Why is your stock so low?

Your stock is really low.

This is something we are hearing a lot lately. This is why:

Pasture raised chicken

During the cold winter months, we stop raising meat chickens. These chickens are extremely vulnerable to weather changes. They do not do well in the cold. In our region we have thick frost most mornings, and sometimes snow. The grass is dormant so there is not much forage for the chickens anyway. From an ethical point of view, without improving their shelters, it is not a happy life to continue raising them outdoors in the cold. From a nutritional point of view, less forage means less diversity in the diet. In a short life span, this makes an impact. Compared to an egg laying hen where the hen still wanders much further in a day to fulfill her forage requirements, after storing up nutritious forage in the lush months, and is much better able to cope with the cold weather. 

So, we stop raising meat chickens and try as we might, sometimes our demand exceeds supply for a short time during winter. Some years we get it right. Some years we don’t. The market is unpredictable and makes planning difficult. The weather is unpredictable and makes planning difficult.

Pasture raised eggs

Egg laying hens, despite being better able to handle the cold, do reduce their lay rate as the cold sets in and the days are shorter. Less light means less eggs. Eggs are actually a seasonal product but we have become so used to expecting the same quantity all year round.

grass finished beef

Grass fed and finished beef means zero grain. In winter, the grass is less nutritious for the cattle and less abundant. This means growth basically stops altogether. If the animals are at a decent size and weight at the end of summer, and this can be maintained, then supply can continue. But unless the animals are well fed in the summer before, processing has to slow, if not stop, until spring. This year we had more grass than animals so we had some well fed cattle at the end of summer. We gave them access to our winter cover crop to maintain as much as they could and we were able to keep supply for much longer into winter. This may not always be the case.

This year has caused many production challenges, as you may have read in our Summer/Autumn newsletter or the impact of loadshedding on our production, and the butchers’ ability to process meat timeously. These impacts are catching up with us now. Our peak production time was slowed and we are seeing the effects.

Usually we do a bulk amount of processing in Summer and Autumn to keep enough supply for Winter. We are still fine tuning this and getting it right as best as possible. It is a challenge to produce year round, with unpredictable markets and many production variables. But we keep striving. It is a balance between market demand, business savvy decisions, and raising animals as naturally and ethically as possible. 

To our ever patient customers who are plodding through another winter with us, and scarcity, THANK YOU for your patience and allowing us to raise animals as naturally as we possibly can.