Can your chickens be chickens? Pigs pigs and cows cows? Happy animals, happy people. When an animal is allowed to express itself and it’s God-given nature than it will eat its natural diet and enact its natural tendencies. This results in a happy animal full of vitamins, minerals and vitality. Dawnbreaker Farms works off the mantra of “one bad day” wherein we give our animals the things they need to live the best life ever. The transition from animal to plate is made as quickly and smoothly as possible with as little stress as possible. That’s why we slaughter our poultry on site and use an Animal Welfare Approved butcher for our pigs and sheep.

For a generation now Americans have been taught that a chicken is a chicken and a carrot is a carrot. Prices have been driven down to commodity levels and quality has suffered. When only price is considered qualitative factors such as flavor, nutrition, animal welfare and environmental well-being are ignored. As a result we have a tepid, unethical and environmentally catastrophic food system. Price should be a consideration but more importantly we must think about the values that we choose when we make a purchase. If we want a sustainable and economically just world than we must start voting with our wallets. If price is truly a barrier than speak with your farmer and together we can create solutions.

This question might seem “out there” but I think it is the crux of good farming and good food. Bad farming has a net negative effect or degenerative effect on the land while good farming has a net positive or regenerative effect on land, soil, water and air. A farmer that you can wholeheartedly support and throw your full commitment behind is one that firmly knows his or her role in the carbon cycle and manages their farm in a way that sequesters carbon, replenishes groundwater, purifies waterways and enriches the soil.

Feed rations are a critical part in a livestock farm’s management practices. Farmer’s use different grain rations depending on the quality of product they desire to produce and the price that their customers are willing to pay for it. Generally you have three categories of grain listed in ascending order of price and quality: Conventional GMO, Conventional Non-GMO and Organic. Needless to say organic is the best but sometimes there are excellent farmers using conventional GMO grain because their customer base isn’t willing to pay for higher quality meat. In full disclosure Dawnbreaker Farms uses the second category of conventional Non-GMO. We chose this as a compromise between ours and our customers ideals and customers price sensitivity. We would like to move along the continuum to Organic grain but feel that our customer base is not ready to support the price increase. In an ideal world we wouldn’t base our animal protein diet around grain-centric animals like pigs and chickens but now I’m getting ahead of myself…

Farmers are as diverse as people and each have their own unique management styles that will impact the flavor and nutrition of the meat as well as the land they are raised on. Ideally the animals are moved frequently to new pastures and woodlands to ensure maximum forage ability and environmental regeneration. Keeping animals in a single stationary paddock encourages parasite build up, reduces forage, can be degenerative and in some cases can turn rich pastures into lifeless dirt. The more complex and diverse the rotations the better.