Polyface Farm Tour~Salatin~My experience (pics on page 3).

[Beekissed]

The rabbits had plenty of room in their cages and appeared very healthy except the young one that was dying. The rest were clean, fat and bright-eyed, active.

I'm wondering how he markets his eggs...separately? I'm betting not. So, he could market the RIR eggs as free ranged and noncertified organic but the Aussie eggs could not be advertised as free range under his standards. Do you think he gathers those and just calls them noncertified organic and keeps them separate from his free ranged eggs?

Or is this, too, a way of marketing free ranged eggs and only free ranging part of his total layer flock? I was confused about that but dared not ask the question after how my other questions were received! :/

 

[dacjohns]

I'm glad folks got a kick out of my tractor going on strike.


From what I've gathered from this and other things I've read about
Salatin. Intensive livestock raising, more stock on less ground but rotation to keep things healthy. Maybe not as healthy as he has led us to believe. I was disappointed with how the chickens looked and how much space they had and I was also disappointed with the consistency of the cow feces. It doesn't sound good to me.

I can see the tour; step right up folks pay me for the privilege of hearing my spiel and walking through the mud because my tractor and hay wagon are too good to get wet but you my fans are not. After walking through the mud in city clothes the city folks get a biased view of what it is all about. OK, tour's over but on your way out you are welcome to leave more of your money with me in exchange for some high priced meat and my books. And the tour just happened to go through the "store".

Oh yeah, if you happen to be female and/or happen to know a little bit about farming and animal husbandry you pose a threat and will be dealt with accordingly.

 

[Beekissed]

As usual, Dac, you are great at hitting the nail on the head. This just about sums up the experience.

My son bought two packages of cube steak...costed him $11 for four small pieces of the toughest meat you've ever eaten. Cube steak can normally be cut with a fork but I had a hard time with a knife! I cooked it slowly as they warned to do with grass fed beef....I can't imagine cooking it more slowly than we did and it was still no better or worse than any cutter and canner expired milk cow.

A sucker is born every minute and many of us sucker babies were wading through mud, slop, smoke and mirrors this week!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hey Bee!

just wanted to pitch in that i was sorry you were disappointed also. i've never been his biggest fan but i hadnt expected what you reported. thats too bad. i think of some of the articles i've read and i'm wondering if they were written by folks how didnt know any better.

it kinda reminded me of an old time snake oil salesman leading folks down the primrose path and you, as the kid there in front saying 'hey isnt that supposed to be...", and him shushing you.

oh well live and learn, right?

but i guess that also means that YOU could run a pretty-darn-good-tootin' farm tour at your own place! you just show 'em how its done! (and your tractor could work in the rain too! ha!)

thanks for the report.

 

[Beekissed]

Seein' as how my tractor is an old John Deere lawn tractor that is approximately 20 years old, I don't know if it would be very impressive.....

Let's see....my farm tour would consist of you all walking out in my back yard and me pointing at the chickens and saying, "There are my free ranged, noncertified organically raised chickens....be careful to watch where you walk as they will mug you for any suspected food items. My advice? Don't feed the chickens as it will turn them into nuisance chickens and they may have to be shot later. "

Now, folks, if you will look towards the orchard you will see my hair sheep on rotational grazing...see them eating? This is good. They will get fat and look pretty. The chickens follow them and eat any parasites, the dogs follow the chickens and eat their parasites and the chickens will eat the dog's parasites....so, you see, it is all a symbiotic relationship, just like in nature!"

If you look in the garden you will see noncertified organically grown veggies that will be canned, dried, preserved, sold at a normal price, and given away to anyone who needs them and cannot afford. Or even given to anyone who just cannot grow their own. For this I will receive much riches, both spiritually and mentally.

The bottom line? Life is not a race to see who can earn more money, but a journey and we will all leave here naked and empty-handed. The only thing that will journey beyond this life with us is love.

Please try to stop by the farm store of love on your way out and take as much as you can carry....please pass it on and on, as you will find your cup will runneth over with love being returned to you.

Thank you and I hope you enjoyed your farm tour today!

 

[Buster]

Well, I should probably just keep my mouth shut, but...

I won't speak to Bee's experience, because it is her experience, her perspective. She is one up on me because I have never been to Polyface nor met Joel Salatin.

But I do have some thoughts on some of his practices.

First, I have no problems whatsoever with what he charges for his services or his products. You charge what the market will bear, and if people are willing to pay his prices (as they apparently are) then more power to them and to him. I don't begrudge a farmer making a decent wage. About time, I say.

On the Raken, Bee is correct. It is for housing his layers during the winter. But it is also for composting the rabbit poo for his breeders. At least one group of layers would need to be kept in a Raken until the weather is warm enough for the rabbits to be moved in order to keep the ammonia smell down and poo composting. I'm also guessing he rotates this duty although I don't know for sure although I will find out soon.

On the crowding, to tell the truth, it doesn't look that bad to me. Particularly when you compare it to the industry, where you have 6 birds to a tiny cage, cages stacked 8 feet high in rows several hundred feet long, a million birds in a single building.

And I guess he could avoid the pecking if only he mutilated his birds as does the industry (and "free range" operations like Petaluma Poultry) by debeaking the poor things.

On biosecurity, only the factory farm system requires such nonsense as making people take off their shoes or restricting human access to the animals. It is required there because the animals are so crowded, their immune systems so compromised, that entire operation can be wiped out by even a minor infectious disease. You don't need it if your system of farming is sustainable.

Surprised the guy is a little stuck on himself? Not at all. In sustainable agriculture, he is more than famous. He is a rock star. He is so famous people drive hundreds of miles to pay high prices for the privilege of being his customer, walk in the rain and mud just to look at his farm.

Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of things Salatin does that I disagree with. Raising Cornish Cross broilers, for one. That's the industry's bird, and its genetics are inhumane. A bird that grows too fast for its organs to keep up, for which hear attacks are not uncommon for chicks just a few weeks old. The system it comes from is a factory farm system, so here you have a guy who rails against CAFOs, yet gets his birds from a CAFO system. That and they are unsustainable as they must be shipped in every season.

There are several such problems with his system. But that's nit picking in my opinion. I have yet to see a perfect system. I can always find problems with it if I look close enough. But I'm not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Or in Salatin's case, the great.

 

[Beekissed]

He could also avoid pecking if he didn't overstock his layers. Yes, I admit that the guy has great ideas and I still believe that. I also believe there is no reason, be it fame or otherwise, to treat your fellow man like they do not matter.

Especially since I just stood in a barn and heard the man say, "Industrialized farming operations treat their pigs and other livestock like they don't matter and I will tell you this: If they treat their animals like that they will treat other humans in just the same way!"

Nitpicking or calling it like I see it, it could be argued either way, but fame and supposed greatness can be measured more accurately by how a man treats other people. Even Jesus Christ, as great and as famous as he was, could treat other people with compassion. I can't imagine that Joel Salatin is greater than God, even if he feels that he is .....

 

[Buster]

I was saying my own criticisms of him are nitpicking, not yours. Feel free to call it as you see it.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Wait - $10.50 a farm tour? per person?

hmm...Bourbon Red didn't pay to tour my farm - and he saw everything!!

*runs off to type up a bill*

 

[TanksHill]

Could it be that in this economy even the great Joel Salatin can not get through unscathed.

Could it be he was pinching pennies and does not want to spend money on the straw for the wagon or gravel for the drive?

Could it be his tractor was broke?

Could it be he was cutting back on the hay for the cows that had the squirts and he just didn't think anyone would notice?

Could it be he has less interns that's why the weeds were not wacked?

Could it be he was surprised to hear anyone even asking intelligent questions that were based on his own literature?

Especially an innocent looking woman such as Bee.