One of my favorite parts of raising cattle is naming.  Every animal born on our property gets a name, even if we know at birth that its destiny is as part of our pastured beef business.  I’ve blogged about some of the reactions we get from our customers:  Some want to know the name, some don’t.

We started out using names from music, since we got our start in Austin, Texas.  Since then, we’ve evolved a system of naming that helps us to keep track of animals through their names, such as their sire, family, group or birth year. 

This year, we have two main groups of names.  The first group are all calves that are sired by a Devon bull out of New Zealand.  All of his calves have names that are places in New Zealand or Australia.  So far, we’ve got Hobart, Brisbane, Cambridge, Tamborine and Pukekura.  I’m holding out for the one we name “waikikamukau” (pronounce Why-kick-a-moo-cow), which is a small town in New Zealand.

The second group of calf names are for those sired by Red Angus or Black Angus bulls.  There is an international identification system for cattle, which specifies a single letter to designate the year of birth in each animal’s ID.  This year, the letter is Y.  There is a 22-year cycle to the ID (letters I, O, U and V are not used).  As it turns out, one of my favorite years for music, 1967, was also a “Y” year.  So, most of our the Angus/Red Angus sired calves for 2011 will have names from one of the Billboard top 100 from 1967.  Georgy Girl was our first calf of the year.  I expect we will end up with Ruby Tuesday, Daydream Believer, Billie Joe and more by the end of the year.  What was your favorite song from that year?

Naming each animal makes each one an individual, rather than a commodity.  By name, I can usually recall a picture of each animal and its characteristics.  When we harvest, the names help me to be grateful to the creatures that provide our livelihood, as well as good food for our family and our customers’ families.   

The recent recall of commercial eggs has led to lots of questions about food safety. Unprecedented numbers of people, many of them new to farmer’s markets, are flocking (pardon the pun) to purchase eggs that they believe to be safer than those in the grocery store.  But there are some missing pieces in the search for “clean and safe food”; it’s not as simple as “buy fresh, buy local”

As Americans have become further removed from their food supply, they have lost touch with the fact that food is a biological product, produced in biological situations from biological animals that have biological functions.  Translation:  everything poops.  We have gotten so used to our food being sterilized that we have forgotten about basic food safety.  I also happen to believe that because we are not exposed to low levels of normally occuring bacteria as we grow up, when we do encounter these normal bugs, they give us a pathogenic reaction. 

ALL foods are subject to ‘conatimination’.  Salmonella occurs in all birds and reptiles.  It is usually not a pathogenic strain, but it is still there.  Similarly, various strains of E. coli are present in every bit of feces.  Pastuerization, irradiation, buying direct from a farmer you trust; none of these are substitutes for basic food safety.

Do I think eggs and ground beef are safer if you buy them from a local source that you can trust?  Generally, yes.  However, even the cleanest hen house will still produce eggs with salmonella on the outside.  Even single-animal, small plant, grass-fed ground beef can harbor E. coli.  So, follow basic food safety guidelines:  Separate preparation areas and utensils between raw items and cooked.  Refrigerate food quickly after cooking, etc. etc. 

If you want to read more, search our Food Safety archives, or check out these posts:

http://downtoearthblog.com/agriculture/is-local-food-safer-or-just-more-accountable/archives/184

http://downtoearthblog.com/foodproduction/no-need-to-avoid-beef-if-you-know-its-source/archives/211

http://downtoearthblog.com/health/teaching-children-about-food-safety/archives/163 

I’ve seen a number of articles, blogs, etc. lately in the animal ag press encouraging producers to stand up verbally to attacks on the industry by animal rights groups.  At the extreme, some of these groups are calling for conversion to veganism.   The vast majority of Americans are not going to become vegans or vegetarians.  When the animal ag industry focuses on fighting the extremes, it tends to allow us to avoid the more pertinent and difficult issues relating to the way large-scale animal agriculture has evolved.

In the name of “efficiency”, many sectors of the industry have gone down a slippery slope of incremental changes in animal husbandry.  Like the frog heated slowly to boiling that will die rather than jump out of the pot, our industry has slowly adopted practices that my agricultural ancestors would be horrified with. 

In many cases, a practice is put into place that incrementally improves “animal welfare” over the existing condition, given the current production situation.  An example is de-beaking chickens:  Through a combination of changes in genetics (commercial chicken strains are more agressive than their flock-living ancestors) and living conditions (higher densities of chickens per square foot), chickens will peck at each other.  It is better to remove the chicks beak than to let them peck each other to death.  And so welfare studies will report that chickens are better off with de-beaking than intact.

If the industry’s current mass-production practices are so defensible, why is it that they are not routinely pictured in educational or promotional material from the very industries that use them?  The egg industry uses images of hens on nests.  The chicken industry pictures chickens that still have their beaks, the milk industry uses images of cows out on pasture. 

Temple Grandin makes a statement in her most recent book (Animals Make Us Human) about why she is still in animal ag.  She also states that if her career had started now, as opposed to when it did, she is not sure she could have seen past the current welfare situation present in many large-scale chicken, hog and feedlot operations.

We, as an industry, have lost the middle ground between animal stewardship and ag-business.  Individual producers are, as a whole, conscientious caretakers of the animals in their charge.  Somehow, in the translation to larger and more efficient production, however, we’ve lost our connection to the subjects of our stewardship, and often to the employees who are involved in that production.  IMHO, this is what our industry needs to address more urgently than preventing a mass conversion to veganism.

 N.B. This post was prompted by “The sin of animal agriculture“, a blog post to which I felt compelled to reply.   

Our home ranch is featured in this month’s Edible Austin magazine.  If you like the photos, they are a credit to my husband and partner, Ralph Mitchell.  He’s also the one responsible for doing the steak grilling for the taste-testing we do of each harvest of beef, not to mention the bulk of the ranch work.

This article presents an idyllic view of our life.  In reality, it is hard work almost every day.  It is also the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my life.

While I was in Washington D.C. last week, a cab driver from Mauritius, upon hearing that I ranched for a living, asked how many hours a week we worked and what we did for a vacation.  He seemed surprised when I explained we pretty much worked  while the sun was up and that time off the ranch was only by necessity.

I found myself explaining that although we work really hard almost every day, our “vacations” come in small moments that don’t happen during most people’s work life.   Often, in the midst of a stressful event, I’ll be caught by the beauty of a nighthawk chasing insects in the morning sun, or the smell of clover in bloom.  As it mentions in the article, we sometimes turn a routine chore like checking on the cows into a mini romantic interlude.  Honestly, if I had a week with no responsibilities or duties, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere but here on our home ranch.

I wonder how much different the world would be if most people were able to find the same kind of reward in their daily labor.

One of our customers is an aspiring writer who recently moved to Austin.  She is honing her skills and exploring our community all at the same time.

I spent some time with her in February talking about the ranch, our philosophy, etc.  She wrote a very nice piece about it on her blog.

Getting out and talking with people is one of my favorite parts of being a direct-to-consumer food producer.  I get a chance to be an educator (and often the pupil at the same time).  My days at the farmer’s markets always bolster my faith in humanity.  Even though I come home tired, I am also energized by the good people with whom I interact.

Now that spring is fully upon us and the produce is really starting to come in, many folks are beginning to think about finding or joining a CSA.  CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and is basically a way of sharing in the farmer’s production year.   The basic idea is that one enrolls or purchases a share in the production of a farm for a year or a season.  In return, you are first in line for the production, but you also share in the risk of crop failures and the ups and downs of the season.  CSAs aren’t for everyone.  Typically you pay an enrollment fee and then receive either a weekly (in the case of produce) or monthly box of products.

We run one of the few meat CSAs in our area of the country.  Our CSAs enable our customers to get their beef at nearly the same price as purchasing an entire half beef, but they get it in 20 pound increments each month.  Since we need to estimate our beef needs 18 months ahead, having a core of CSA members really helps us to plan.  It is also much more efficient for us to divide a beef into 12 equal shares than to sell by the individual cut at the markets (although at least half of our business is still done by the cut).

Local Harvest had a great article on finding and choosing a more traditional garden produce CSA.   When considering whether or not to join a CSA,  there are a few questions that you might ask yourself.

• Do I like to cook and does my schedule allow me to make homemade meals most evenings?
• Will it be fun to vegetables that are new to me?
• How will I handle excess produce? (Do you have a neighbor who would like to get some if you get “behind”?) Feeling bad about wasting food is one of the top reasons former CSA members site for not renewing.
• Am I willing to accept the unknowns involved in “shared risk”?

Shopping around for a CSA is also a good idea.  It might be a good idea to ask if you can talk to some of the existing customers.  Also find out how long the farmer has been doing CSAs.  They can be a bit tricky to manage until the farmer gets the hang of planning.  It’s great to help out someone just starting out, but that should be an informed decision.CSAs can be a great fit and can benefit consumer and producer.

At Wild Type Ranch, our CSA customers usually get the best beef, and are the first ones in line when the supply gets tight.  Good luck and bon appetit!

How can we feed our world healthily, responsibly, ethically and economically?  That question could start many a heated debate.  It’s going to take some creative problem solving and a willingness to take a hard and realistic look at alternatives and the real (including environmental and social) costs of many production systems to create tomorrow’s agriculture.  Russ Parsons of the LA Times voiced many of my thoughts.  I’m going to quote liberally.

On the one side, the hard-line aggies seem convinced that a bunch of know-nothing urbanites want to send them back to Stone Age farming techniques. On the other side, there’s a tendency by agricultural reformers to lump together all farms (or at least those that aren’t purely organic, hemp-clad mom-and-pop operations) as thoughtless ravagers of the environment

I operate on both sides of this debate because we raise and sell registered breeding stock and sell pasture-raised beef and veal at local farmer’s markets.  I hear more than my share of biases and accusations. Here’s some things I think we all need to remember:

Agriculture is a business. Farming without a financial motive is gardening. …Not only do farmers have expenses to meet just like any other business, but they also need to be rewarded when they do good work.

…we also have to keep in mind that our first obligation is to make sure that healthful, fresh food remains plentiful and inexpensive enough that anyone can afford it.

The world is changing, and those who can adapt are the ones who will be successful.

What’s political is also personal. If you believe in something, you should be willing to make sacrifices to support it, even if it’s expensive or inconvenient. Wailing about farmers who use pesticides and then balking at paying extra for organic produce is hypocritical because the yields in organic farming are almost always lower.

Don’t assume that those who disagree with you are evil, stupid or greedy.

It is good to hear a voice for tolerance and moderation.  Consumers have legitimate desires and concerns, even when they don’t have all the facts.  Individual producers, as a whole, are producing our food in the best way they know and really do care about their animals and the environment.  Let’s fix the problem, not the blame.

This is a guest post by Hona Backstrom, a college student doing an internship at Wild Type Ranch.

When bought directly from its maker, there is a story behind each vegetable, fruit, baked good, or steak. The farmer, baker or rancher knows each article from its creation to its consumption. They have, usually with the help of their families, set up a small farm, kitchen or ranch in order to deliver high quality produce to the public through a farmer’s market.

During a farmer’s market, members of the community exchange money for fresh local produce. In this exchange, the supplier communicates and interacts with the customer on a personal basis. Rather than the impersonal relationship one may find in the rush of the grocery store checkout line, the farmer’s market offers a slower paced and more intimate connection with the artisan. By using this method of trade, customers tend to develop loyalty to specific farmers or producers, deepening the communication and rapport between the two. The produce is associated with a face and a family rather than a brand name and a price tag. Along with healthy locally produced foods, the farmer’s market also provides a place for the populace to meet on a weekly basis, often enjoying firm friendships and strengthening the community itself.

I am fortunate to experience the farmer-customer relationship first-hand. As an intern at Wild Type Ranch, a company that raises grass fed Angus in Cameron Texas, my responsibilities include assisting with the markets as well as aiding in cattle husbandry. I am a part of the process that gets the steak to the table. Because of my work on the ranch, I can truly appreciate the effort that goes into creating quality food. I am lucky to have formed friendships with customers as well as with other vendors and I enjoy being a part of the community each market provides.  Through my adventure here, it has become important to know where my food comes from and who raised it.

The family farm is a vital part, and starting point in the path that brings locally grown food to the table. As a new member of a family farm I have experienced and observed the morals and life skills instilled at a young age upon the adolescent boys here. I myself have learned along with them the value of a hard day’s work, and reaping the gratifying benefits afterwards. Working the farm as a family includes the children in the natural life cycle of the farms animals and they can appreciate life as well as accept death. As a family unit we are forced to depend on each other and function as a whole rather than separate parts in order accomplish a full days work. This reliance forms stronger bonds and we are more intimately connected.

Our hard work, love, environmental stewardship, and artistry are ingredients in the food we produce. The food we raise nourishes not only the body, but also the spirit while strengthening the community.

There was a very nice article about Joel Salatin (made famous to many in The Ominvore’s Dilemma).  There are lots of nice articles about Joel, but what made this one news-worthy to me is that it was picked up in the daily news feed of BEEF magazine.  BEEF is a mainstream beef industry publication. 

The beef industry, as does much of mainstream agriculture, often takes an atagonistic position relative to us “alternative production” types.  I found it encouraging that BEEF posted the article.  One of the things that frustrates me as a agriculturalist is this “either-or” tension between farmers growing for the local market and farmers growing for larger, more mainstream outlets.  Even though we raise registered Angus and Red Angus breeding stock, for sale to mainstream producers, we have on occasion been accused of “damaging the beef industry” because we also sell pasture-raised beef locally.

Kudos to BEEF magazine.  I’ll be interested in watching the comments.

Encouraging news (via the American Farmland Trust):  The USDA-ARS (Ag Research Service) is actively researching and supporting on the feasibility and actuality of eating local on the East Coast.

The idea is to ultimately build a map that shows where, along the nation’s East Coast, people would have the opportunity to buy locally produced food — and where they wouldn’t. After all, between 2002 and 2007, some 911,000 acres of farmland along the Eastern Seaboard was taken out of agricultural production to make way for housing, shops and other development.

The reasons for supporting local are many.  (and I’m probably preaching to the choir here); fresher food, supporting local communities and rural ag development,  less dependence on foreign food supplies, less volatility due to fluctuating fuel (transportation) costs.  Not to mention the more intangible support of quality of life through keeping agriculture more local.  I even heard a historical theory recently that the demise of most great civilizations was precipitated by massive urbanization and loss of the ability to be self sufficient in producing food.

One more encouraging sign out of Obama’s ag administration.