Mr. Will Harris from White Oak Pastures has developed a massive, economically successful, farm using the Serengeti rotational grazing system. here is a video about his operation.
http://vimeo.com/30151350
Keep in mind the massive acreage He uses to do this. Also the fact that he uses no almost zero imputs into his farming system.
what do you guys think? Is this operation something that can be duplicated? is it large enough to even put a dent into the American farming system?
I found this video to be a breath of fresh air, so to speak, regarding food production. It is nice to know someone here in Georgia has a rather large and successful farm (85 employees) that is able to raise animals in such a natural environment. While this seems very good for the environment, I'm not 100% sure if it could be extremely viable to replace the "conventional" way we seem to be producing meat. The main reason for this being the sheer cost of the products in the end because of the amount of labor and time it takes to raise animals in such a natural way. For example, after looking up some average prices for beef I found that many of the cuts advertised on the White Oak Pastures website can be 2 to 4 times more expensive than "conventional" beef. I of course can see the merit in them charging this price for their meat products, but I feel that it would take a major shift in American culture to have such a system gain enough leverage in the food market to combat the way we now produce meat.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the 'Cheap Good Quick' Triangle- you can pick two but you can't have three. I definitely think that this could gain traction as a viable method of meat production. The largest impediment that I can see to it being implemented would be that unlike how meat is generally produced in a feedlot, this method depends heavily on the area where it is located. Therefore it would need a lot of research and specialized knowledge to implement nationally. As far as the food prices go, some of the popular meat cuts are more expensive than traditionally produced meat, but some of the lesser known cuts are very good deals. I'm pretty sure that $6.50 for two beef tongues averages to about 6-10 lbs of meat total.
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