Farms Were Meant to Have Lots of Animals..

Old MacDonald had it right.

The bio-diversity of his farm was a living metaphor for all that happens on a healthy farm.

There are even whole sub-cultures of "critters", such as mycorrhizae, that live in the soil. They break down the manure from horses, cows, goats, sheep, geese and everyone else and turn it into food that the plant roots can assimilate.

That's why healthy soil leads to healthy animals. Likewise, soil that is overburdened by too many animals becomes unhealthy for all concerned.

We strive to find the right balance and work with what nature suggests.

Geese

The Benefits of Grass-fed Beef at Cairns' Farm in Ardmore, TN.

The problems with the way food animals are raised today cannot be solved by modern science. There isn't a magic pill that will overcome the negative aspects of confinement feeding, hormone abuses or misdirected breeding.

The abuses cows suffer in the major feedlots include:

  • The widespread use of hormones, antibiotics, and other drugs
  • A condition called subactute acidosis, which causes them to stop eating, eat dirt and experience pain. Antibiotics are constantly used to fight this. This promotes the emergence of resistant bacteria which the antibiotics will not stop.
  • Respiratory infections from breathing the ammonia rising from the urine saturated dirt.
  • Lowered levels of the nutrients that make them better food including CLA, Vitamin-E, beta-carotine and omega-3 fatty acids.

The solution to these issues involves fewer cows on larger pastures. The large business interests don't like those numbers because they can't get the economies of scale they want. The fact that the products are less nutritious are ignored.

Joie

The benefits of grass-fed beef include:

Better life for the cows.

  • Grass feeding engages the cycle that nature has enhanced for thousands of years. Ruminants, such as cows, have developed bacteria that live in their rumen and covert the stored energy in grass into food. Keeping cows on open pasture also lowers their susceptibility to parasites and minimizes destructive behaviors associated with confinement.
  • It also provides employment for high quality border collies, such as Joie. Joie is so adept at running the farm that the only reason she keeps humans around is to open the gates.
  • Longer useful life for dairy cattle

Better Health For the Humans

  • It's lower in fat and calories
  • It has 3 to 5 times the Conjugated Linoleic Acid of confinement cattle.
  • It is higher in Vitamin E
  • It is higher in Omega-3 fatty acids
  • It is less stressful on the farmer.
  • It lowers the chance of E.Coli problems at the slaughterhouse.
  • It preserves the soil through less erosion and lowers the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere.

Contact Us to place your order.

For details and scientific research see our friends at Eat Wild.