Livestock

Yarding

Distinct from free-range or roaming, yarding is a method of confining poultry that allows birds space to roam within a smaller area than they would normally wander. Yarding is often used in conjunction with a poultry house consisting of a coop or cage where birds are herded for protection at night after being allowed to roam free within a fenced-in space during the day. This method may be used to create a system in which cows and chickens are raised together in a form of managed intensive grazing. Yarding is commonly used by small-scale growers, including small farms and backyard chicken keepers.

Vegetarian Farming

Vegetarian farms raise animals for the products and services they are able to provide, such as milk, eggs and fertilizer in the form of manure, but the animals are never slaughtered for consumption. See also Vegan Farming.

Vegetarian Feed

Since livestock feed may contain mammalian or poultry slaughter by-products, many farmers now market their animal products as having been raised on vegetarian feed, which contains no meat, poultry or fish-based ingredients. This diet reduces the potential for latent animal diseases, such as Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or Mad Cow Disease).

Vegan Farming

Farmers who follow the practice of vegan farming do not raise animals and they avoid the use of animal manure or slaughterhouse by-products (such as bone meal as fertilizer). Some growers note that this lack of inputs can make vegan farming less expensive than both organic and conventional methods. Since some people associate animal husbandry with animal exploitation, vegan farming addresses that concern and provides an alternative production method. See also Vegetarian Farming.

Sub-Therapeutic Hormone Use

Sub-therapeutic hormone treatments are doses of hormones administered to livestock for the purpose of encouraging weight gain and growth rather than the treatment of an illness. This practice has been banned in the European Union but is still legal in the U.S. It is also known as routine antibiotic use.

Special-Fed Veal

The majority of veal calves in the U.S. are special-fed, meaning they are fed a nutritionally balanced milk- or soy-based diet. This term only relates to a calf’s diet and does not indicate any other details about how the animal was raised.

Rotational Grazing

Rotational grazing refers to the practice of moving livestock herds into new pastures to allow old fields to recover and regrow. Crops are often planted between grazing cycles since the animal waste deposited by grazing livestock produces richer, more fertile soil. Pasturing or grazing can save farmers the costs associated with buying grain feed for their livestock, and rotational grazing is one way to ensure a reliable supply of healthy grass for consumption by cattle, hogs, chicken or other pastured animals.

Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH)

Also called recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST), rBGH is a genetically engineered growth hormone that is administered to dairy cows in many U.S. dairy operations. Developed and manufactured by the Monsanto Corporation, rBGH artificially increases dairy cows’ ability to produce milk by 10 to 15 percent. Use of this hormone is controversial: the FDA continues to assure consumers that rBGH is safe for cows and humans, yet many dairy companies now advertise their products as hormone-free or include labels specifying that their product is “from cows not treated with rBGH.” See also No Hormones Administered or Added and Sub-Therapeutic Hormone Use.

Pré Salé

Pré salé translates from the French to “salt meadow” or “salt marsh.” The term generally refers to animals—particularly lamb raised in parts of France and Ireland—that graze on grasses growing along the edge of a salt marsh.

Syndicate content