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.
