Billy wrote:
In article ,
"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote:

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
FarmI wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message

Salatin does not claim this level of productivity because there
is 450ac of woods as well as the 100ac of pasture. The woods
make a sizeable contribution to the farm, it produces much pig
feed and biomass that is used for a variety of purposes and
assists in other ways. So to be more accurate the above
production is from 550ac.

I would be interested to know what can be done by conventional
means. The comparison would be very difficult to make fair I
think because the conventional system uses many external inputs
and would have trouble matching that diversity of outputs. I
suspect that just measured in calories per acre the intensive
monoculture might win. The whole point of this is that you can
only do that for a limited amount of time with many inputs and
many unwanted side effects. Not to mention that man does not
live by bread (or high fructose corn syrup) alone.

Fair comment David, but then there is a much higher cost to the
quality of life for the animals? I'm sure that you, like me, have
seen intensive operations such a feed lots and caged chooks.


That was one of the side effects I had in mind. We have chook
sheds for meat birds in the district. Ten thousand or twenty in a
shed with a dirt floor with just enough room to move between the
feed and the water. Lights on half the night to get them to eat
more. The workers wear breathing apparatus to clean out the sheds
and it will make you puke at 400m on a hot night. The eagles dine
well on those who get trodden under. Nuff said.


Indeed. I've been to a feed lot and I had the same reaction
although this was probably one of the better run ones. I'd turn
vegetarian if our local buthcer sourced his meat at places like that
but I can see his 'feed lot' (for want of a better description as
it's jsut his farm) from the road and his cattle have quite a nice
spot for the final finish on feed before they take the trip to the
abattoir. (sp?)

I grew up on a poultry farm and my mother refused to have any cages
on the place with the exception of a row of 10 where she used to
put birds that were off colour and needed to be taken away from the
bullying tactics of the rest of the flock. In the 50s and 60s when
other poultry farmers were moving to cages and proud of it, we were
free ranging. We once had a city person come back to us and
complain about the eggs they bought off us. According to them, the
eggs were 'off' and had to be thrown out because they had 'very
yellow yolks'.

In those days it meant the chooks had a varied diet not just pellet
chook food. A question that you would know, is the yellow yolk
still such an indicator or is it emulated these days by diet
additives?

That is one of those 'it depends' answers as in, it depends ont he
feed.

If you feed them on kitchen scraps (not recommended as that isn't
nutritious enough) then free ranging (as opposed to keeping
confined) will change the colour of the yolk. Pellets contain a
yellowing agent, but apparently that yellow isn't carried through so
that in baked goods show up the yellowing. Yolks that are yellow as
a result of the feed they find outside does hang on through the
baking process so that the baked goods (like say a butter cake) will
appear more yellow. I've not done these tests myself but there was
a long article on it (with comparative pics) in one of the
'Australasian Poultry' mags a couple of years ago. A great little
magazine and as cheap as chips.


My food books say the yellow of the yolk is due to xanthophylls which come
from plants, typically lucerne and corn. Not having chook books I do this
backwards. Apparently corn feed is also responsible for the yellow skin and
fat found in some "organic" meat birds.

Besides having a yoke that looks like an apricot, instead of a lemon,
real eggs have a viscosity to them that factory produced eggs don't.

Is the height and viscosity of the egg contents a result of diet and health
of the chook or a sign of freshness, or both? The same ref (McGee 'On Food
and Cooking') says freshness has much to do with it.

Come on chook people - give me the scoop before I build the chook house.

David