Pasture for life

We recently joined the Pasture For Life association as a way of showing our commitment to support farmers breeding and growing in the best ways possible for animal welfare.

A few words from Johnnie Balfour 

Balbirnie Home Farms is a family farm based in Fife.  A skilful team produce cereals, vegetables and delicious pasture-fed beef.  The herd of cattle became certified by the Pasture Fed Livestock Association in 2020.  

When explaining why we chose to go down this route, I always ask the people I’m talking to what cows eat. I’ve asked this question around the world to nursery children, pensioners and everyone in between. What’s the answer they all give? Grass. Everyone ‘knows’ what cows eat but for some reason, we farmers often feed other things to our cows in an effort to produce more meat. By allowing the cows to eat what they are designed to eat, they are more healthy and they produce meat (and milk) that is better for us because it has higher Omega 3 fats.

The other benefit of Pasture For Life certified meat for us is that our cattle spend more time outdoors as we have changed from a system of keeping the cattle in a shed and bringing the food to them to a system of keeping the food in the field and taking the cattle to the field. This allows us to use the nutrients that come out of the back of the cows where they can do as much good as possible to following crops in those fields. 

Our cattle are walking, mooing nutrient cycling machines that allow us to reduce fertlisers on crops like oats for your porridge, carrots for your soup or cabbage for your roast dinner.  In exchange for doing this vital job for us, they produce delicious, high welfare meat. Look for the PFLA symbol on your beef and lamb and ask where yours comes from. Good chefs like Fred will always know exactly where all of their ingredients come from.

Johnnie has been a member of Pasture For Life for 5 years, and currently sits on their board of directors.  Find out more here.