Polyface Farm

Joel Salatin is an inspiration for heavy rotation organic farming.

Our mission is to develop emotionally, economically, and environmentally enhancing agricultural enterprises and facilitate their duplicatation throughout the world.

I am not certain Salatin is the gent featured in an old Smithsonian article that had me intrigued with this idea, although his farm is in the same area, his pens that he moves around look different than the pens that I remember reading about. Those pens held fifty chickens and had wheels. There was only mention of cattle and no mention of various grasses. The intriguing part of the article is the fryers or roasters he raises are snatched up by area restaurants well in advance of production. It is nearly impossible to get his chickens due to high demand. A similar type pasture-raised chicken, as opposed to free-range chicken and organic chicken, from a Colorado farm will set you back -- are you sitting? -- $26.00 at Marczyk on 17th St. and Clarkson, a specialty shop even more hoity-toity than Whole Foods, whose free-range and organic chickens are reasonable compared to Marczyk. But that was back then, I do not know if Marczyk is still using the same supplier now. I am conveying that there is high demand for this type of product and farmers nationwide are responding. World-wide, actually, Other YouTube videos mention Joel Salatin in describing their operations too. The fellow in New Mexico based his farm on Salatin's concept and he said in his video he hopes to take the idea back with him to Wisconsin eventually. A guy in Australia has an entirely different caravan type moveable henhouse, his caravan is the best, his video is interesting too.

Australia, 3.30 min video interesting caravan, 1,000 chickens.

New Mexico 6.07 min video. presented more as a news item with that type of editing, a bit more new-agey sounding but the same idea. The video includes an interview with a chef of a nearby New Mexico rrestaurant.

Interesting because their farm land is entirely different from Joel Salatin's and they do not incorporate cattle.

If you have time and care to, I believe you will find this interesting as I do and worth its 35.33 minutes. There is a bit of déjà vu near the end, this girl grabbing chicks is shown twice -- who can forget? --  and Joel repeats in his conclusion. As for myself, I am fascinated. I imagine myself doing this work. I wish more and more smaller production farmers will pick up on the ideas here so that it becomes even more widespread.

When Joel speaks about the money he makes a year selling eggs it hardly seems worthwhile. He doesn't mention his annual income from beef and from the chickens themselves but I expect it is considerable. He comes off a very modest person even with his grand purpose statement. And I doubt that his chickens cost the $26.00, (Ouch! I'm still feeling that -- the chicken was not extraordinary), that I paid at Marczyk a few years back for experimentation purposes.

The Smithsonian article that I read way back a decade ago mentioned the farm processing their own chickens on site. The whole operation is seasonal so all of that happens at once. To remove the feathers they use hot water to loosen the feathers then the chickens are placed into a rotating drum with rubber fingers inside, more like thumbs to rub off the feathers. It is a one-at-a-time deal.

If you care to watch, notice the people standing around the edges with cameras taking notes. They are not just tourists, I think they are there to study Salatin's ways. I find all of that encouraging. And I find Joel Salatin interesting and engaging without being pedantic nor tautologic.

[Kate at smalldeadanimals says "organic is Latin for grown in pig shit" but she is talking about rejection of genetically modified foods in relation to a fungus ruining crops throughout the Middle East. She mocks, those who use the word "denier" believe in something called Frankenfood. But that is another subject. I thought it was funny.]