The Day the Sheriffs Showed Up at Our Farm (And What Real Farm Transparency Looks Like)

The other day we were sitting in the farm office when my phone rang.

It was Amelia.....

"Do you know the sheriffs are outside?"

As it happens, no I did NOT know that the sheriffs were outside.

So I hustled out front to see what was up......

It turns out someone had reported us for having a limping cow.

Why we kept a 20-year-old grandmother cow on the pasture

We have a 20 year old, amazing mother cow who developed a bad limp last week, which was steadily getting worse. 20 is very old for a cow and hip/knee/ankle/hoof problems are often the final straw for older cattle.

Unfortunately with beef cattle (especially one her age) there's not that much you can do.

These are not barn kept, confinement cattle. The herd is going out on grass next week, and she won't be able to keep up.

Jesse's been texting with our vet, but at her age and in this situation a vet visit is basically an expensive way to be told to put your cow down.

Most folks don't keep cows into old age, but she's an amazing mom who has a calf every year, and we're wacky rotational grazing softies who value having grandmother cows in the herd and wanted to give her a couple more nice spring days before the inevitable. So there we were with a limping 20+ year old cow and a couple of Deputy Sheriffs chatting us up.

What the deputy actually said

The cool thing was, the sheriffs were extremely nice. The main officer was the Animal Cruelty Investigator so he knew his stuff, clearly cared a lot about animals, and was interested in talking about grazing and grass fed beef.

And because we have nothing to hide, and anyone with a clue knows that these cows are well cared for, it was a quick and friendly conversation and everyone went on with their days.

Obviously, the lame part is that someone called in an anonymous tip on a small farm that's actually doing things the right way.

Why our cows winter right next to the road

Our cows spend the winter right next to the road because we have nothing to hide. We feed them incredibly nutritious hay, they have 24/7 access to clean heated water, and (outside of the inevitable effects of old age) they are fat, happy and healthy.

(For the longer story on how we raise our cattle and every other animal on the farm, here's how we raise our cattle and the morning our backyard filled with baby animals.)

Now, whoever called it in was probably well intentioned. They don't know anything about our farm, or us, or probably animals.

And honestly I'm glad there is a mechanism for this.

I love animals and there are a lot of really ugly situations out there and farmers shouldn't be above the law just because we're farmers.

(besides for hauling hay, Commercial Drivers License laws are definitely beneath us)

It would've been cool if they stopped and asked or called our very publicly available phone number before CALLING THE SHERIFFS, but whatever. Lets just assume they were well meaning folks with terrible social skills or a fear of chatting with nice farmers.

Or maybe... we have enemies?

The odds of that are much higher than it being a plot by the Big 4 Meatpackers, or Bill Gates, or a vegan militia, or the Glyphosate lobby, or someone Jesse was mean to in our instagram comments, or maybe that guy who left the fake Google Review last year claiming we'd started a Mad Cow disease outbreak.

Wait…

Do we have….

Enemies?

Are we surrounded by OPPS?

***puts on 'Many Men'***

Anyway....

Whoever the tipster was, I am proud to report that we passed our first ever impromptu animal welfare check with flying colors.

Not the award I was looking to win on Friday morning but it was a rough week and we'll take what we can get!

What real farm transparency actually looks like

The point is, Full Transparency is much much easier when you are doing things right and are proud of what you're doing. It's actually extremely easy.

This kind of thing isn't the best part of our job. We love our cows and treat them well. But they get old and hurt and it's our job to weigh life and death decisions.

We take that responsibility seriously, work tirelessly to provide the best life for our animals, and are happy to discuss it in detail with anyone.

Compare that to the commodity food system, which is designed to disguise everything about your food (where it came from, what it ate, what was sprayed on what it ate, how the cows lived, how they died) behind meaningless labels and corporate branding.

(For more on what's typically going on at the other end of that system, here's why grocery store beef is watery and who's profiting from it.)

If you'd prefer that the meat you feed your family comes from a small farm that happily tells you everything, so you can be confident in every bite, you can reserve a Half Beef Share with a free chest freezer here.

Or you can always keep grabbing it a pound at a time and not thinking about it. That's been working out great for everyone.

P.S. Not sure what size is right for you? Take our Beef Share Quiz for a personal recommendation. Everyone loves a quiz.