Sustainable livestock productionPastured livestock
Livestock raised on pasture are not confined inside factory farms. Ruminants (cows, bison, lamb) evolved as grass-eaters. Raising them on pasture provides them with the diet their digestive systems were designed for. Poultry can be raised on pasture, with protein supplemented by naturally occurring insects and some additional feed. Pigs can be raised on pasture where they engage in their natural rooting behaviour.
CBC’s Market Place — Cattle are meant to eat grass
Paul McCaughey is a researcher for Agriculture Canada in Brandon, Manitoba. He thinks beef herds should be eating what they started out on — grass. McCaughey says grass is easier on a cow’s stomach. Grain can cause an increase in acid. That can result in e-coli developing into a strain that survives to harm people. Cattle with little to do but feed and wander around a mound of dung adds to that problem.
Market Place compared pastured, or grass fed, beef to feedlot beef and found that the pastured beef tasted better and was more nutritious.
Grass fed livestock links
- Kerr Farms, Ontario
- Sunworks Farm, Alberta
- Prairie Grass Fed Meats, Manitoba