Buzzwords – Marketing or Manipulation?

The average consumer is often very unaware of how their food is actually produced and understandably various producers want to somehow convey to the consumer some special characteristic that makes their product a better, safer, more nutritious, more responsible choice than some other. 

Some of these phrases are, “organic”, “sustainable” “regenerative”, “grass fed”, “naturally raised”, “pasture raised”, “antibiotic free”, “hormone free”, and more.

The question arises, what do these really mean? Just consider that overused word “organic” for example. It is perhaps the most common, but also least understood of the specialty words. It begs the question, when a living organism such as a plant or animal grows, is that not organic? If not, is it then synthetic? It’s growth, it’s very life, can only be one or the other. So does that mean any product not labelled “organic” is synthesized? Anyone can see confusion arising if we as producers fail to properly communicate what we really want our customers to understand about some special way we grow their food that differentiates our product from another producer’s product. In my opinion our farming community has not done a good enough job in that communication and worse, has at times waged a counterproductive battle against other producers who use a different method and different special word to describe their special growing technique. It becomes a war of words that the consumer doesn’t really understand and the producer does not fully define for them. For these reasons and more we have chosen not to advertise our beef as organic. But I assure you those cattle are very VERY organic. I have to haul and spread their deposited “organics” every year. 😊

Furthermore, I could not find any requirements from any of the organic certifying bodies requiring a minimum nutritional content in that food. Which means that as long as the producer limits his use of pesticides, herbicides and chemicals to an approved list, he can use the “organic” certification with no regard for the possible lack of essential nutrients in that food. In my opinion that does not provide a genuine guarantee regarding the real quality and safety of that food. The facts are that agricultural practices over the last 75 years or so of monocropping and removing ruminants from the land has so mined the minerals from the soil that entire regions of farmland are nearly sterile, without tilth, without organic matter, and severely lacking microbes or worms. With the addition of just 3 nutrients P, N, K, farmers can raise an “organic” crop of vegetables that look like vegetables, but what of their nutritional content? A soil without selenium, for example, cannot then provide selenium to that plant. Livestock or people consuming that plant are not provided that essential nutrient either. Yet, that crop qualifies as “organic” because it met the criteria. Calves develop white muscle disease without selenium. It’s also known as muscular dystrophy. Can you see the problem that arises when the consumer is met with all these many special marketing words that attempt to convey one thing but leave out the whole story?

 Let me describe our herd dynamic to you. We have what is called a ‘closed herd’. We very rarely introduce a new cow or bull here mostly to prevent diseases and prevent the introduction of any undesirable traits such as bad feet, poor udders, bad attitude. When a calf is born we vaccinate them for the clostridii, (ie. tetinus etc.)  and respiratory disease. (Note: to those who worry about mRNA vaccines, there are no mRNA vaccines approved or used on beef or dairy cattle in Canada and should they become available we won’t be using them)

Calves are born April/May and raised on their mother’s milk for 6 or more months on our pastures where they learn to graze and forage. They learn to eat grasses and legumes very early. Our breeding bulls are turned out with the herds  mid July and pulled out by November first. Calves are weaned in late fall, early winter, to their mom’s relief 😊 and then bull calves separated from heifers and raised in their own pastures and paddocks over winter. We feed all our cattle a winter feed program of free choice hay, consisting of grasses and legumes,  and free choice straw, and of course they continue to be on pasture even in snow, pawing through it to reach grasses and legumes below. 

We often plant a pasture with brassicas among the grasses, such as leaf turnip and tillage radish. They really enjoy the flavour and brassicas do an amazing job of feeding the microbial community in the soil. In cold weather we will supplement their hay diet with a few pounds of milled barley to feed the microbial community in their stomachs which will boost heat output internally keeping their core warmer. If we didn’t suppliment them with this added energy they would start consuming the stored energy in their fat, but fat is also their biggest insulator in winter so we must not let that happen. With a calf growing inside them  consuming energy, and taking up more and more space, compounded by our bitter winters consuming energy, there is a huge demand for high nutrition placed on a cow here in our climate. Even more so if that cow is not yet fully grown itself and requires energy for self growth and maintenance. Adequate feed and adequate minerals are critically important in this often harsh prairie environment. Over the decades we have developed herds that can thrive, if provided the complete nutrition they need.

It is December 2024 as I write this and our cattle are still out grazing through the, as yet, shallow snow. They have ample good feed in the hay feeders, but they are still finding green goodies fresh frozen beneath the snow. When the midday sun shines brightly you will find the whole herd standing broadside to the warming sun, half asleep, chewing cud, enjoying a warm afternoon.