Humane Animal Husbandry

We’re not animal worshipers but we believe they should be allowed to express their individual instinctual desires. A chicken should raised in an environment that allows it to do what a chicken naturally wants to do. That is, roam at free will and round out it’s diet with insects and plants/grass. The same goes for a cow or pig. Putting a pig on slatted concrete floors over a manure pit does not allow it to express it’s instinctual “pigness.” For example, in the past we’ve had to purchase small feeder pigs from a nearby confinement hog facility. Even though this farm is known to raise and sell pigs of outstanding quality, they raise all their hogs indoors on concrete slatted floors with manure pits underneath. Its all concrete, wire panel partitions, stainless steel feeders and nipple waterers. However, we bring six week old pigs home and turn them into the barn where it’s bedded with straw and, guess what, their first instinct is to root and burrow in the straw which is definitely “pigness” at work but is an instinct denied in the conventional hog raising facility.

To sum it up, at Freedom Acres we strive to allow livestock their inborn instincts as they would in nature. And we’re finding that following nature’s template allows animals to be healthy and happy without the “crutches” considered necessary in the status quo industries.

Quote worth re-quoting...

Life is ten percent what happens to you – and ninety percent how you respond to it. – Lou Holtz