I think the ultimate goal of small farms is to work towards a good breeding program in their animals. I think it is a sign of a "real farm and farmer". It is also the responsible and ethical way to farm. Most anyone can purchase a baby animal from someone and raise it up. Animal husbandry takes on a much higher skill level to recognize breeding times, pairing animals, helping with the birth process, recognizing any problem during the birth process, and then being patient enough to wait and see the results of that process. Really good animals can take years to develop on a farm. I am glad we no longer buy animals from commercial breeders. I believe they are contributing towards more sick, weak, and problem animals on farms....which leads to more medicine being used on farms. Also do we consider the saying "we are what we eat". If we eat animals with poor genetics, does that carryover and effect our own health? Does it make us weaker? We are at a point where we buy a few select animals. We focus more and more on great genetics. In just the past 5 years we have seen a real difference in our calves, lambs, and goat kids. We have been working on poultry genetics, but that seems to be the hardest animal to work with. Give the genetic question some consideration......genetically modified foods are being shown to effect human genes. If we eat poor genetics in mass produced animals, are we being effected with poor health? "We are what we eat".
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 01:13:54 +0000
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