Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Naturally Raised Livestock Explanation

We market our livestock as naturally raised, without use of hormones and antibiotics. What does that really mean? How is organic different? Those are great questions and are quite confusing even when you are the one growing the livestock. According the the Washington State Dept of Agriculture, livestock products can only be labeled as organic if you comply completely with all of the organic requirements.

Organic certification means that an independent, third party has verified that the requirements of organic production and handling have been met. Under the National Organic Program (NOP), all products sold as organic in the United States must be certified by an NOP accredited certification agency. Source: WSDA Organic Food Program

So, there is a lot involved in obtaining organic certification. Below are some, but not all of the organic certification requirements:

Animals must be fed 100% organic feed from the last third of gestation until the day of slaughter. Right now, we feed local grass and alfalfa hay and a local grain mix of grain products. Neither are certified organic feeds.

Animals must not be given antibiotics. We don't use antibiotics on our animals. Organic guidelines also state that you can not withhold needed antibiotics from an animal to preserve the "organic status". You must give the antibiotics if needed for the health of the animal and then market it as non-organic. In four years, we have given one animal antibiotics months in advance of slaughter and we disclosed this to the buyer.

Animals must not be given hormones. We don't use hormones on any of our livestock ever.

May use approved vaccines and biologics as needed. We do vaccinate our cattle for common diseases. This would not change under organic certification.

Animals must have access to the outdoors. Organic pasture is required for ruminant livestock. Our livestock does have access to the outdoors. We do not currently have organic pasture for our cattle. Although they have a large outdoor area, the are not on pasture. We have a small amount of pasture (about 3 acres total), but not enough to maintain even one animal all summer long. This would be the toughest for us to comply with to change to organic certification. There just isn't more pasture land available to us.

There are other requirements for organic certification including detailed record keeping requirements. At some point we may be able to transition to an organic operation, but right now we only partially comply with the organic requirements.

We hope you find this explanation of use and please ask if you have any questions! We look forward to updating on the process of moving toward our long term goal of organic certification.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Naturally Raised Beef Prices for 2009

Well, it's that time of year when I start taking reservations for our naturally raised beef. I've put together the costs of our hay, grain, and other miscellaneous things that go into raising cattle, and have our price list for 2009. You can choose to buy a whole, half, or split half (quarter) of a beef. A detailed price list is at the bottom of the page.



Detailed Beef Pricing
The first row is the cost for raising the beef and is paid directly to Ross Farms before butchering, around the middle of September. The second row is the cost of butchering and cutting and wrapping the meat into smaller portions. This cost is paid to the butcher directly when you pick up your beef. The amount is an estimation because the cost is based on the total pounds of beef. The cost is $0.49/pounds plus $55 per whole beef. The beef will be frozen and packaged when you pick it up. You can pick up your meat approximately 10 days after the butchering begins. The third row is an estimate of how many pounds of beef you will be taking home. Again, this is an estimate, because it is impossible to know how many pounds of beef there are until the butchering is complete. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Detailed Beef Price List 2009
Whole BeefHalf BeefSplit Half (Quarter) Beef
Beef Cost - paid to Ross Farms before Sept 15th, 2009 (will not change)$1900$950$475
Approximate Cut and Wrap Cost - paid to the butcher when you pick up your meat$398$199$100
Approximate Total Cost$2298$1149$575
Approximate Amount of Beef700 pounds350 pounds175 pounds

Welcome to our small family farm!

Welcome to our small family farm. We are located in Spokane, Washington. We raise beef, chicken, eggs, and produce as naturally as we can. This blog serves three purposes:

1) To announce products available locally from our farm

2) To take orders for our farm products, and,

2) To provide education on small farm living and raising natural meat, eggs, and produce

My husband and I both grew up around large production farming operations and studied agriculture in college at the University of Idaho. These farming operations were much larger than our small family farm. We both decided after college that although we like being around the animals on a farm, neither of us wanted farming to be our full-time job. Our solution was to farm on a small scale while making the majority of our income from off-farm employment.

We offer a unique perspective in farming on a small acreage and I hope you will continue to follow our updates.

Jayme and April