that beef comes from confinement feedlots where cattle are 'finished' on grain with no access to pasture (and just enough chopped forage in the ration to keep them from dying, along with rumen buffers added to the feed). Sad, stupid, but true.
I think it would be safe to say that 90% + industrial raised beef goes through the big 4. It is sad, stupid, and true like you said but so very many people choose cheap food over quality food every single day of their lives. -Know your food, know where your food comes from, know your farmer-
@whitebredcharlie @ThanksgivingWalk
Joel's Response #5b
Every culture founded on annuals eventually loses its soil, and the American will follow suit unless we move to a more perennially based culture. In the final analysis, the amount of poultry Polyface produces is inappropriate. And if we connected enough layers to every kitchen to recycle the kitchen and food scraps generated in that kitchen, we would not even have an egg commerce in the world.
Check out Allan Savory. He has greatly influenced Salatin (This is where a lot of the theory he describes comes from).
/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI
Did Salatin ever meet Allan Savory?
/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI
Yes. Salatin read Savory's original book on Holistic Management back in the '50's and was inspired to adapt the methods on his father's ranch (Polyface Farms now). Allan Savory finally came to visit Salatin's Polyface Farms and that is documented here th-cam.com/video/iPOF9ijyhvM/w-d-xo.html
A few things primitive nutrition says are good. But he can't seem to get around the mixing in his head the difference between methods of raising beef, one that improves the environment and one that destroys the environment. He also can't seem to understand the HUGE differences in the nutritional content between grass finished and grain finished.
If you like Salatin, you will love Allan Savory who has clearly influenced Salatin.
/watch?v=vpTHi7O66pI
Interesting !! Ive done rotational grazing for 35 yrs with dairy cattle. I promise you that if cows ate from this pasture milk production would drop like a rock ! Most of what you see growing in this pasture is over mature and no longer palatable to cattle ! It needed to be mowed about a week ago so regrowth can occur. Just saying....its beyond the " vegetative stage " Seldom do you see dairy farmers use rotational grazing as their primary feed source...it takes a lot of management . Instead you see beef cattle being grazed. They dont get.....the high quality feed....and no one even notices or cares. After all who checks a stock cow for milk production ? I thought milk production was important so the calf could grow. Obvious this is not the case.
Your old time dairy farmers use to pasture but with the high production farming that all went away. I knew a farmer who did it the old way but was forced to go with the high production feeding process to stay in business.
@@threeaxis359 It worked for me .....for 45 years ! Its not all about high milk production....its about the bottom line.....income verses expense ! You dont need high production grazing cattle. You dont need a large herd either. Its about making the " pasture" work for you. not ........you work for the cows ! Think about it.....if you have 15 acres of pasture and the cows produce milk from that for "x" number of days. No expence.....only income ! The 15 acres you will find is a very cheap investment ! Even at 10.00 per hundred weight !
We have 100% grass fed beef in WI. if your looking for any :)
Cattle farm jab me sir
No, PrimitiveNutrition has critiqued Salatin's model as well. Watch Humanity Past And Future if you have the guts.
@lisapbuchan Dear Lisa. Here in the USA corporations and their lobbyist control most of the food productions. Bottom line, bottom line. All the SALATIN videos hopefully will get all of us back to the true farm. If you want to get the real idea about 'FACTORY FARMS' do a google on....The Meatrix. Get back to me.
I am a huge fan of Joe Salatin and recently my dad has given me the opportunity to raise grass fed beef on his property, free of charge! Unfortunately I can't afford to buy cattle at this time and that's why I'm asking for your help! To hear more about me and my plan for responsibly raise beef click on the link!
Gofundme.com/rrminiherefords
Your putting companys who love chemicals out of business. 🤥
"The Journalist Gary Taubes 1: Controlling History" Probably be deleted.
you could say that my calling Joel fat or man booby was an "ad hominem," but it caould also be deemed an "accurate observation."
Watch "35 How To Become Insulin Resistant (The Paleo Way) 1" here on YT.
Yes, Salatin is flabby. Even Allan Savory has a bit of a beef gut. Ditch meat for optimal health and ecologic impact.
Actually Tim, both Salatin and Savory also eat GRAIN. But Salatin is about 60 years old, and Savory is what, 70? Let's get real, here!
Since the multi-million head herds of wild herbivores are gone, cattle and other domestic herbivores are just about our only hope of sequestering carbon fast enough to save the vegetarians. Grasses pump carbon into the soil far more efficiently than other plants - but the need the animals they co-evolved with the prune them, trample, salivate, urinate, and dung on them to prevent the mature grasses from oxidizing carbon and other nutrients back into the air. Plants + Animals - it's a symbiotic relationship!
Grains, on the other hand, destroy soils, biodiversity, habitat for non-livestock species, put carbon into the air via tillage, use massive amounts of fossil fuels to plow or no-till, and to make the chemical fertilizers because large herbivores are absent... And the 'rescue chemistry': herbicides, insecticides, nematodicides, fungicides - all to prop up crops that are not thriving because they are growing in a broken ecosystem. Even non GMO grains are sprayed with herbicides when ripe, as a 'drydown aid'.
Not to mention the combines killing directly the rabbits, ground-nesting birds and other small mammals that do manage to survive in grain fields. Or the contamination of every single pond and stream in the 'bread basket' of America. Even the RAIN is contaminated with agrochemicals - nearly all used to grow GRAIN.
Help yourself to another bowl of RoundUp Os, but don't kid yourself about the benefits of not eating meat. Even feedlot beef spends most of it's life on pasture, and in many other nations (NZ, Brazil, etc) pretty much all beef spends its entire life on pasture. Managed to fill the niche left by the now absent wild herds (bison herds in the American west once took DAYS to pass! And yes, bison were found on the Eastern Seaboard region, as well. Along with elk herds and moose, now both virtually extinct.)
Lemme guess, your cat is vegan because you think that's healthier for it?
You like saying "straw man." Nothing on primitive nutrition's cite is a fallacy. It's supported by science.