Over the last several decades we’ve seen a tremendous renaissance of grassfed beef and dairy production, as farmers and consumers both learned of the benefits to the land, the animals, and to our own health. The same cannot, unfortunately, be said about pigs and poultry, as the overwhelming majority of those animals still complete their life cycles without ever seeing the sun or smelling fresh air.
I believe a significant part of that inability to bring more chickens, turkeys, ducks and hogs outside is that we have overlooked where those animals naturally thrive, and have not created the environments that allow them to do so. Cattle are grazing animals, and as such thrive on open pasture. Most beef cattle spend the first half of their lives on pasture, not because that’s how folks get an animal welfare premium, but because it’s just more cost-effective. It’s how cattle were made to thrive.
Pigs and poultry, on the other hand, are monogastrics, meaning they only have one stomach. They don’t have the rumen that gives cattle, sheep and goats the superpower to break down much more complex, tough, fibrous material into what their bodies need. Instead, they need more easily digested and nutrient-dense foods. In the wild, this is fruits, nuts, tubers, insects, grubs, small animals, and leafy forages. On farms, that wild diet has been substituted by grain.
I propose that we need a better model of raising pigs and poultry on pasture, one that uses tree crops to offset the bulk of grain feed in a seasonal, high animal-welfare environment that will produce meat with nutrient density that will almost certainly blow all others off the charts.
On the tree side, we need to roll out top-notch trees with the genetics and care needed to produce ample feed throughout the growing season. Starting with mulberries in the early season with their high-protein fruits and copious yields, and then progressing towards a combination of persimmons, apples, pears, chestnuts, acorns and more. We want high-yielding female trees that all yield, and we want to design these systems such that we’ll have blocks of tree crops yielding in sync with one another throughout the year. Picture orchards, but instead of all apples or citrus destined for the grocery stores, it’s a smorgasbord of feed that will turn into bacon and eggs. For more information on potential yield from tree crops, see The Investment Case for Silvopasture.
On the livestock side, this will not be accomplished with the same animals that are chosen for industrial production. Those are selected because they can grow big fast, efficiently, and in a cramped, unhealthy environment. The limitation of raising stock on pasture and gathering their feed under trees as they drop is that those livestock need the mobility to get there. Cornish Cross broilers, that get tired after 3 steps, simply will not do in this system. Pigs will be fairly easy to swap out, as there are numerous heritage breeds that have captured an audience and are already being raised on pasture and in the woods on a small scale.
Poultry, however, will need to see the biggest difference. Highly mobile chickens will lack the large breast that folks have become accustomed to. And undoubtedly, crowds will jump up and object that you just can’t sell a scrawny chicken without (unnaturally) large breast meat. But we’ve heard that before in the beef world, that folks wouldn’t eat grassfed beef because it’s too lean, too gamey, and doesn’t have enough marbling. And what it comes down to then is creating a product that is significantly superior, and then educating consumers about why it’s so much better. In the case of poultry raised on a silvopastural diet of fruits and nuts in an idyllic setting, the marketing will take care of itself. And as far as the qualities of the meat, it’s helpful when we remember that preferences are almost all learned, not inherent. In many parts of the world, folks prefer lean chicken to our monstrously plump broilers, because of the depth of flavor, firmer texture, as well as higher levels of collagen that make delicious, rich broths. For someone who has already turned to grassfed beef, bone broth, and cooking with tallow, this will be an easy switch.
I fully realize that what I am envisioning is a huge reorientation of the way that birds and hogs are currently raised. But our status-quo is so broken that this seems much more realistic than small tweaks at the margins. Do I think this will eventually supplant all CAFO production of pigs and poultry? No, at least not without major changes to policies and consumer demands. Do I think that raising the bar and showing that significantly better animal welfare standards are possible and will put pressure on demand and policy? Yes.
So where to start? Obviously this will require a ton of testing and experimentation, both at research institutes and on farms. All will have a role to play. We at Trees For Graziers are working hard to roll out the right trees for this. As I write this in February 2025, we recently grew our first batch of clonally-propagated mulberries and will be expanding aggressively for the year ahead. Two years from now, we should have 6 or more cultivars each of mulberry and persimmon, all clonally-propagated, and offering selections that will drop early, middle, and late in the season. We’ll see the first real results from mulberries, as those are easy to plant, fast-growing and quick to yield. Slowly but surely we’ll get results from other species as well, including persimmons, chestnuts, and oaks.
As for the production system, my guess is that in many cases folks will use a (portable) central building, which offers protection, feed and water, with multiple paddocks radiating out from there. There’s a limit to how far we should expect animals to travel from their central housing, so rather than a 50-acre poultry farm having just one central house, maybe it would have 10 or 20 smaller houses. Most systems will likely be built for seasonal production, maximizing the benefit of tree mast while minimizing the need for care during the coldest, wettest and muddiest parts of the year. Production of turkeys and geese fits perfectly into such a model, as animals that are already raised seasonally. You could finish multiple rounds of broilers in the growing season, and layers could get their start on wide open pasture before moving to a more controlled setting once they start laying, whether with mobile coops or a central barn. Pigs were traditionally raised in woodlands (think about Appalachian pig drives), and while pickings will be a bit slim during the winter for those that choose to farrow then, the growing season offers a whole array of food for finishing.
Such systems should fit nicely on existing ruminant operations with grassfed beef or dairy. The trees will offer shade and fodder for the cattle, and a means of diversifying through the seasonal production of pigs and poultry. My hope is that this means of stacking enterprises will create economic incentives for more people to raise livestock of all types on diverse, well-managed pastures. These farms will be economically resilient, ecologically rich, and a pleasure to live and work on. That is the future that I strive to create. I hope you will join me in the long but exciting journey of bringing it to fruition.
