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  • From: "beverly henkel" <bchenkel AT conpoint.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Vetting Local Producers
  • Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:06:07 -0500

I am late on this discussion but I sat around the USDA table when the grass-fed label was discussed. Their original standard was 85% grass fed. Those around the table from all over the US said NO - 99-100%. The grains, as I understand it, that are the problem are the starchy grains - where I live that is corn that is fed to 'finish' cattle, sheep and buffalo.

But the research at Utah State University by Dr. Tilak Dhiman clearly shows that starchy grain at any time increases the omega 6 tremendously. Infact, if corn is fed and then the animal is returned to pasture only, the ratio does not return to the healthy level it was before corn. Have your meat tested by a Nutritional lab and then you can tell the customer the results of the fatty acid test and your Omega 6:3 ratio. Our Omega 6:3 ratio for beef was 1:1 and our lamb 1/2:1.

Omega 3 is the healthy fat and Omega 6 the unhealthy. The ratrio of one to the other is the key. That is why we are being told to not eat red meat and to increase the fish in our diet.

However, if you eat ruminants only raised on pasture you have healthy meat. You just have to cook it differently. Slow and low - but that is another discussion.

Thank you.

Bev. Henkel
Tucker Hill Farm
Norfolk,NE
----- Original Message ----- From: "Garth & Kim Travis" <gartht AT txcyber.com>
To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 9:12 AM
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Vetting Local Producers


Greetings,
I do believe the problem comes from how you define grain? We are 100%
forage based, and no, I never do need to feed 'grain'. I do feed
alfalfa pellets, if needed and as treats for training. I sprout my
grains before feeding when needed. My animals have never had bloat from
my rich pastures, I have been raising cattle this way for 12 years now,
sheep for 6. And yes, it is a question I ask, and yes I want a black
and white answer, no grain means just that. I won't accept any grain in
a ruminant I plan on eating, it is not needed.

Any grain at all changes the flora in the intestine, so I do believe
they are correct.

Bright Blessings,
Garth & Kim Travis
www.TheRoseColoredForest.com
Bedias, Texas

KAKerby AT aol.com wrote:
I guess I'd toss my hat into the ring of "well intentioned but
disconnected", in the context that they're asking reasonable questions
but painting black and white answers in a very diversified spectrum of
possibilities. The animal questions stood out to me as being the
greatest example of that. The comment about "no grain, ever" could be
straight out of the Weston A Price literature, which is nice and well
intended. But if you've got high producing animals, even on rich
pasture they sometimes need at least some grain or supplementation to
maintain body condition. Leave them on insufficiently rich pasture
alone (which can fluctuate by the hour and/or with cloudcover) and they
can go into metabolic imbalance which can become life threatening. Put
them on super-rich pasture so they don't need the grain, and they risk
bloat and grass tetany. Sometimes, that grain ration can keep an animal
balanced very nicely at a very healthy condition. But that document
doesn't allow for a mix of grains; it assumes grass pasture or
feedlot-style massive amounts of grain. No middle ground.


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