Taste and Meat Quality - Why the difference

If you’re new to pasture-raised chicken as a serious component of your family’s menu, it’s helpful to examine the differences side by side before jumping in.

Over the years, I have seen countless folks switch over, and by and large, the #1 comment is always the same—taste and meat quality. They know it has a better nutrient and vitamin profile, as well as a better omega 6/3 ratio… but it is the taste that gets them.

So why does it taste better?

I’ve been raising pastured birds for several years now, and there are commercial grow houses all around me—so I have a decent idea of what happens there too.

So, here is my two cents on the why.

How the birds live.

A commercial bird lives its whole life in a grow house with regulated airflow, water, and food. They are placed on day one of life, grow out in the same spot, and are harvested in about 42 days… about 6 weeks. These are large batch operations, to the tune of 20,000 birds in a single building. Air, water, food, and biosecurity are carefully monitored in a population that dense.

I recall a story I heard from an electrician last year who had to do some work inside one. He said his apprentice caught a grasshopper, and when they got inside, he threw it on the floor expecting 1,000 chickens to go after it… the opposite occurred. The birds panicked and ran—crowding against the sides of the building… a disaster, really. Why? Because a commercial bird doesn’t even know what a bug is. They eat only what’s provided.

A pastured bird, however, lives a different life—I call them hunter-gatherers. Their first two weeks are spent in a cozy brooder, where we’re kind of relaxed on biosecurity but big on clean water, temperature, airflow, and dry bedding… the bugs do get in, but that’s a good thing. After week two, they deploy to the field, where they live until week eight. A wonderful life—on a new patch of grass every day. Yum.

Depending on the tractors the farmer uses, they are in groups of 30 to 200… plenty of room to move about and hunt.

Eight weeks vs. six weeks—you caught that. Yes, it does take a little longer raising them on pasture, because on pasture they get to run around—unlike their commercial cousins.

Air and light quality.

A pastured bird lives in whatever breezes the weather channel says are coming, and they get all the sunshine. Their commercial cousin never sees the outside and does not even know what’s out there.

I believe the natural light and dark better serve the circadian rhythm of the animal and ultimately produce a healthier bird—and a better product. This part doesn’t get enough credit—but it matters.

How they eat.

The field bird does eat more because he is more active and because he lives almost two weeks longer. These factors increase the feed conversion ratio (FCR—pounds of feed required to produce one pound of chicken) in field birds compared to commercial birds.

This is a factor in the price you pay for pastured chicken—it’s more expensive to feed. Commercial operations have their FCR dialed into the 3:1 range, while small farms are closer to 5:1, and they are operating at scale… which is why they can sell chicken for $1.99 a pound. Small farms can’t even buy a chick for that.

OK—so what do they eat?

I am not exactly sure what commercial birds eat, but it is commodity-based (often GMO). In a pastured scenario, however, those birds are exposed to a whole additional smorgasbord of nature—fresh grasses every day, every cricket, grasshopper, and bug unfortunate enough to find itself in the chicken’s patch… and of course what’s in the soil, because chickens scratch around.

Pasture-raised feeds.

Small farmers like me have roughly four broad feed choices. On the bottom rung is standard commercial feed you can get anywhere, like the local co-op.

The next rung up is a non-GMO feed—pretty good all in all…

…and then the higher-end feeds like corn- and soy-free non-GMO and organically certified feeds.

Obviously, each feed is more expensive than the last. What the farmer chooses depends on his market.

Consumers should weigh all areas of management—not just one, like feed—before choosing a farm. For example, you may want organically fed birds, so your chicken ate organic food… but lived cooped up in a barn with a dirt floor during the winter. How much fun is that? I know which one I want to eat.

The last factor that can play a part in meat quality is how the animal was harvested. We have all seen those trucks rolling down the highway—and even the occasional dead bird on the side of the road—so we can imagine stress levels in those birds.

Blog: This is where your Food Begins covered that.

Happy farmer hunting—choose wisely.

Cheers,
Farmer Kevin
Land Basket Farm