Questions?
We are happy to answer your questions or refer you to more information as appropriate. Feel free to contact us:
Phone:
715 265 7637
E-mail:
shepherd@shepherdsongfarm.com
Address:
Shepherd Song Farm
N12835 County Road Q
Downing, WI 54734
Group of ewes and lambs. Notice the two lambs looking into the camera (front, center). They are superbly healthy and safe learning what to eat from their moms.
The Replenishing, Sustainable Buffet
Like most goods in this country, the majority of our meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products are being mass-produced. The small family farm is being quickly replaced by large confinement facilities that produce a year-round supply of cheap meat, chickens, eggs and dairy products. The hidden price of convenient, cheap food for us is:
- Air, land, and water pollution
- Widespread use of hormones, antibiotics and other drugs to increase growth and prevent death from crowded conditions
- Food with less nutritional value
The hidden price for our animals is even higher. Stress and abuse from being raised in confinement, tightly packed into cages, pens, sheds, feedlots and on concrete or wire mesh is routine procedure. The hidden life of these animals include their inability to experience normal behaviors such as grazing, running, basking in sunlight or to ever escape the stench of their own manure. Grazing animals have been supplying us with healthy food for thousands of years. it is only recently that increased corporate profits and control have resulted in the sending of animals to feedlots or confinement housing to be fattened.
Animals grown and finished in feed lots and confinement are given diets designed to boost their productivity and lower costs. The main ingredient is grain and "by-products." Sheep and goats are designed by nature to eat fibrous grasses, plants, and shrubs. Switching from their natural diet of grasses to grains and and high energy byproducts lowers the nutritional value of their meat and dairy products. Compared with grass-fed meat, grain-fed meats contains more total fat, saturated fat, and calories. It also has less vitamin E, beta-carotene, and two health-promoting fats called omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA).
Omega-3s are most abundant in seafood and certain nuts and seeds such as flaxseeds and walnuts, but they are also found in ruminants raised on pasture. This is because Omega-3s are formed in the chloroplasts of green leaves and forages. Sixty percent of the fatty acids in grass are omega-3s. When ruminants are taken off omega-3 rich grass and fattened on grain, they begin losing their store of omega-3sThe graph below illustrates this rapid decline.
(Data from Duckett, S. K., D. G. Wagner, L. D. Yates, H. G. Dolezal, and S. G. May. "Effects of Time on Feed on Beef Nutrient Composition." J Anim Sci 71, no. 8 (1993): 2079-88.)
For more on pasture based farming see www.eatwild.com. For more on CLA see www.eatwild.com/cla.html.
At Shepherd Song Farm our sheep and goats are free to explore pastures, woodlots; choose from assorted grasses, clovers; and enjoy the breeze and sunlight upon their bodies. Our lambs and kids are kept under the care and guidance of their moms well beyond standard weaning ages. They are not implanted with hormones or fed growth-promoting additives because we are content to allow our lambs and kids to grow at their normal pace. Lambs and kids raised on pasture and woodlots live such low stress lives that they are superbly healthy. Grass fed lambs and goats eat what Nature designed them to eat, insuring their health and yours.
When you choose products from pastured animals, you are eating the food that nature intended. You are also supporting small farmers, safeguarding the environment, promoting animal welfare, and eating food that is nutritionally wholesome and delicious.