Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms discusses grass-fed cattle
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.
25 Responses to Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms discusses grass-fed cattle
Leave a Reply
I used to live close to Joel… my kids were in the same homeschooling group… we did house church with the Salatins for a while… He is one of my heroes. His model of farming is the best I have ever seen, hands, down, bar none!
daffodyllady
October 4, 2011 at 10:07 pm
you got a big gut joel and a start of double chin
TheJUNGLESURFER
October 4, 2011 at 10:28 pm
I LOVE HIM! 😉
psycokicks
October 4, 2011 at 10:51 pm
great stuff!! Mate hope to get over there one day and learn more.
tgf76
October 4, 2011 at 11:32 pm
It’s impossible to dislike this guy.
MathieuBauerTV
October 4, 2011 at 11:58 pm
We love you Joel! Can’t wait till you come out to Seattle for the Kirkland Health Fair this July!
jeredmorgan
October 5, 2011 at 12:21 am
@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.
JamesTyreeII
October 5, 2011 at 1:18 am
its amazing how few people have watched this
beefsk8er
October 5, 2011 at 1:36 am
Joel Salatin for President!
tyger31guru
October 5, 2011 at 2:04 am
Respond to this video…
Joel Salatin for President!
tyger31guru
October 5, 2011 at 2:47 am
Joel Salatin for President!
tyger31guru
October 5, 2011 at 3:30 am
Mr. Salaitn is a passionate, productive farmer with many interesting ideas. At the end of the vid he seemed to have a little bit of a chip on his shoulder about how he thinks our society undervalues farmers, and thinks farming is for the unintelligent. He thinks most parents wouldn’t encourage their kids to get into farming for that reason. I think most parents would be fine with their kids becoming farmers if they thought the kids could raise the money to buy a farm and make a living at it.
sebwingfield
October 5, 2011 at 3:40 am
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.
KallyJones
October 5, 2011 at 4:05 am
@cathysueraymond
I appreciate, also discussion on sustainable grain growing (if only it were happening!). As well as mentioning the traditional roles of birds and pigs on the farm. I love how in “feeds and feeding” it talks about the stocking rates of feeder pigs, behind fattening steers fed whole corn. Now that’s farming…
Thanks Joel, for all your hardwork, from a young christian libertarian capitalist milking a few cows up in Nova Scotia.
Jesus’ Name!
Charles Summers
whitebredcharlie
October 5, 2011 at 4:43 am
@whitebredcharlie
is a response to the way that Joel has been received as an agri-messiah in the media of late, and that “if everyone farmed like Joel, we’d live in eden”. Well, Joel, and all farmers, are farming in the REAL (wicked) WORLD.
Is it all about grass? Yes. Is it all about cows? Word. Is it all about moving critters over the land? For sure. Do excessive amounts of cheap grain make that a lot easier and more productive? Thank God! HIghly productive land requires inputs. Period.
whitebredcharlie
October 5, 2011 at 5:01 am
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.
cathysueraymond
October 5, 2011 at 5:50 am
@cathysueraymond
Wow! Did Joel Salatin just personally respond to my remark on YouTube ?
I should have dissed you on here a long time ago! What an honor!
Truth is, I love Joel Salatin. He’s been a huge huge inspiration. I’ve got all his books, and was engaging in the ever popular jealous pastime amongst loser organic farmers, of “let’s trash Joel Salatin”!
I think, above and beyond jealousy, the reason growers make comments like mine…
whitebredcharlie
October 5, 2011 at 6:07 am
@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
cathysueraymond
October 5, 2011 at 6:41 am
@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.
cathysueraymond
October 5, 2011 at 6:58 am
@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.
cathysueraymond
October 5, 2011 at 7:57 am
@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.
cathysueraymond
October 5, 2011 at 8:36 am
@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.
cathysueraymond
October 5, 2011 at 8:46 am
@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.
cathysueraymond
October 5, 2011 at 9:43 am
@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.
cathysueraymond
October 5, 2011 at 10:11 am
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.
cathysueraymond
October 5, 2011 at 10:34 am