In this homesteading, natural living, real food life, we are all about growing our own food. We choose to pasture raise livestock for our meats and dairy. Like many others, we believe that this is the healthiest option for our family. This is part of why we started farming in the first place.
Besides the health benefits of raising pastured livestock, we also think it tastes way better. There’s nothing like sitting down to a meal grown right outside your door raised by your own family. Talk about ultimate satisfaction.
Why We Choose to Pasture Raise Livestock
Reason 1-
Knowing where your food comes from, how the animal was treated, and what it was fed is very important. There’s no better way to do so than to raise your own food. After all, you are what you eat eats.
It seems like there is some kind of food recall every week in the news. I take a lot of comfort knowing that I’m raising food right on my own property that’s safe for my family to eat. No need to panic over the possibility of illness from contaminated foods that have been handled by many people and shipped all over.
Reason 2-
Being able to provide your family with healthy food that you grew yourselves on your own property is so satisfying. You may also be able to provide some food for your extended family and friends. It makes all of the hard work involved totally worth it.
I’m a firm believer that real, nutrient dense food is essential to live a healthy life. When we raise our own livestock on pasture, we know that the meat they provide will be packed full of nutrients and healthy fats for our family.
Reason 3-
Teaching your children a lifestyle that enriches them as a person. I believe that there’s no better way to learn about the value of life and working for what you have than in homesteading and raising your own food. The things that children learn through this are too numerous to list here but the overall value of it is priceless.
Involving your kids in the work that goes into rotating livestock on pasture helps give them a strong work ethic and they get to see the reward of their hard work in the end. They also learn to understand the value of food itself.
Reason 4-
Working together as a family is very fulfilling. There is nothing else in life that we enjoy more than spending time together on our farm working and playing. The bond that we all have as a family is unbreakable.
There are plenty of farm chores to go around and many hand make light work. You have cattle to rotate pastures, chicken tractors to move from spot to spot, pigs that need fresh paddocks, you get the picture. We get to do all of this with our children and get the joy of working together every day.
Reason 5-
We believe that when we pasture raise livestock, the meats and dairy produced are far healthier for our bodies. We are stewards of ourselves and our children and want to take as good of care as we can and eat as healthy as possible. We also want to feel good. By raising our own pastured livestock, we can accomplish this.
There is so much more to why we homestead and pasture raise livestock but these are just a few of the highlights for us. It is also something that we are very passionate about and want to help educate others about.
Our family has big plans for our future of expanding our farm to be a large scale pasture based farm offering grass fed beef, pastured pork, and pastured poultry and eggs. We have a dream and have dedicated ourselves to making it happen through hard work and determination.
UPDATE: This post was written back in 2017 and our family now raises and sells pasture raised meats on 136 acres!
We look forward to the day when our dream comes to fruition. Until then, we will continue to pursue it and put our hearts and hard work into it. While we are working towards that, we will continue to raise our family’s meat and dairy products on pasture.
When we started out farming back in 2012, we didn’t know what we were doing. Boy, have we gained a lot of experience and come a long way in over the years. We have been fortunate to have great friends that have helped guide us. We’ve also done a lot of research on the internet and watched a lot of YouTube videos of people who farm and pasture raise livestock.
There’s a lot to learn about how to manage pastures and what each type of animal needs. We’ve experimented through trial and error and have adjusted our system as needed so that it works well for us. I’m sure as we continue to grow, we will continue to tweak and adjust our methods.
I’m of the opinion that almost anyone can raise at least some of their own food. Be it a few plants on a balcony, some back yard chickens and meat rabbits, or a full fledged farm filled with livestock, it can be done. We have learned that we can grow and raise a lot more on a lot less space than we thought we could.
My wife and I have always loved the idea of buying some land and building a home out in the country where we can raise and grow our own food. I love your point about how there’s a lot of value for your children when they can raise their own livestock and it can enrich them as people. We may need to look into getting some cows to help with grass maintenance and possibly meat for the table.
These are great reasons why you would want to raise your own livestock. There is something so gratifying about eating food that you have raised yourself. My husband and I both grew up in farming families, and we still love it. Passing the skills on to the next generation is super important.