On Non-GMO Feeds

Do you use Non-GMO Feeds? Why or why not?

We have been producing GrassFed Beef for about 15 years.  We have been doing pastured chicken for about 10 years, Pork for about 8 years.

I have definite opinions about the subject of GMO feeds vs Non-GMO feeds. Which is better and why? I will probably cover that in the next article I write. This article only covers whether we use GMO feeds and why.

To make the question about quality VERY short: In my opinion, Non-GMOs are better than GMOs. But that is not NEARLY the whole story. The big jump in quality of feed occurs NOT in switching from GMOs to Non-GMOs but when Pesticides, Herbicides, Chemical fertilizers, chemical curing agents and all the rest of it are no longer used in producing either animal or human foods.

We and our farmers use some GMO Feeds for our animals.  We are working toward becoming all organically grown.  This is not as easy as you might think.  Becoming fully organic takes some time and not a small amount of money or amount of work to accomplish.

Our cattle are as close to organic as anyone could get without the certification.  They get only grass on our farm and the farms we work with.  They may or may not get organic hay.  Pretty much nobody uses herbicides or pesticides on hay because hay is just dried grasses and if it is sprayed with herbicides it dies.

Our pigs get some GMO and some Non GMO feeds depending on what is available and at what cost.  The pigs also get hay, straw or corn stalks to make nests out of and use for bedding or to eat, depending what they want at the time.  Pigs will eat almost anything and will also play with their food.

Our chickens are fed a completely non GMO feed diet as well as grass on pasture and whatever bugs happen to be in that pasture.

As far as why our farmers and ourselves feed what we do, it quickly comes down to cost. 

Conventional feeds are the cheapest, Non GMO Feeds are about 10% more expensive, and fully organic feeds are roughly 50% more expensive than conventional.

There is a lot to understand about why costs are so different for the different qualities of feeds.

If the above is enough data for you, go no further. 

If you want to learn about GMOs, non GMOs, Organic and the gradients between, proceed!

The first thing to know about GMO Feeds is that there are NOT just two types of feeds, GMO and Non GMO.  There are at least THREE Basic types of GMO/Non GMO farming.  There are a lot of shades of grey between those types.  The main types are:

Conventional:  This is where the farmer sprays his crops with some type of herbicide that kills weeds.  They also plant GMO seeds because GMO seeds are advertised as better in terms of final yield.  Whether they are ‘better’ or not is arguable. There is some debate about yield in relation to input costs.  Conventional farms almost certainly use chemical fertilizers in order to enhance their crop production.  They might also spray an insecticide on the crop to kill any bugs that are going after it. These practices produce grain that costs the least in terms of dollars per bushel. Whether these low costs are brought about by farm subsidies and subsidized crop insurance is a complicated subject.

Since our farm doesn’t receive any farm subsidies, I of course am biased and think the playing field is tilted to some degree but don’t know how tilted that playing field is. I do know that if Grass Farmers were subsidized it would be MUCH easier to produce a lot of GrassFed Beef and produce it much cheaper than is happening now.

To summarize, conventional does these things:

• Spray herbicide.

• Plant GMO seeds.

• Fertilize with chemicals, many of which come from fossil fuels.

• Spray insecticide.

• Note that this is not EVERY conventional farmer.  There is always some variation.

Conventional animal farmers feed these GMO feeds to their animals, quite often in Confined Animal Feeding Operations. Confined Animal Feeding is another entire article also.

Non-GMO, but still uses pesticides: The farmer doesn’t plant GMO Seeds, he plants Non GMO Seeds.  They may or may not spray herbicide.  They may or may not use chemical fertilizers.  They may or may not spray insecticide. Cost on a per bushel basis of the product is about 10-15% more than conventional.

Summary:  Non GMO does these things:

• Spray herbicide.  Maybe, often does.

• Plant non-GMO seeds. Always.

• Fertilize with chemicals.  Maybe, often does.

• Spray insecticide.  Maybe, often not.

• Note that this is not EVERY Non GMO farmer.  There is a lot more variation in Non GMO farms as opposed to conventional farms.

An animal farmer who uses Non-GMO feeds but those feeds are grown with chemicals also covers a very wide spectrum of practices. Anywhere from almost completely conventional to almost completely organic.

The best and only real way to find out what is really going on at the farm is to talk to the farmer and find out what his practices are.  Most farmers are doing the best they can with what they have and will tell you the truth about their practices. Learning to tell truth from lies is a very valuable thing here (and anywhere in life). I can write about my methods for doing that too if you like.  Trying to raise a crop without herbicide when your crop is being inundated with weeds is a pretty hard thing and if screwed up can lead to a hungry family.  When corn earworms are eating your crop and you don’t know of any other way to solve the problem, you are probably going to reach for the insecticide because you don’t want a hungry family or to lose your farm to the bank.  

All that being said, the 10-15% increase in product prices from doing non GMO is very attractive so the farmer does the best they can.

Organically grown:  The farmer is usually working on a full organic certification or may just be unwilling to pay for the certification or unwilling to do the paperwork and pay the cost necessary to get the full certification. The farmer doesn’t use any herbicides to kill weeds. They plant Non-GMO seeds. They do not use chemical fertilizers. They do no-till or weed tillage or cover crops or any other means of weed control as they can. They also do not use insecticides to kill insects who might go after the crop.  They do NOT have to hold a certification from the government that they are fully organic.  The reasoning behind this is that they are working on becoming fully organic or it simply costs too much and is too complex and difficult to pass the tests.  On a price per bushel basis, these grains or products are from 15 to 150% more expensive than conventional. The variations in price are sometimes pretty big, depending on supply, demand and a lot of other factors.

To summarize, organically grown farmers use these practices:

• No chemical herbicides. May use natural herbicides.

• Uses only Non-GMO seeds.

• Uses no chemical fertilizers.

• No chemical insecticides. May use natural insecticides.

• No organic certification.

Organically Certified:  These steps are the same as Organically Grown but the farmer is certified by the USDA as fully organic. No summary is needed for this.  Just add organic certification to the list of practices above.

Organic Feeds are not easy to find in some areas.  Trucking costs can become a major barrier. Last spring I wanted to start doing organically grown with our pigs and chickens.  I even helped a guy start a feed mill so the grinding, mixing and bagging could be done locally and the feed wouldn’t need to be trucked nearly as far. 

The costs to make all this happen quickly would increase our meat costs to our people by about 50%. This cost increase quickly shot down the project. We have a good number of customers who definitely want to go certified organic but many of them would have problems paying the high costs per pound.

As covered above, becoming fully organic is not a simple proposition and it has a lot of moving parts.  

The above is written to the best of my knowledge gained from experience and the research I have done. I am NOT trained as an agronomist and I only have 15 years of experience as a grass farmer. I am certain there are people who know more about this subject than I do. I welcome any input in the direction of correcting anything I am wrong about.

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SV