Humane Management of Livestock

We are designing a sheep handling facility to make it easier to vaccinate, trim, sort and body condition check the sheep. If you are planning a facility, your best bet is to look at the research and recommendations of Dr. Temple Grandin. Dr. Grandin is a very much respected authority on the human handling of livestock. We just picked up her book on humane management of livestock and what an amazing reference. She has such good insight on animal behaviour and how it can be used to move and handle livestock in a stress free manner.

And why is this important? Primarily is the moral consideration. Just because an animal is being raised for meat production doesn't mean that it should be handled any less humanely than an animal that is not raised for meat. Be it our horses, who now are mainly pets, or our sheep or cattle, they all get the same level of care and compassion. Another reason is explained by Dr. Grandin. Meat from animals that are stressed is prone to be dark and not last as long in storage. I also believe that it has a significant impact on tenderness and flavor.

Dr. Grandin also discusses the current approach to breeding livestock. Too often breeders focus on one trait to the exclusion of all others be it rate of gain, production, performance, colour etc. This often has an unexpected and unintentional adverse impact on other traits such as temperament, longevity, fertility. Like with our horses, our breeding program is looking at a balance of numerous traits.

Along that line, I also am surprised that flavor so seldom figures into a breeder's production goals. I suppose it is because flavor is individual and is so difficult to test. I would love to see more taste tests used as part of breeding success. Ultimately the customer is the judge and if it doesn't taste good they judge with their wallet. Flavor is always going to be front and center with our goals.

Check out Dr. Grandin's website. It is very good reading.


TTFN
Laurie

Training and weight loss challenge

The new year is upon us with new year's resolutions, the excitement of the Olympics and a general need to get over the mid-winter blahs. Both our horses and I have turned into pasture and couch potatoes respectively soooo..... we shipped Lucan out to a new trainer to get started under saddle (and to lose some of that round bale belly). I have yet to make the phone call to get me to the trainer but putting it on "cyber" paper hopefully will give me the incentive to do so. But I have taken the step to start a more healthy eating style with an anticipated weight loss outcome. Years of wear and tear has been hard on my hips and knees and considering they are the only thing that is keeping my tush off the ground I better take care of them. Healthy eating, weight loss and exercise will help me on that path.

Now back to Lucan. He is at Saddle Ridge Stable being trained by Reuben Geleynse and is coming along very well. Reuben has a nice soft way about training which will result in what we want from Luc; a calm, safe horse for hacking. We will be documenting his progress on uploaded videos on our Youtube channel. And yes, we no longer just believe that Luc has ribs under all his fat, we (almost) can feel them.

TTFN
Laurie

Holy Doodle Batman, Hawk Hill is going High Tech

When personal computers first came out, I was in University... OK I was in graduate school.. but hey I have earned these grey hair. At that point I was a technophobe. I don't think I turned on my Osborne (remember them) for three months after I bought it. Now it is a pretty rare day that I don't spend at least some time on the computer.

The internet has opened incredible training options in webinars, on line journals, discussion groups, training videos. How to vaccinate a lamb is just a click away.

While I am just new to both blogs and social media, I recognize their power in networking people both friends and future clients. That is why I have just started a new Facebook page: Hawk Hill's Lamb Lovers Page. It is a place where those of us who love lamb can share recipes and other information about our favorite food - Lamb.

Check it out and become a fan.

TTFN,
Laurie

Raising meat animals then and now

I was reorganizing my recipe books (and updating my new recipe page on our website) and I started to read through some of my old recipe books. I was reading a 1950 edition of the Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cook Book. It was very interesting to see what they had to say about beef and chicken. Here are a few quotes.

"The quality of beef depends on the age of the animal and its feeding. The best beef is from a steer 4 to 5 years old."

and Chicken:
"Broilers or spring chickens or squab chickens are young, tender birds (8-14 weeks old). Allow 1/2 small broiler to a person.
Fryers weigh 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pound (14-20 weeks old). One fryer serves 2 to 4.
Roasters weigh 3 1/2 pounds and over (5-9 months). A 4 pound bird serves 4 to 6.
Capon (unsexed male) usually weigh 7 to 8 pounds and serve 8 generously."

Oh have times changed. Most beef is processed between 12-20 months of age. And with current chicken breeds it is easily possible to have a 9 week old bird dress out at an average of 6 lbs. I have done that myself numerous times. It brings up what we have gained and what we have lost.

I think that one thing we have lost is flavor. A beef animal takes time to develop the marbling throughout the meat and as I mentioned in an earlier post, most of the flavor is in the fat. The gains are obviously quicker turnaround times and reduced feed costs... maybe. To bring an animal to market faster required more concentrated feeds -- grains, higher protein concentrates etc. These feeds cost more than a forage based diet. You can go back and forth on the cost, time argument and much of that depends on location, market etc. A pasture based diet is only inexpensive on cheap farm land. Land prices around much of southwestern Ontario could make a pasture based system very expensive indeed. What it should come down to is what the client wants in their meat and what they are willing to pay for it. We will always be a pasture based management system supplemented with grains to start and then finish the animals. We will process at 2 years of age at the earliest. However we are small enough to allow us the flexibility of breaking from the norm. We will play with our management to make the best flavor and quality in the beef.

Another unexpected loss is quality of leather. A number of years ago, I apprenticed with a harness maker. He bemoaned the fact that it was getting increasingly difficult to get good quality leather. And the reason is that cattle are slaughtered much younger. The hide thickens as the animal ages. (You sure notice this come vaccination time.) Younger animals means thinner hides.

As I mentioned I can raise a roaster sized chicken in 9 weeks. However to do so we give them free access to high protein feed. This year we will reduce the protein level in the feed, and allow them access to pasture. bugs etc. We will see what difference that makes in the flavor of the meat. I know the young roasters were tender and tasty. Lets see what we get with the pasture penned poultry.

TTFN
Laurie

Bag of Bones Soup

Many of our clients are new to buying lamb by the side or whole and are unclear as to the process of selecting cuts. We had a very helpful local butcher (who actually teaches butchering) allow us to watch and learn as he processed our lambs. We also have been reading (and cooking) so that we can better advise our clients.

Here is some basic information when ordering lamb.
Unless your supplier is processing a number of lambs at the same time, don't request ground lamb. Almost one pound of meat remains in the grinder and is lost. If you need ground lamb you could process some at home; partially thaw stew meat and run it through your food processor. It won't be perfect but you won't lose as much.

If you want brochette cubes you are going to have to sacrifice a hind leg. This cut provides the best meat for brochettes.

If you want stew meat, the best cut is the shoulder. You could ask for boneless shoulder roast and then cut it for stew meat. However make sure you get the bones back. Cooking the bones in the stew greatly enhances the flavor.

Most of our clients do not want the organ meat. However I recommend they take it anyways. I find the delicate flavour of lamb liver superior to liver from any other animal. It certainly is worth a try. You might find a new addition to your menu.

Many of our clients also don't want the bones. For the most part I think they do not know what to do with them. Soup is the obvious answer. However I want to share some cooking tests that I did with the bones. I love Scotch Broth, a classic lamb based soup so I boiled up a bag of lamb bones. The lamb flavor was weak and totally lost in the soup. When I have made Scotch Broth in the past I have always used the left over leg bone from a roast so the next time I made soup I first roasted the bones in the oven until well browned and then covered them with water and used that to make soup. Wow what a difference. It would have been further improved if I had roasted a few carrots, onions and celery with the bones. Keep an eye on the web site because I will be adding a new recipe for "Bag of Bones Soup". Note: The recipe is now on our web site.

So next time you are ordering a lamb, take it all. It sure will add more tasty diversity to your menu.

Cheers and good eating,
Laurie

If you are not eating Hawk Hill lamb, you are just eating sheep.

We have had two meals based on our purebred Tunis lamb and personally we thought the meat was delectable. A delicate aroma and flavour with fine-grained tender meat. Exactly what we had been led to believe by Tunis boosters.

We decided to put the lamb to a taste test and compared four different breeds of sheep. We tested our pure Tunis, our cross-bred Tunis/Cheviot, another Ontario lamb of a different breed from an organic farm and commercially available lamb from New Zealand. All were loin chops and all were cooked the same with no flavour additions. The lambs originating from our farm were both raised under the same regime though the Tunis Cheviot cross was about one month younger than the pure Tunis. There were four of us testing flavour, texture, aroma and taste. While not a true blind taste test it was the best we could do in a social dinner setting.

Well there was a significant difference in all the lamb. The least difference was between the Tunis and the Tunis/Cheviot cross. All of us preferred the Tunis and or the Tunis Cheviot. The Ontario lamb from another farm was not liked by any of us and the New Zealand lamb was in between. The Tunis and the Tunis/Cheviot had a more pleasant aroma, texture and flavour. The meat was more tender and the flavour was rich without a "wooly" after taste.

At one point I was considering selling our Tunis ewes and just using the Tunis/Cheviot crossbreds. Welllll.... the taste test has made me reconsider and the Tunis ewes are going to remain as part of our lamb production flock.

We then had the balance of the New Zealand lamb for our meal the next night. I am totally spoiled. Tunis rocks.

We are trying to encourage a meat marketing agency here in Ontario to run a chef-judged taste challenge. Growth statistics, conformation, carcass structure etc are all important but in your breeding program you cannot forget the most important factor - taste.

Later
Laurie

Hawk Hill Thanksgiving

We are well past the Canadian Thanksgiving and even that celebrated in the United States but tonight we are celebrating Hawk Hill Thanksgiving.

Our Thanksgiving is close to the original reason for the celebration. All our animals are in their winter shelters and they are set for snow and cold to come. The barn is full of hay. The rams are in with their ewes starting the whole new cycle of life. The snow blower is on the tractor and the wood is stacked in the shed. The last of the vegetables (frost and snow hardy brussel sprouts) have finally been harvested.

We also have a new crop of ewe lambs to be thankful for. I can't help but smile when I look at those beauties.

Tonight we sit down to a meal that has all been grown at Hawk Hill: roast lamb (even the rosemary and garlic flavourings are grown here), potatoes, beets and brussel sprouts.

We are thankful for another good year heading into a winter where we take as many courses as possible and read in front of the fire.

Let it snow.

Cheers,
Laurie