Sheep and goats grazing alfalfa

Forage

The replenishing, sustainable buffet. At Shepherd Song Farm, our sheep and goats are free to explore pastures and woodlots; choose from assorted grasses, clovers and browse; 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, ensuring 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.

This is in contrast to most food products 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 within crowded conditions
  • Food with less nutritional value

The hidden price for our animals is even higher. Stress and abuse are the natural result of being raised in confinement, tightly packed into cages, pens, sheds, feedlots and on concrete or wire mesh. These animals are not allowed to experience normal behaviors such as grazing, running, basking in sunlight or even escaping the stench of their own manure. Grazing animals have been supplying us with healthy food for thousands of years; it’s only recently that increased corporate profits and control have resulted in sending 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 meat output 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 meat 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 ruminant animals 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.

[Diagram here]

(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.