Joel Salatin: Synergy between Nature, Science and Technology

Joel Salatin, a keynote speaker at the Mother Earth fair, talks about “cow days” and the value of using technology as a co-laborer with nature. Just as “a carpenter uses inches, a wheat farmer uses bushels, and a water manager uses gallons, a cow day is a constant measure of what a cow will eat in a day.”

Joel goes on to explain how the yields or production capacity at Polyface Farm using cow days as a measurement tool is five times higher then the county average. The innovation of electric fencing and the psychological control over a herd of herbivores has changed the face of farming. Meaning, says Joel, “for the first time in human civilization, we can run large commercial scale flocks on pasture, safer, more sanitary and more ecologically enhancing then a backyard flock in a Nebraska homestead 200 years ago.

Though Polyface looks like a picturesque farm of yesteryear, Salatin is quick to point out that, "this is not your grandpa’s farm."