This farm is owned by Joel Salatin. You may have heard of him. He's been featured in TIME magazine, Mother Earth News, Food Inc, and others. He manages his farm "beyond organically". An organic farm can still treat animals horribly, because organic only signifies that no "non-organic" pesticides and chemicals haven't been fed to the animals. At Polyface, Joel and his interns make sure the animals eat the food that is right for the animal (no corn for cows, for example), and they make sure their lifestyle is also as natural as possible. It's more healthy and fulfilling for all parties involved.
Here's their tour if you're interested: http://www.polyfacefarms.com/. The farm is open to visitors most of the year, so we gave ourselves a tour.
They were super helpful. We didn't burden them with many questions, but they were quick to offer explanations.
Coolest chicken coop ever! It's a trailer, so you can move it around easily.
The chickens (and all of the animals, for that matter), were very comfortable with human contact. They always came running in fact, which is refreshing.
The laying hens paired up with rabbits. He had a lot of symbiotic relationships around the farm. I learned so much.
The pigs...oh the pigs. I just love pigs. I can't wait to have some someday. These pigs were digging through compost as "pigaerators". They aid in the composting of manure and mulch while digging for fermented corn. They love it.
The other pigs were out in the woods foraging. They can clear a wood patch of all underbrush like nothing else. They were having so much fun.
There were several totally covered in mud. They excitedly ran over when we arrived, and shook their mud all over us. It was hilarious.
It was such a fun visit. I learned so much, and I plan to go back every season so that I can learn even more. Someday I want a farm like this one (but on a smaller scale probably).
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