Holistic Herd Management at New Dawn Farm

Chickamauga, GA

Carrie L Chandler

Farming was not something that we ever dreamed we would do, but when we set out to do it,

Alan and I decided that we would strive to be as natural as we could. New Dawn Farm had been in

Alan’s family for four generations, but only as a subsistence farm. Three years ago, we decided that we

wanted to make it profitable, partly to preserve it for our children and partly because we wanted to be

farmers. Cattle was a given – they were already here and had minimum inputs, so moving toward a

holistic management style would not be difficult. Alan had also discovered his green thumb a few years

before we moved to the farm through his experience with our personal garden. We had been

introduced to the community-supported agriculture model in other places that we had lived and liked

it – so it was pretty easy to decide to go that route as well.

New Dawn Farm’s goal has always been to manage our cattle in a way that flows with nature.

Holistic management fits that goal nicely.

According to the Savory Institute

(www.savoryinstitute.com), a non-profit

organization that works to restore the

world’s grasslands through holistic

management, there are four principles of

holistic management – nature functions in

wholes, all environments are different,

properly managed livestock can improve

land health, and time is more important

than numbers. For us, keeping these goals

in mind while we make our farming

decisions is imperative, especially since we

are still new to the farming world.

FOLLOWING THE NATURAL PLAN

“A farm includes the passion of the farmer's heart, the interest of the farm's customers, the biological

activity in the soil, the pleasantness of the air about the farm -- it's everything touching, emanating

from, and supplying that piece of landscape. A farm is virtually a living organism.”

― Joel Salatin, Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front

In reality, what holistic management means for us is that we graze a small area of land heavily,

and then move the cattle on to let that land lie fallow for a while. Anything that we do to our land

Cattle grazing at New Dawn

affects nature as a whole – it affects the grass, which affects the cattle, which affects those who eat

our food. Nature has provided a blueprint for this type of management in its grasslands where the

natural process of grazing can still occur. We become partners with nature this way, making the

workload easier and protecting that which provides for us.

Our Soil

Healthy soil is the key to healthy cattle. Soils are the basis for the grass that our cattle eat – if

the soil isn’t healthy, then the cattle aren’t healthy. New Dawn Farm’s goal is to not use any purchased

inputs on our grazing land – we want to get to the point where the cattle are fertilizing with their dung,

aerating the soil and mixing it in with their hooves. Make the cows do the work – that’s our plan!

Since we have had only two years of farming here, the soil is not exactly where we want it yet.

By moving our cows to different paddocks and letting them spread their manure, we are working

toward better soil. According to Joel Salatin in his book You Can Farm, (p296) the mineral input from a

beef cow’s 20,000 pounds of manure a year provides all of the minerals that we need for our soil –

nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, as well as other minerals that are present in the cattle’s forage.

Other than our herd’s manure, we will apply compost to the fields during their rest periods – leaves,

wood chips, any organic matter that we can find. This will serve to bring in more nutrients while the

land is waiting to be grazed again.

The combination of manure and other organic matter creates a cozy environment in the soil for

all the things we don’t see – microorganisms. In their book The Next Green Revolution (p 77), James E.

Horne and Maura McDermott note that “the microorganisms in just one spoonful of soil outnumber

the people on earth.” Our goal is to get our soil to the point where all those little organisms are

breaking down the living matter on top of the ground into nutrients that are incorporated into grass,

and then into the cattle. Horne and McDermott state that “soil health is a direct function of the

biological activity in the soil.” We want our soil to be a busy hive of activity.

Our Grass

Grass-fed beef farmers are really grass farmers. Without good grass, we won’t have healthy

cattle. That is where rotational grazing comes in. According to Salatin in The Sheer Ecstacy of Being a

Lunatic Farmer, by allowing our grass to grow tall before we let the cattle eat, we are growing grass

with strong roots. When the herd is left on an area of grass for too long, they will eat the new growth

and keep the grass from making healthy roots. Salatin notes that the key to growing tall grass with

strong roots is to mimic the natural ecosystem – herbivore, predator, disturbance, rest.

At New Dawn Farm, our goal is to mimic this ecosystem by acting as the predator and causing

the cattle to move to new grasslands often. We are not to the point that our cows are moving as often

as we want them to, but we are working on installing moveable fences and getting water in each of the

paddocks. Our farm has 60 acres of pasture and our goal is to move our 40 – 60 cows daily, dividing

them between two paddocks if necessary (see farm map on next page). This will allow the cows to

graze the top part of relatively tall grass, leave manure

and disturb the ground, and then move on and let the

microorganisms do their work.

The kind of grass we have in our pasture is

important as well. For us, using holistic management

means that we want to use grasses that do not require

any purchased input. The best way to do that is to use

grasses that are native to our area. According to Horne

and McDermott, (p 141) a “goal of sustainable

agriculture is to have an agroecosystem that maintains

itself in a state of optimum health. Matching the crop to the environment is crucial if a farm is to be

sustainable.” At its heart, holistic management is sustainable. To us, grass that maintains itself means

that our grass is native to our environment. We already know that it is adjusted to our environment, so

there is less work in getting it to grow if we provide a healthy soil.

We aim to have a ratio on our pastureland of 30% summer grasses, 30% winter grasses, and

20% legumes. Our summer grass is Bermuda and our winter grass is fescue. The legumes that we use

are clover and vetch. Over time, the diversity will increase as we rotate the cattle through the

paddocks because they will loosen the soils and spread the seeds as they go.

Our Cattle

Nutrition also plays a role in the cattle health. According to Glen Dupre, DVM, on the National

Center for Homeopathy’s (www.nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org) website, “what animals eat and

how they eat should match what they evolved eating and how they evolved eating. Not many animals

evolved eating a high grain based, artificially sweetened, or fermented ration. These rations may make

money for the feed companies but will not allow your farm to be as healthy as it could otherwise

be. Provide species appropriate fresh and whole foods and allow the stock to consume them in a

natural manner.” At New Dawn Farm, we do this by assuring that our soils are healthy and that the

grass is full of nutrients that the cows need.

A key part of nutrition is making sure that the cattle have the correct minerals. Calcium and

magnesium are the main minerals to be concerned with, but ATTRA notes in their 2011 publication

Organic and Grass-finished Beef Cattle Production that salt, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, copper,

and sulfur are also important. “These minerals are very important for cellular respiration, nervous-

system development, protein synthesis, and reproduction” according to ATTRA. For this reason, they

suggest providing minerals at all times for your cattle. To determine which minerals are lacking in your

area, check with your extension agent.

As for minerals, New Dawn Farm has used a free choice block in the past, but this year we have

decided to go with sea salt/water mixture applied to the grass and sea salt as free choice. We have

chosen to supplement with this because it contains minerals in the same proportion as that of a

Image Source: www.crossfitinvictus.com

healthy animal’s blood (www.seamineralsfa.com). We feel that giving our cattle a natural source of

minerals makes more sense than pumping them full of chemically created minerals.

The fact that how we farm impacts the natural world is also something we take into account

when we are deciding how to treat our herd’s medical issues. Prevention is our first goal. Dupre notes

that “a truly holistic approach to health on the organic farm begins before any medicine is ever given.”

By choosing correct breeds for our area, we are preventing many diseases. By raising our cows on the

grass that they are made to eat, we are averting many other diseases. Dupre notes that these two

things remove extra stress factors for the cattle.

Even with our best prevention measures, sickness can still occur within our herd. At New Dawn

Farm, we choose to treat our cattle homeopathically. We have not had sickness in our herd in the

three years that we have been farming, but we are prepared. Homeopathic medicine was discovered

in the early 1800’s by German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Dupre gives a very basic history in the

excerpt from his article “The Use of Homeopathy on the Organic Livestock Production Farm”

(www.nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org) below:

“[Homeopathic medicine] is truly a holistic medical system treating the patient as a full integrated unit of

interdependent systems and tissues, recognizing that what affects the part affects the whole and that what ever

is done to the whole affects each and every part. Homeopathy is completely non-speciated, having application

regardless of species, circumstance, or symptom.”

At our farm, we want to treat our animals as if they are a whole, and as if they are

interdependent with the environment around them. Homeopathy fits that goal. It also allows for

experimentation. If one remedy doesn’t work, then we can try another without harm to the animal or

the environment. It is safe and when the correct remedy is chosen, it is very effective. Dupre notes that

“most homeopathic remedies are diluted to a point where none of the original material is

detectable. At this point the healing energies of the medicine are present but not the chemical

contaminants. This makes homeopathy the perfect choice for use on the organic production farm

because there will be no chemical contamination of the stock and no excretion of pharmaceuticals to

foul the soil and water.”

Using homeopathic remedies will vary for each remedy and each farm. Each remedy comes in a

small pellet, and they can be dissolved in water. Syringes come in handy for administering these, and

as long as the remedy comes into contact with the gums or tongue, the dose has been given. We have

small children, and this is how we administer their remedies as well!

There are many books out there that can help you create a homeopathic first aid kit for your

herd as well as guide you on what remedy works for a particular illness. Homeopathy in Organic

Livestock Production by Glen Dupree is a good option, as well as Homeopathy for the Herd, by C. Edgar

Schaffer.

All of this – healthy soil, healthy grasses, cattle nutrition, and our use of homeopathic remedies

– lead to cattle that are functioning as they should in nature. According to the first principle of holistic

management, that is just what we want. By raising our cows in harmony with the natural environment,

we are preserving it and encouraging our cows to thrive.

WE LIVE HERE, YOU LIVE THERE

“To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of Creation. When we do this knowingly,

lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily,

destructively, it is a desecration. In such desecration we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral

loneliness, and others to want.”

― Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

The second principle of holistic management – that all environments are different – means that

our land is different than your land. According to Bill Hodge of Hodge Ranch in Carrollton, GA, each

cattle farmer’s goal is to grow a cow suited to his microenvironment. Our cows need to perform well in

Chickamauga, GA at the base of Lookout Mountain in our little cove. Your cows need to perform well

wherever you are, and that requires choosing the right cow for your area. And within that choice,

looking for the specific cows that do well on your farm and culling the rest.

Selective Breeding

Generally, there are a few traits that allow a cow to finish well on grass. The paramount trait to

pay attention to is size. For grass-fed beef, you need a cow that will mature between 900 and 1,100

pounds, according to ATTRA publication, Cattle Production: Considerations for Pasture-based Beef and

Dairy Producers. When these size cows are mature, it will be time to harvest them, somewhere

between 18 months and two years.

Selecting Animals for Pasture-Based Production (from ATTRA publication cited above)

Select animals from herds that have mature weights under 1,100 pounds, as these will most likely finish

at the proper time. Pasture-finished beef cattle are usually marketed between 16 and 24 months of age.

Selecting body type is more important than breed type for pasture-based operations. The following

qualities should be selected for in animals, including herd bulls:

1. dual-purpose breed types (for beef)

2. medium frame

3. end weight 900 to 1,100 lb

4. age at slaughter 16 to 24 months (for beef)

5. early maturing

6. low maintenance requirements

7. high milk protein and butterfat (for dairy)

At New Dawn Farm, we raise Angus crossed with Gelbvieh. They were here when we began our

farm, so they had already adapted to our environment. We also find this breed very suited to our

customers. Within our herd, we select for those that thrive best here. We have one bull, and we keep

him for around two years so that he won’t breed with his offspring. We usually bring him in from

outside the herd, and we make sure that he has a reputation for siring healthy offspring. We also like

to get a bull that has been raised on forage only because we don’t want him to rely on grain or

anything else to produce healthy calves since we do not rely on that here.

As for our cows, we look for one that has good fertility and births at least one cow a year. We

also look for those that birth easily, without the need for our help. ATTRA supports this line of thinking,

noting that “you want an animal that combines maternal traits like milking ability with early maturity

and tenderness. These three traits are important because a cow must calve on pasture and raise a

thrifty calf that lays down fat quickly (because growing seasons may be limited).”

We also select for health. If we have a cow that is continually sick, then we know that it isn’t

doing well on our grass and in our microenvironment. Health is directly related to the nutrition that

the cows receive. According to ATTRA, cows require 7 – 14 % of their dry daily matter to be crude

protein. A grass and legume pasture can have 18% protein during the vegetative state. If our soil is

good, then our grass will have enough protein to meet the needs of our cattle.

Choosing the Right Breed

If you are starting from scratch and need to purchase cattle, Grass Genetics Plus

(www.grassgeneticsplus.com) notes that there are three things to consider: size, bloodlines, and

environment. Just like our cattle, you want a cow that matures early and at a smaller size. ATTRA gives

examples of breeds that fall into that category: “Angus, Hereford, Shorthorn, and other, rarer breeds

such as Devon, Dexter, and American Low-Line.” In the humidity of the south, they note that these

breeds also do well: “Brahman and Brahman-cross composites, such as Beefmaster, Santa Gertrudis,

Brangus and Braford.” Although these breeds generally do well here, you have to remember that there

are negatives to every breed. And Salatin notes in Salad Bar Beef, “there is more difference within

breeds than from breed to breed.”

You also want a cow that produces well. You need a bull that sires viable offspring and a cow

that can carry a healthy calf. Grass Genetics Plus notes on their website that you need cattle that can

produce more cattle like them. You do not want your bull to sire a cow that is smaller or less healthy

than he is.

Lastly, choosing a breed that is suited to your general environment is important. If you choose a

breed that is suited to cold winters and mild summers and try to raise it in the Southeast, you will wait

a long time for that cow to adapt to this environment and produce well for you. According to Grass

Genetics Plus, cows also have a learning curve when moved from farm to farm. Each farm’s pasture is a

little bit different, and cows need time to get used to it. Anything you can do to lessen the adaptation

time for the herd will only increase productivity faster.

All of this helps us know that our cows and environment are suited to one another. It helps us

have better productivity when we can get all these things working together. Joel Salatin notes in Salad

Bar Beef “your long-range goal is to move toward more and more control of the animal. The more of

the animals life and genetics you control, the more consistently you can produce the kind of product

you want.” (p40)

MANAGED LIVESTOCK, HEALTHY LAND

“Working with nature is like this beautiful dance. You just have to learn to dance with your partner.”

-Ray Archeluta

Our livestock are managed to improve the health of the land. According to the Savory

Institute’s website, “when domestic livestock is properly managed to mimic the behavior of wild

herbivores interacting with grasslands, they can reverse desertification.” We need our land to sustain

our livelihood – both in farming and in health. Although we aren’t facing desertification, if we are

killing our land by overgrazing or under-grazing, then it will cease to benefit us or the environment in

any way. Our goal is to make the land better than it was when we began to raise cattle here.

We improve our grassland by knowing how grass grows and tailoring the cattle grazing pattern

to that growth. The whole purpose of rotational grazing is to “maintain forages in their growing stage

throughout the grazing season” according to ATTRA (2011). This is done by making sure that the forage

is grazed before it sets seeds and then allowed to regrow to that point before it is grazed again. ATTRA

describes the perfect grazing time as “when the seed head is about to emerge from the stem sheath.”

ATTRA also notes in the same publication that this form of grazing encourages new grass shoots to

grow from the base of the plant – known as tillering. This causes the grass to produce a larger leaf area

and a denser sward, making more food for the cattle.

Grass that is about to seed is slightly mature grass. ATTRA states that mature grasses are

beneficial to cattle because they “have a better energy and protein balance than younger forages, [so

that] finishing cattle will be better able to obtain all their nutrients from pasture.” This is possible

because the more mature grasses have a 1:1 protein/carbohydrate ratio, and that allows the cattle to

maximize forage use and weight gain.

In Salad Bar Beef, Joel Salatin gives us another way to think of this. He likens the growth of

grasses to an s-curve, where lower break point of the S-curve represents where most cattlemen graze

their cattle, before the growth. Salatin notes that we need to graze at the second break point of the S-

curve, the top of the S, after the growth has happened and before the plant matures so much that it

slows in growth. Plants grazed too early “will have short roots and therefore not bring up minerals

buried lower in the soil” he states. “Furthermore, short-rooted plants are more susceptible to drought

damage” meaning they will not jump back after drought as quickly. (p113)

At New Dawn Farm, we are working our way into this holistic high density grazing method,

which Allan Savory and Stanley D. Parsons define in the article “The Savory Grazing Method,” as “the

basic ecological principle of short periods of high animal pressure on the land interspersed with short

rests.” In the research that I have done on this subject, this kind of grazing seems more like a well-

planned dance between the cattle and the grass than a scientific method. You have to know your herd,

your land, and how to work them together.

Salatin notes in Salad Bar Beef that mixed into the complex interplay between cow and pasture

is the natural process. Nature is the music for the dance. In the spring, Salatin grazes his cattle in large

paddocks for short periods of time, covering the whole farm in 14 to 21 days. “At first grazing in the

spring,” he notes, “we avoid high utilization of the forage, and graze lightly, using only maybe 30

percent of the available forage.” During the middle of the season, when forage is growing much faster

he uses fewer paddocks that are smaller. When growth declines, Salatin moves the cows back into

larger paddocks and begins to use more of them again. On his farm, it is never a constant of having a

certain number of paddocks that are all the same size. Salatin operates on the principle that “we need

flexibility in stocking, facilitated by paddock size, to fully capitalize on grass growth, nutrient

requirements of the stock and time of year.” (p 124)

This utilization of grass growth and ability to know when and where to move your cattle,

requires an intimate knowledge of your farm. You must know your cows and your fields, and when

your grass grows fast and when it grows more slowly. We do not claim to have it all figured out yet. We

have found that it is a slow process.

At New Dawn Farm, our goal is to move our cattle every day and allow land to lie fallow for 60

days before it is grazed again. As I said before, this will change with the season and the forage growth

rate. For our first two years, we have been moving the cows far less than that, due to water access

issues. Each paddock must have water access, and we are slowly making that happen.

In Brian Reaser’s article, “Monitoring: The Key to Holistic High Density Grazing”

(Acres Magazine, June 2012), he notes that the first step in implementing holistic high density grazing

(HHDG), is knowing how to monitor your herd. “If you are disciplined enough to monitor regularly then

you will have little to no trouble with the other pieces of HHDG,” he notes. “It is more important to

monitor your animals than to monitor your land. Properly managed animals will take care of you, and

the land.”

The most important things to monitor:

- Take time to sit and watch your animals

- Test the urine pH of at least three different animals

- Your land

- Graze the top 1/3 of the plant

- Look for signs of overgrazing

- Have feed in front of and behind your animal at all times

Note: Remember to focus on animal performance

While you are watching your animals, Reaser suggests that you note whether they are happy

and content, if their ears and eyes are bright, if they have shiny coats, and if their rumens are full. “If

you have answered no to any of these questions, you have limited your animal’s performance” he

states.

Testing an animal’s urine pH is a way to make sure the animal is eating the right amount of

protein. Reaser notes that “the urine pH of a cow should be 7.0. If the pH is greater than 7.0, the

animals are eating too much protein. If the pH is less than 7.0, the animals are eating too much energy

and not enough protein.” If the pH is too high, then he suggests that you move your cattle through

paddocks faster so that they are eating only the top 1/3 of the plant. “The top of the plant is higher in

energy than the bottom” he notes. “As you move down the plant stalk, energy decreases while protein

increases.” He calls the leftover plant “insurance” - allowing him to “graze further into winter or have

feed available in case of drought.”

Reaser’s follow up article, “Planning for Holistic High Density Grazing” (Acres Magazine, July

2012), is a good place to learn how to work into this method. First, he notes that “you must plan for

what you want and manage for what you have.” This is perfect for us at New Dawn. We started out

with an operation already in place and have to make it into what we want it to be. We are looking at

our goals, but realize that we won’t get there this year, but we can get a little closer through planning.

To begin the process, there are a couple of things Reaser suggests you know: the typical

stocking rate in your area, when the growing season starts, when the first major frost occurs, and your

area’s typical rest period. If you need help with these questions, he suggests that you go to your local

NRCS office.

We have a 2 acre per cow stocking rate. Our growing season usually begins in late February or

early March. Our first frost is generally around the beginning of November. We want to work to a 60

day rest period, but we are currently at 40, since we are still working out our water access.

To determine what our graze period should be on each of our paddocks, Reaser uses this simple

equation:

Actual Graze Period = (Paddock Size x Rest Period)/Total acreage of paddocks

For New Dawn Farm, the math looks like this:

Paddock Acreage Rest days Graze period

1 2 40 2.96

2 8 40 11.8

3 5 40 7.4

4 7 40 10.3

5 3 40 4.4

6 2 40 2.96

Total 27 39.82

Now that we know that our graze period in each of our paddocks is, we can begin planning our

cattle movement throughout the season. Reaser notes that you have to begin the process during the

growing season, so we will begin our calendar on March 1. We will plan through November 1. We have

an Excel spreadsheet that we use to lay out our rotational grazing for the season. The example below

is just a part of our March 2012 schedule.

March 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Paddock

1 x x x

2 X x x x x x x

3

4

5

6

What is most important here is to be flexible. During times of fast growth, the animals will be in

the paddock for fewer days and during slow growth, we may keep them in paddocks longer. This is the

dance of grazing. And to learn the dance, you have to pay attention. This is when you want to be

looking at Reaser’s most important things to monitor. By keeping track of what we actually do each

year, we are able to make changes based on our productivity, the growth rate of our grasses, and the

weather.

High density grazing also allows the farmer to stockpile forage – to create that insurance.

According to ATTRA (2011), “stockpiling is defined as letting forage grow during summer and deferring

grazing to the fall or winter.” What this means in reality is that as you are using fewer paddocks in the

middle of the summer when the grass is growing faster, you can let those other paddocks keep on

growing. When winter comes, or in the middle of a drought, you can graze the herd on this and reduce

your need for hay.

ALL WE HAVE IS TIME

“When it is understood that one loses joy and happiness in the attempt to possess them, the essence of

natural farming will be realized. The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the

cultivation and perfection of human beings.”

― Masanobu Fukuoka, The One-Straw Revolution

All of this will take time and planning. Our society today is accustomed to instant gratification –

verdant grassland overnight – hence all the chemicals you can put on the grass to make it grow. But

the process to create healthy grassland where there was none before is a progression. This is where

the fourth principle comes in – time is more important than numbers. Grazing time on a piece of land is

more important than the number of cattle that are on the land. The Savory Institute website states

that “overgrazing of plants is directly related to the amount of time the plants are exposed to the

grazing animals and the amount of time that lapses between consecutive grazing events.” Our job as

farmers, then, is to make sure that the plants are not overexposed to grazing by moving them

throughout our acreage to graze and disturb, and then let the land rest.

We can do this by planning out our rotational grazing, making sure that our grasses are healthy,

and making sure that we have the right breed for our microenvironment. Again, though, the key to

doing these things is monitoring – being out in the fields to see when the top 1/3 of grasses have been

eaten. By moving the cattle at the right time, we give the land time to rejuvenate. And as grass

farmers, as we have been called, we want to make sure that we have a good crop of grass.

In his “Healthy Soil, Healthy Livestock” session at the 2013 Southern Sustainable Agriculture

Working Group (SSAWG) conference, Ray Archeluta, NRCS Conservation Agronomist mentioned that

“you can take fields from monoculture short grass to having grass as tall as the cow itself and

composed of wonderfully diverse species just by following a high density grazing method.” Salatin

notes that “higher fertility [from having good soil] and animal impact encourages better grass species

and discourages the poorer ones.”

Holistic management is a way to repair what we have done to the fields by overgrazing.

Salatin’s farm is a case study of this. In Salad Bar Beef, he notes that when his parents moved to the

farm, there were 14 foot gullies throughout the fields. He has watched those recover, and soil build

back up and plants move back into to his fields.

Holistic management provides many benefits for the practitioner. Holistic Management

International (holisticmanagement.org) lists these benefits:

Enhanced profits and livelihoods

More productive rangeland or cropland

More biologically active soils

Removal of existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

Less new carbon dioxide production

Reduced costs

Increased carrying capacity

Maximum benefit from rainfall

Reversal of desertification

Protection from drought

Improved wildlife habitat

Better food security

Improved economic viability for organics production

Clean water

Healthier environment

Stronger family relationships

We have found many of these benefits to be true in our short time as farmers. For us though,

the main benefit is that this type of farming meshes with our values. We want to have a farm that

preserves the land, and holistic management, when done correctly, can make the land better. We want

to farm in a way that allows us to spend time with our family and to have our children involved. Holistic

management works with nature, and although we are still busy, we aren’t continually fighting to grow

big cattle and that gives us more time to spend together. It also allows our children to be a part of the

farm because we are not using chemicals that we don’t want them to be around. There really was no

other choice in farming method when we looked at all the options. This one just meshed with who we

are and what we want our farm to be.

SELLING WHAT YOU GROW

“Farmers markets are a very important part of building an alternative food chain. You’re now eating

in a different way. You’re eating less processed food. There is no high fructose corn syrup in the

farmers market. There are no monoglycerides, no triglycerides. None of those additives are present in

fresh, seasonal food. When you start cooking food, as opposed to buying it precooked or processed,

both you and the farmer benefit, as a matter of health.”

-Michael Pollan, from an interview with Bryant Terry on nourishlife.org

Although not part of holistic management, processing and selling the beef that you grow is

integral to any farm operation. At New Dawn Farm, we process our beef at either a USDA inspected

processor or one of our local state inspected processors. For meat that we want to direct market, we

chose to go with USDA inspection instead of state inspection because we live so close to the Tennessee

state line that we wanted to be able to sell at markets in both Tennessee and Georgia. Our customers

who buy wholes and halves are buying a live cow and picking it up at the processor, so we are able to

use our custom inspected, and much closer and cheaper, processor for those orders.

What does all that mean? There are three levels of inspection for processors – federal (USDA),

state, and custom. Federal and state inspected meat can be sold at markets – it is packaged by the cut

and frozen. And, as they are titled, federal can be sold across state lines, which is the kind of inspection

that we use for our market beef. Custom processors are smaller and vary widely. If you will be using

one of these, check to see what other farmers or hunters think of it and ask if you can see the facilities.

That will give you the chance to check cleanliness and to chat with the owner.

During processing, your cow is dressed. This is how you get the part of the meat that is saleable.

When you take a cow to the processor, they record the live weight. Once the cow has been

slaughtered, it will be cut down to the meat and bones and that is your hanging weight. When the

bones and fat are removed and the meat is divided into cuts, that is the take home weight. We sell our

beef by the cut at markets, and if the customer is buying a whole or half, by the hanging weight. They

will pay a price per pound and get either a half or quarter of the whole weight of the cow made up by

the different cuts of meat (i.e. steak, ground beef, roast).

Once a cow is processed, it needs to be sold. Our main sales outlet is the farmer’s market. We

attend two different markets. One happens on Thursday, and the other occurs on Wednesday

afternoons and Saturday mornings. We like the market – it gives us a chance to talk with our

customers, tell them about what we do and the benefits of grass-fed beef, and also to answer any

questions they have about how to cook the beef. We have turned many of our by the cut customers

into wholes and halves customers by spending time talking with them at the market.

The key to having a booth at your local market is to draw a customer in. With meat, that is a bit

harder than veggies. We keep our beef in a freezer – that doesn’t look as pretty as a beautiful display

of peppers and carrots. To bring the person in, we have a table with a nice cloth and our farm

information. We have a picture outlining the different cuts of beef and a binder with pictures of the

farm and recipes that the customer can take a copy of if they are not sure how to prepare grass-fed

beef. These go a long way for bringing people to the table and engaging them in conversation – the

first step to getting a sale. In the past, we have not worn anything specific to the market, but this year,

we are going to try embroidered shirts. We have a handmade wooden sign that sits on the table and is

tall enough for us to stand under, and we also have a whiteboard for our price list. You don’t need all

of this when you go to sell, but you do need to be presentable and friendly to passersby.

Unfortunately, the Georgia health department rules prohibit us from having samples of our beef for

customers to try.

Managing our cattle holistically not only helps our sales at the market, but it produces a cow

that is in harmony with nature. It creates better soil and better fields while growing healthy meat to

eat. Holistic management is not difficult, it just requires a change in conventional thinking – and isn’t

that what being a small grass-fed beef farmer is about, anyway?

Resources:

Salatin, Joel. Salad Bar Beef. Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 1996.

Salatin, Joel. The Sheer Ecstasy of Being A Lunatic Farmer. POLYFACE, 2010.

Salatin, Joel. You Can Farm. Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 1998.

Horne, James E. & Maura McDermott. The Next Green Revolution. CRC Press, 2001.

Savory Institute: www.savoryinstitute.com

ATTRA publications: www.attra.ncat.org

soils info: http://vimeo.com/channels/raythesoilguy

grassfed beef genetics: www.grassgeneticsplus.com

SSAWG: www.ssawg.org

Acres Magazine: http://www.acresusa.com/magazines/magazine.htm