The Grillin’ Girl…

For those of you that have missed Megan’s Meatful Mondays, she’s back and she’s learning to grill!

Marinated Sirloin Steaks cooked by Cowgirl Chef Megan on a charcoal grill…

No spring would be sustainable without cooking lessons and quality time with the grill!  Today, my favorite Cowgirl Chef partners with her daddy to make delicious sirloin steaks!

Needs:  Sirloin Steaks (1″ to 1 1/2″ thick), bottle balsamic vinaigrette, charcoal, and grill.

Marinate the steaks in balsamic vinaigrette dressing for several hours.

Build a charcoal fire on the grill.

Place steaks on the fire when it is ready for cooking.

Cook until blood begins to pool at the top of the steak, and then turn the steak and cook a few minutes longer (more time means a more “well done” steak, less time is rarer.As one of the 29 cuts of lean beef, Sirloin steaks make a great summer time meal.  Megan loves them for the taste, but I love them because they provide her growing body with: Iron, Vitamins B6 and B12, Zinc, Choline, Phosphorus, Protein, Niacin, Selenium and Riboflavin.

Beef’s Big 10 empower her to jump far…

And still be able to ride off into the sunset!

Click here for some great grilling tips!

Farm Check: The Plan

Quality Assurance programs have been in place for food animal farmers for more than a decade.  The breadth of these programs varies depending on the animal species, but the core facets are based on farmer education and best management practices to ensure good animal care and safe meat.

Healthy and well cared for animals make healthy meat…

For beef farmers, the Beef Quality Assurance program is a voluntary educational effort that focuses on daily farming practices which impact both animal care and food safety.  Cattle ranchers and farmers are encouraged to both participate in the program and interact regularly with their veterinarian to facilitate this goal.

The Farm Check program is intended to be a natural extension of the Beef Quality Assurance Feed Yard Assessment.  With its key elements comprised of core BQA components, Farm Check extends the current BQA program for feed yards to include an independent 3rd party auditing component.  Auditing serves two purposes:

1.  It creates accountability and verification of animal care practices on the farm.
2. It offers additional assurance for customers that live off-farm that the meat that they purchase at the grocery store comes from animals that were raised responsibly.

The Farm Check Beef Animal Handling Feed Yard Training Manual is still in draft form, and will be trialed in a few “pilot” feed yards this summer before a final draft is formed this fall.  Implementation of the beef portion of the Farm Check Program will begin in 2014.  The swine version is currently in the process of being implemented, and the poultry program is slated to follow the same time line as the beef.  Tyson is the nation’s leading producer of meat and poultry, and is the first packing plant to take this step toward validating on-farm animal care.

The second component of the Farm Check program is an animal welfare research program.  Tyson has designated dollars to be used to fund and promote additional research that will lead to continued improvement in the methods used to raise farm animals.  CEO Donnie Smith states, “We want to identify and study the critical points—from breeding to harvesting—where the quality of life for livestock and poultry can be improved, and use the results to make a difference.”

The Farm Animal Wellbeing Advisory Panel that I sit on will aid Tyson both in the Farm Check on-farm education and audit program and also provide input on necessary research areas for further study.  The panel members will work with Tyson’s internal team to create and implement the program.

The Farm Check program is inaugural in nature and a work in progress.  I returned home after the first two day meeting with my head swimming with information and ideas.  I am looking forward to continuing to share and learn as I fulfill my duties on the Advisory Panel!

Farm Check: The Goal

I have to admit that as a child and teenager, I never gave a thought to where my food came from.  I took both the food and my mother’s wonderful home cooked dinners completely for granted.  As a dedicated athlete who trained four hours a day, I consumed a lot of food—thinking about nutrition and fuel for my body, but never giving a second to think about what it took to grow it.

Finishing an ocean mile race as part of my training twenty years ago…

I’ll never forget the look on my husband’s face the first time that he attended a team dinner for the Dartmouth Women’s Swim Team.  As a college football player he was no stranger to eating, but the feeding frenzy that he witnessed that night left him speechless.  He wisely decided to step aside and let my team mates and I eat our fill before attempting to enter the food line himself…

As I transitioned from competitive athlete to farm girl, I found myself (for the first time) taking an active role in both understanding and growing food.  When I moved to Nebraska in 1997, I had complete trust in modern food production but very little understanding of it.

College graduation: pictured with my husband and brother. The next day, I began to trek from New Hampshire to Nebraska to begin a new life…

Somewhere in the last 16 years, universal trust in food production has been eroded.  Farming practices have been questioned as well as the integrity of the farmer that implements them.  This saddens me.  While I truly believe that every person has a right to understand where their food comes from, I also believe that it is important to truly understand before passing judgement.

The challenge that we all face is the ever growing gap between farmers and urbanites.  Whenever a disconnect like this occurs, myths perpetuate and misinformation stands in the way of good conversation and understanding.  Perception becomes a cloud of fog that hinders trust and stands in the way of true learning and comprehension.

I believe that I care for him responsibly, and I want to share that story of care with you…

Somehow philosophers like Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser have become the authority on food production, while farmers like myself have become the evil opportunists.  While I can certainly respect that every person has a right to their own beliefs, it bothers me tremendously to read books like Fast Food Nation that misrepresent both who I am and what happens on my farm.

• I believe with all of my heart that responsible food production must universally exist.
• I believe with all of my heart that this responsible food production includes quality animal care.
• I believe with all of my heart that a deep understanding of food animals and their needs must play the key role in determining what defines proper care.
• I believe with all of my heart that good care leads to healthy animals and a safe food supply.
• I believe with all of my heart that together farmers and urbanites can come together to build relationships and understanding relative to meat production.

The goal of the Tyson Farm Check program is to bring scientists and farmers together with our customers to rebuild trust while also continually learning how to improve farm animal care.

Do we care?  Absolutely! 

Can we get better?  Absolutely!

  The goal is to build trust while responsibly growing safe and nutritious food.

Farm Check: The People

Although Tyson has been a partner in the beef industry since their acquisition of IBP more than 10 years ago, I knew very little about the company and its people prior to this winter.

As I headed to Arkansas a little over a week ago for the first Farm Check Animal Welfare Advisory Committee meeting, I was unsure as to what to expect from the executives and employees of such a large corporation.  In addition to this, I also did not personally know any of the other members of this third party welfare committee assembled by Tyson.  I was the lone cattle feeder amongst an impressive group of scientists and professionals that were connected to the world of meat production from an eclectic array of directions.

I began the trip spending several hours in the women’s bathroom (the designated tornado shelter) of the wrong Arkansas airport as our plane made an unexpected landing to wait out the storms and tornados that threatened the area.  I arrived at the hotel in Springdale, AR about 1:00am the morning of Tuesday the 21st– thankful for safe travels while also full of concern and sorrow for those in the neighboring state of Oklahoma that suffered tremendously at the hand of Mother Nature.

We began our inaugural meeting with a moment of prayer for those affected by the storms, followed by the announcement that the Tyson Family had dispatched teams to the disaster area to help provide food for those in need.  The term Tyson Family was one that I heard repeatedly over the two day meeting—the expression took me by surprise the first time that I heard it, but after many interactions with the leaders and employees of the company I began to see why it was actually very appropriate.

Quite honestly, I found the large corporation (characterized as a “bully” by Food, Inc. and others in the foodie world) to be a group of compassionate and dedicated individuals.  CEO Donnie Smith’s opening comments focused on the company’s core values and cultural tenets—each one revolving around integrity, compassion and commitment to teamwork.  By the end of the first day, whatever preconceived notions that I might have carried with me on the plane to Arkansas were dispelled by the sincerity that universally characterized the employees that I met.

There is a core group of Tyson employees that are working on the Farm Check program.  This team is led by Dean Danilson PhD; and made up of:

• Paula Alexander MS
• Kate Barger DVM
• Chris Daugherty PhD
• John Hardiman PhD
• Russ Nugent PhD
• Kellye Pfalzgraf DVM
• Lora Wright MS
  

  The intern Tyson Farm Check Team…

Corporate leadership commitment to the program was evident as CEO Donnie Smith, COO Jim Lochner, and EVP Corporate affairs Sara Lilygren and several others were actively engaged throughout the meeting.

The 3^rd partyAnimal Welfare Advisory Committee is made up of:

• Ryan Best
• Ed Cooney
• Gail Golab PhD MD
• Temple Grandin PhD
• Chef Karl Guggenmos
• Tim Loula DVM
• Miyun Park
• Ashley Peterson PhD
• Richard Raymond MD
• Janeen Salak-Johnson PhD
• Janice Swanson PhD
• Bruce Webster PhD
• Anne Burkholder
  

  Those who attended the first meeting, along with a few Tyson team members…

You can access brief biographical information on each of these folks by clicking here:http://bit.ly/10AxJgd.

I am convinced that my involvement in the Tyson Farm Check Animal Welfare Advisory Committee will result in tremendous learning and personal growth.  It is also my hope that my contributions to the group will result in appropriate improvements and verifications in food animal welfare.  Your trust in the beef that I grow is important to me.  This Animal Welfare Advisory Committee allows me the opportunity to make an impact regarding animal welfare outside of my own farm.

Together we are stronger.

Together we are committed to striving to find the best way to care for food animals and grow healthy meat to nourish ourselves and the families that we are honored to provide for.

Farm Check: Ensuring Responsible Animal Care On the Farm…

A life-long animal lover, I have been interested in Animal Welfare relative to cattle since the first day that I visited our family’s feed yard.  The naive 19 year old East Coast girlfriend had no idea that the majority of cattle in the United States spent time in a pen eating out of a bunk prior to becoming beef.

Cattle eating out of a “feed bunk” at the yard…

While I felt many different emotions during my first visit to the feed yard, the most pervasive of those was genuine interest.  In typical Anne style, I asked Archie (the feed yard manager) a multitude of questions as I tried to gain an understanding of both the animals and the way that the farm worked.  The more I learned, the more that I wanted to know .

After almost 20 years, I love Archie like a grandfather…

In particular, I found the care of the cattle fascinating.  The psychologist in me wanted to understand the animal—to figure out how he thought so that I could fully understand his needs.  This initial fascination led to my desire to go to work at the feed yard after college graduation.  Three days after leaving Dartmouth College with a cum laude star on my diploma, I went to work in a whole new world: the world of food animal production.

One of the “home pens” where cattle live at my feed yard…

Over the next 16 years, I learned the practical skills that I needed to care for those intriguing animals and I worked hard to earn the respect of my fellow feed yard team members.  Today, I make decisions that affect the welfare of thousands of animals who make millions of pounds of beef and other products that we all enjoy.  I have learned so much since that first day when my naïve eyes glimpsed the feed yard, but perhaps the best part of all is the fact that the learning never ends.

Animals teach us many things if we take the time to look and are able to understand how they *think*!

The care of beef cattle is highly complex and I view the interaction between bovine and caregiver to be incredibly fascinating.  Enabling my animals to feel comfortable on my farm and watching them to subsequently thrive is one of my greatest pleasures.  Being able to share that with my daughters is nothing short of priceless.

Although I strive to continually learn, I have come to a point in my life where I think that I know enough that I can also share something meaningful regarding animal care.  It is very rewarding to me that others in the beef family share that same feeling.  Animal welfare is a team effort, and I am very proud to be a part of the team.

Late this winter, I was asked to serve on Tyson Fresh Meats 3^rd party Animal Welfare Advisory Committee as a part of their new Farm Check program.  The Farm Check program is an education, audit, and research program to help ensure that animals are cared for responsibly on the farm.

As a customer, each one of you deserves to know that the meat that you purchase came from an animal that was cared for appropriately and conscientiously. 

I believe that the meat industry is only sustainable if it operates with integrity.   I also believe that the Farm Check program will contribute to this sustainability.I am tremendously honored to be a member of this inaugural group of animal welfare professionals.  I am also truly humbled to be thought of as an expert in the field of farm animal behavior, health and production.  My goal has always been to continuously work for improvements in the care of farm animals.  This is best accomplished through the creation of practical and applicable animal welfare practices that dictate responsible daily care.

Healthy and well cared for animals make healthy food, and this is always the goal…

Throughout the next few posts, I would like to share my experiences last week at the first Farm Check Animal Welfare Advisory Committee as well as more information regarding the people, the goal, and the plan.

The Myths of Sustainability Relative to Beef Production…

I really love to eat beef!

I really love to eat beef, and it is important to me that I feel good about my food choices.  Because I care about the environment and the sustainability of our earth, I strive to raise beef responsibly.  At the end of the day, I want to feel good about both how I spent my day raising cattle and also about the beef that I place on the dinner table for my family to eat.

This is a good way to end the day…

There are many myths regarding the topic of sustainability and beef production.  I asked Dr. Stackhouse-Lawson to address a few of these in the hopes that it will enable us all to have a clearer picture of the “sustainability of our beef”.

Anne: What are the top 3 myths that you hear about related to sustainability and the beef production chain?

Kim: 1) Grass fed or organic is more sustainable than conventionally-raised beef. This is simply not true. When it comes to measuring sustainability, more efficient utilization of resources like land and water is the most important thing. I am not advocating that consumers should not eat grass fed or organic beef or that they should choose conventional beef. The great thing about food is that in America, we have a choice – but if you are choosing one production method because you believe one production practice is more sustainable than another, you are misinformed.

2) Eating less beef improves your individual sustainability. Beef producers have reduced their environmental burden by 9 percent in five years. Cattlemen and cattlewomen are already working toward a more sustainable future and beef is necessary to provide protein to a growing global population. In fact, every agriculture product will be necessary as we work to provide food for more than 9 billion people with a balanced diet without depleting our natural resources. Furthermore, many cattle ranchers are located on land that cannot be utilized for crop production and cattle do a great job converting forage that is otherwise unusable by humans to a nutrient dense protein.

3) All of the environmental impact of food occurs on the farm – Actually, in many of the sustainability impact categories we measured, such as energy use, the consumer and retailer use more energy than the farmers. This illustrates why it is so important to evaluate sustainability across the entire supply chain – so that improvements can be made where they actually make a difference.

Understanding where your food comes from helps you to feel good about what you cook. Just ask Megan 

Sustainability Q and A with Dr. Kim Stackhouse-Lawson

It is my job to provide him with good care, and also to use the fewest natural resources to grow nutritious beef…

Matt and I care about the sustainability of our farm.  We not only want it to endure, but to thrive.  Our goal is to produce high quality products through the judicious use of natural resources.  In our journey to continuously improve, we look to scientists like Dr. Stackhouse-Lawson for guidance.

Below is a Q and A with Dr. Kim where she answers my biggest questions relative to the topic of sustainability.

Anne: Why do you think that it is important for beef farmers and ranchers to understand issues related to sustainability in beef production?

Kim: The largest challenge that agriculture is faced with today is preparing to feed a growing population which is expected to surpass 9 billion people by 2050. This population will require at least 70% more food using fewer resources than we have today.   Beef producers have a rich heritage of passing ranches and feed yards from generation to generation, however, sustainability is more than that.  With the increasing pressure of producing more food with limited resources, it is more important than ever before to utilize research and science to help meet this challenge.

For this reason, the beef checkoff has funded the largest sustainability assessment ever conducted along a food supply chain.  This study will ensure that U.S. beef producers will have the knowledge to continue to produce high quality beef while increasing our stewardship of land and resources.

Anne: Why is it important to have scientific documentation of the environmental footprint of beef?

Kim: It is important to have scientific documentation about our industry’s sustainability so that farmers can better utilize new innovations.  It is also imperative that the beef industry be able to measure improvements. One of the real challenges with sustainability is that 100 people will have a hundred different definitions.

The beef industry’s definition is much larger than the traditional definition of just carbon footprint or measuring greenhouse gas emissions. To the beef industry, sustainability is about balancing environmental responsibility, economic opportunity, and social diligence.

Anne: Explain the scope of the beef sustainability study, as well as the initial findings.  What are we doing well, and what do we need to work on?

Kim:  We used a life cycle assessment to predict environmental, economic, and social impacts to benchmark the sustainability of U.S. beef in the past and present. Millions of data points were utilized to accurately capture all inputs and outputs along the beef value chain. Comparing sustainability over time allows us to understand how improvements in cattle management and changes in technology affect industry sustainability.

Since 2005 the sustainability of beef has improved significantly.  Some examples of why U.S. beef industry sustainability has improved include: Improvements in crop yields, animal performance, and the increased utilization of bio-gas recovery.

This life cycle assessment method also allows us to identify areas where opportunities for improvement exist; some examples include: improving cattle utilization of protein in their diets, reducing packaging material, and reducing food waste.

Anne: What is the next step after the results are validated?

Kim: We are expanding the work to regionalize the data, so farmers can utilize the results to analyze their operation, regardless of where they raise cattle. This is a very important aspect of our sustainability project because a one-size-fits-all approach is not sustainable.

Different areas of the country have different resources available, and every producer faces a variety of challenges based on where they live and the climate they face. We are also working to develop a tool that will allow producers to assess individual approaches to improving sustainability on their farm.

Women and Sustainability…

As the mother of three girls, I am always looking for strong female role models to mentor my girls.  One of my goals as a parent is to raise my daughters to be strong, confident, and motivated women.  I want them to embrace life with a passion and use their talents to make the world a better place.

Many opportunities—Many dreams…

When I became a part of the beef family in 1997, I was challenged as a young woman trying to gain respect in a man’s world.  In particular at that time, the cattle feeding (feedyard) part of the beef family was made up predominately of men.

Over the years, I have watched the dynamics change with more and more young women choosing a life raising beef cattle.  In addition to a growing number of female beef farmers, there are also a growing number of women scientists that serve as professional consultants: helping farmers like me to make good decisions regarding animal care and environmental stewardship.

I believe that a diverse mix of men and women makes a stronger beef family.  This more eclectic group allows for a wider array of perspective and savvy.  I have no idea if any of my three girls will choose a life in agriculture, but I want them to realize that if they work hard then opportunities await them.

Dr. Kim Stackhouse-Lawson

One of the young women that I want my daughters to meet is Dr. Kim Stackhouse-Lawson, Ph.D. Kim is the Director of Sustainability Research for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.  A native of Northern California, she grew up in a small ranching community where her family raised ewes and beef cattle.

In addition to participating in FFA and playing an active role on the ranch, Kim was an all-state downhill skier and basketball player while also being an acclaimed horsewoman.  She still actively competes in dressage riding as well as being a rising star in the discussion of sustainability relative to beef production.

Kim and Day Lilly…

While Kim can claim many great accomplishments, I believe that her greatest talent is her proactive passion for environmental stewardship.  Her childhood memories of town hall meetings marked by heated discussions regarding public land use inspired her to become a woman who uses science to ensure the judicious use of natural resources.

Her quiet confidence and innate personal integrity have gained my respect, and I look to her for guidance as I work to reduce the environmental footprint of my farm.  Her work on Beef Sustainability Research gives me faith for the future.

The ranch where Kim grew up in Northern California. Her love of this land motivates her as a scientist every day.

Kim is currently working with the BASF Corporation North America (a world leader in conducting comprehensive life cycle analyses) and the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA to create the first industry-wide beef sustainability assessment.  This assessment will examine the sustainability of the entire beef supply chain from pasture to plate.

I am very thankful that Kim has agreed to enter our discussion of sustainability and she will be a contributor to the next couple of Feed Yard Foodie posts.  Not only will we all benefit from Kim’s knowledge and level-headed savvy, but my girls will get to be “introduced” to her as well.  This will be great preparation for the day where they can meet Kim in person as she is at the top of the list for possible mentors!