#021: The Power of Regenerative Award Winning Poultry with Kim Kiss

Conventional farming methods often rely on toxic pesticides and fertilizers, which damage the environment and can be harmful to human health. Fortunately, a growing number of farmers are embracing regenerative and holistic farming practices that prioritize sustainability and the long-term health of the land.

In this conversation with Kim Kiss, a rural business owner who practices regenerative and holistic farming on her mixed grazing farm. Kim uses her skills as a certified practitioner in vibrational kinesiology to connect with the energy space of her farm, producing food that is grown in a positive energy space. Kim discusses the benefits of having multiple enterprises on their farm, planning and forward-thinking when managing the land, and creating a positive image of agriculture to attract young people to the industry. Our conversation also covers Kim's approach to landscaping as a way to connect with nature and help people, emphasizing that landscaping is a holistic approach to living that involves everything, including business, energy, and the environment.

If you're interested in learning about regenerative and holistic farming practices, as well as the importance of energy work in agriculture, listen to this conversation with Kim.

Highlights & Resources: 

• Regenerative and holistic farming practices
• Benefits of multiple enterprises on a farm
• Importance of planning and forward-thinking in managing land
• Mental health challenges faced by farmers during droughts and external factors
• Differences between regenerative farming and conventional chicken farming
• The consequences of feeding genetically modified grains to chickens
• The importance of asking questions and doing research
• Landscaping as a way to connect with nature and enhance energy spots in the landscape
• Clearing negative energy deposits in the landscape
• The holistic approach to living and landscaping

About

Kim Kiss is a rural business owner and certified Clinical Practitioner in Vibrational Kinesiology based in Wellington, Central West NSW. Together with her husband, they have been running their mixed grazing business for over 30 years which includes trade sheep, a self-replacing cattle herd, and heritage meat bird poultry.

Kim's passion for the landscape and its connection to health led her to pursue various modalities in subtle energy healing. She obtained her certification in Dawson Program Vibrational Kinesiology in 2010 under the mentorship of Tracy Rosser and has completed level 3 Reiki, candling, EFT, and other subtle energy modalities.

Furthering her skills in landscape subtle energy, Kim studied under international Geomancy practitioner Dr Patrick MacManaway and completed a two and a half year apprenticeship in Landscape Subtle Energy. She has since been providing services in clearing imbalances, sourcing site locations, improving water, increasing fertility, removing negative geo pathways, and advising on the placement of new structures.

Kim is available for Dawson Program consults at her property in Central West NSW and can conduct landscape subtle energy services on farms, homes, or businesses. She also provides remote energy work and coaching for those interested in building their experience and confidence in subtle energy applications. With her experience and knowledge, Kim is dedicated to helping individuals and communities achieve a harmonious balance between their own health and the health of the land they live in.

About Your Host, Sally-Anne Kearns

I’m Sally-Anne Kearns, a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and host of the Nutrition Gateway podcast.

I help women over 35 who are struggling with anxiety, brain fog, low energy and health overwhelm cut through the noise and get back to the foundations their body needs to function well.

My approach combines functional nutrition, nervous system support and simple, practical nutrition and lifestyle strategies to help you create more capacity, clarity and confidence in your health.

Ready to simplify your health?

Explore my programs, resources and ways to work with me at www.sknutrition.au, including HEALthy Foundations, my six-month membership designed to help you understand your body and build the foundations for calmer, clearer and more energised days.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:03

I am on a mission to help you break free from pain and inflammation to be active and joyful again. Are you ready to finally find the answers on what has been holding you back with your health? Welcome to Nutrition Gateway. I'm your host, Sally Ann Kearns, functional nutritional therapy practitioner, international best-selling author, health hacker, and blessed to be the mum of two active young boys. Let me help you regain your health one plate at a time. I have the pleasure to share space with Kim Kiss today. And Kim has had a long-standing connection to the land and rural communities, and her wonderful husband Brian have been running their rural business for over 30 years, which includes mixed grazing, trade sheep, and a self-replacing cattle herd and heritage meatbird poultry. Over a week ago, I had the privilege to spend time on Kim's and Brian's farm. And there was a number of reasons why Kim said, look, if you want to have a chat to me on a podcast, you know, you need to come and see the farm. And I'm going to say, like, I left that experience feeling so uplifted for a number of reasons, which we'll touch on. But thanks, Kim. Um, thank you for for being here today.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

More than welcome. Um, and it was cool that you came to have a look at the farm because, you know, it's creating that connection. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

I feel as though as a consumer, like I look at my life somewhat seven years ago, and I never used to ask good questions around where food was coming from, what the producers, what their ethos was, what are their value set. I would never have even thought about the life that a chicken had before it became protein in a packet. And there was just such vast differences and polar opposites to what you were saying was happening is happening in the conventional system versus what's happening at grassland poultry. And I just really want to commend you because obviously, like that's been your norm inverted commerce, because you guys were doing regen farming before it was even a word. Yes. But I guess the things that really intrigue me, because you and I uh I've bought much of your grassland poultry and I recommend it to everybody that's local to our region. The thing that interests me is also your ability because you're a certified practitioner in vibrational kinesiology, which is a Dawson program since 2010. So you've kind of got this energetic connection to land. You were mentored by Tracy Rossa while being accredited, and you've completed your level three Reiki accreditation and candling, EFT and other uh subtle energy modalities. And I know you work on your clients for their health uh remotely and and in in your clinic. Uh how does that play into the farming activities in in your mind? Like how does that enable you to view the whole process?

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Well, I think um, you know, for me, it's completes the circle. Yeah. Okay. Because not only do we want to know how we how our food's growing and practices that actually helps on the landscape, it's the energy space that our food is growing in as well. So it completes the circle. And using the skills that I've been able to develop, which anybody can do, okay. So you don't, it's not a gift, it's just being trained. So you can have been more in touch with what's going on in a bigger holistic picture of the whole farm, not just on one singular enterprise. So yeah, I use it every day. So it's it's just part of what I do, having that conversation with landscape. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

I must say you can feel it on your farm. Like if there was a vibration, I I felt it like the minute that I kind of drove through your gates and I looked at the landscape, like there was just this energy to it. I can't really describe it, but it was like this really grounded, like it was really grounded, totally totally, yeah. Clean, like in, but not in a non-farming manner, but I just mean it was a clean energy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Yeah. So you can imagine we have lots of people that come and visit us, and we have lots of outside energy that that's laid on us because we've, you know, everybody wants to know about grassland poultry, they eat our food. So energy that you have no control over. Okay. So the only thing we have total control over is how we react to what other people do or say or think. So what you felt when you came onto the farm is that expelling of anything that's negative. So the farm is bubbled. So we have a little thing at the front gate where everybody just leaves all their negativity or their bad day, hair day, or whatever it is, and experience the farm of the connection of why they've come to visit us for those reasons. And then on the way out, you pick your stuff up and you take it with you. So, because I don't want it. We don't and you don't chickens don't want it. Chickens don't want it. Yeah, so that's the way we that I set the energy up on the farm is so people can really experience what we do free of what they're bringing if it's negative on that day. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Uh, it totally does. It might sound a little bit out there to a new listener, but anyone that knows me and that knows you will know exactly what we're talking about. Or if if they haven't, then they'll get a grasp of it through through the end of this this discussion. And I'm so curious about understanding farming methods that have no external input, or you know, have limited inputs and inputs that are not cancerous and and and toxins and you know gonna burden the body. And so you were regeneratively farming before it was even a word. How or what inspired you and Brian to go in this direction and live this way?

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Yeah, so it was a mid-90s, early married one little baby on and we were looking at succession in the farm because this Morami is was Brian's parents' place. They they bought it and set it up. So it was that transition, and we were just looking at the whole big picture of where we wanted to be in like now, 30 years on, and we just felt that that the traditional way of farming was was not going to give us what we wanted out of life. So we went searching and we were lucky enough that one of our neighbours down at the 12 mile road had just gone and did the GFP with Terry McCosser. You know, Brian and Pete would have lots of conversations on the side of the roads, and he just said, you need to go and do this. So we blindly followed. And after Brian had done the GFP with Terry, it just fitted that whole concept of minimal inputs, looking after landscape, just having building soils, and then people holisticness around that as well. It just really worked with where we wanted to go with the future and where to raise children in as well. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

I love that you were contemplating succession planning because I think that it's something that usually comes up at the end of life.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

And especially in farming.

unknown 7:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

It's like, all right, so you know, I'm not feeling that great and I'm gonna start to have these discussions. But the reality is we we should be front loading totally. We should be front loading everything in our life. Like when I think of, ooh, grassland chicken's a little bit more expensive than another chicken. And yet I flash forward and I go, well, how do I want to spend my retirement? Do I want to spend my retirement dosed up on? And this is not a judgment, but this is a question that I go within and I say, do I want to spend my retirement? So that's my my most precious years where I have financial freedom and time freedom, you know, dosed up on pharmaceutical drugs, you know, hobbling around in life? Or do I want to have resilient health? Now, if I want to have resilient health, then I need to make choices. And so my inputs as a human need to be nutrient dense and they need to be considered for how much life-giving is the foods that I'm consuming. And grassland is life-giving, and it is my my only choice for my for the base of bone broths, your frames and your chicken eggs and your feet. And I just love doing the whole bird because the whole, the whole bird, you know, I can I can roast and then I can use the frames uh after they're roasted because they've got that beautiful taste, and I can reuse it twice or three times to actually get the nutrient density out of you what you have created. So it's a gift that you're giving me, which I'm now giving to my family and my children. I'm nourishing them.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Yeah, and it's the way we used to eat. Do you know it's the way that my my parents and and my grandparents used to eat, you know, you'd have the roast chicken and then what was left over, you had, you know, the cold meats until the bones were completely, you know, stripped. And then that went into a pot with all the leftovers of in the fridge or whatever, and you made the next meal of chicken soup. Do you know nothing was ever wasted. It wasn't just chicken, it was with every every protein. And I think that's really important of using the whole bird and coming and people starting to think about food like that again. You know, it's not just one meal, it can be lots of meals. Or, do you know, it's that, as you say, it's that forward thinking of the way we eat and we're and what we buy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

And you know, I think we've gone to a place, and I don't have the statistics, but I I've listened to lots of research on this, and we've gone from a place where the the the Sunday night roasts used to be the chicken and they were so dear. Like you could not buy a chick, like those that were quite upper echelon of society would have the chickens on a Sunday night. And now, you know, chicken's one of the most affordable proteins. And I I love that we've tried to solve the problem in that conventional system. But what we have created is you know, you and I discussed it when we were in person, and I kind of walked away, kind of uh the the image in my head was kind of Frankenstein-ish. Like we've kind of created these birds, which unfortunately now in conventional systems, from from what we discussed, like they can't even keep their head, head, their weight up, their legs collapse under their own weight because they're growing so rapidly. And and you know, that makes me, you know, makes me kind of think, well, wow, this have we gone too far? Like, you know.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

I suppose it, you know, like where do you start and where do you stop? You know, when the chicken breed was industrialized, it was such a success story because they could create, you know, lots of mass protein out of grain quickly and cheaper than any other, you know, the normal normal chicken of the day. So I can see how it got its legs and took off around the world. But now, you know, that was you know quite a long time ago. And the birds just keep getting more and more um customized to live in a barn, which is fine if you live in a barn, but it's when we try to do anything else with those birds. They don't have to walk very far for their food or their water, and they're processed at five weeks old, so they have a short life lifespan. So, as much as animal welfare is not the way that I would like to grow a bird, it's not, you know, if they're in that confined space and it's air conditioned, and you know, we won't talk about all the medications and things that they give them either, but it's taking those birds out and putting them into a in a pasture-raised system and trying to get them to do something that they're not built for, which is, you know, when as a fully five, six-week-old bird and their legs can't hold them up or their organs haven't grown as quickly as their muscle mass, so they can't pump the blood around them. And so any stress gives them trouble. So the mortality rate I imagine is higher. I don't have statistics either because it's very hard industry to find anything out about. So, yeah, it's a fine line, isn't it? Where you want to, what sort of industry you want to support with your money of how your food is growing. So it's not just chicken either. There's there's other lots of industrial food that that we eat, you know, lots of vegetables as also it's not just as protein. So yeah, I think we need to ask those questions. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

And so Brian's very uh parents were on um Merami. Is that how you pronounce Merami, sorry, in in and you're just near Wellington there.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

And was it always the plan to take over the farm, or is it something that you kind of well, I was brought up two places down the road, so literally sort of married the boy next door. Oh wow. Uh so Brian's father died when he was young, so and he travelled and was overseas and things and stuff, and and I think that yeah, when when his father died, it just gave him an opportunity to come home. And then I was on my our farm, family farm, and my parents had actually passed away as well. So for me, uh to be I was always going to be in agriculture. So it was nice to find somebody that was still had the had those goals as well. So yeah, so I think it was a choice, definitely a choice to be on the to be a farmer, but you know, privileged that we had the ability to be able to do it through succession and have family farm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Absolutely. And also not, you know, know that history of of of the farm where I guess you can kind of cast memory, you know, you can cast memories and then you're building new memories for that next generation as well, which is your, you know, your kids and now your gr your potential grandkids in future, etc.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Like there's this beautiful storyline of Yeah, and you know, we've only been here for a tiny, tiny space on the farm. You know, you think of you know, thousands and thousands of years that animals have have rose the you know across the landscape, and we're just we're working with them. We're not, you know, yes, we have domestic stock now instead of our native animals that would have grazed grazed these, you know, these acres, but it's it's still that concept of working with nature. It's we're not trying to do things here that wouldn't fit, like we're not going to grow cotton, you know, it's or whatever. You know, we're we're light granite country and it's a grazing property. That's you know, that's what it's ideal for.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Yeah, absolutely. Quite often I see these infographics of um of you know the damage that protein is doing in in Australia. And I think to myself, well, most of our, you know, most of our landscape isn't actually arable. Like you can't graze on it because it's desert. And so the quickest way to refertilize, I mean, most people, if they're avid gardeners, they'll know what do you use to refertilize your soil? Chicken poo. So, you know, if you're using and you know, the system that Brian and Kim have is it's a rotational grazing system. The birds are uh um are safe at night, but they are within, you know, they're they've got the dogs, the marima dogs, and they're just gorgeous, by the way. Uh and uh they they sort of patrol and keep keep the birds safe from predators, and you know, that you can really tell that that fertility is in the soil, like you can actually see it.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Yeah, and and remembering that the chickens are only one enterprise on the farm. So we trade in sheep, so we don't actually have any sheep on the farm at the moment, but you know, our cattle are grazed the same way, so they you know don't spend any more than probably two or three days in one particular area. So it's all about leaving the grasses in a in a in a good state and having 100% ground cover. And the most important thing for us is the rest period time of when that stock comes back around again. Like if the if the grasses haven't recovered to a stage that we're happy with them, then we don't graze them again until it's ready. So you can imagine how that pans out when we don't get rain and we don't get grass and and um you know through the big dry spell, we completely destocked everything off the farm. So we sold all our breeders, everything we had. The first sale was obviously our sheep because we were trading in them at that stage. So that was in 2017, and so by the time halfway through the dry spell, we had nothing left. We'd sold everything except for the chickens. You know, a couple of reasons for the chickens that we have that enterprise as well is because we it's a cash flow for the farm, you know, and it it happens, you know, on a regular basis. But we can run them without having to have green grass. So it doesn't drought proof the farm, but it did give us an enterprise that we can run through through through dry spells. And then, you know, and that's that whole concept of looking after our soils through that time when when the drought did break and and we got rain, I think it was in 2020, um, the response to from our soils and to our pastures, it was just absolutely amazing how quickly things came back because we'd, you know, it just had that um ability of of a bounce that we looked at some, you know, some of the places around that had had been completely stressed through that dry spell. Took it longer for the grasses to grow back than than than us, which meant that we could then you know buy in stock a bit earlier than other people. So you have all that sort of benefits as well. Not that we took huge advantages of that because we also decided once we did get the rain that we thought it would be better to give this, give the place a really big spell and and let let things completely regenerate before we started um grazing at high levels again. So yeah, so it's taken us a while to build back since then. But it's we we have no regrets. It's we just because the landscape has just responded amazingly. So, and that's to us is what it's all about.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

And I guess that is in in an essence the biggest difference between conventional system and regenerative holistic system. It's more taking the cues from the landscape versus going, quick, we need to restock because we've got this many cows that we need to make and we need to do this many numbers with love. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Yeah. So it's working with nature. And I know that sounds a bit, you know, the buzzword at the moment, but it but it really is what it is. Um, what we're saying it is. It's it's it's reading where the where your pastures and and calculating, you know, we can do grass budgets with rainfall and things. So you can be can be quite technical. So you can sort of know three or four months out how much how much grass you're still going to have. So you can forward plan if you have to sell, or you can even forward plan if you think you're gonna have more grass so you can buy in. So I think we've got to start looking at farming a good business as well as being regenerative and holistic, and you know, that it can be quite a good viable living. And I think we need to make it agriculture positive so our young people want to be part of it. You know, we hear all these stories, you know, of how hard done our farmers are, which it, you know, in times of trouble is terrible, but we we need to create a positiveness around agriculture. So our young people feel comfortable with coming home or buying into landscape and and you know, becoming farmers. We need more of them.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

I I have read uh over the years around farmers that have transitioned from a conventional method to a more holistic or regen method, how their mindset and their mental health has improved immensely. So I'm just curious, you know, when those drought spells were upon you, like what I mean, it was it hard, did you have high spirits? Like were you able to sort of because I know that there are, you know, farming that has the highest rate of suicide from what I understand in Australia than than in any any any other you know, agricultural industry because it is so it is so reticent to external factors. So you can't control the rain. Like when you had to have a drought, you go through a drought, like I we see it now, you know, we're starting to see grass fires pop up. We know a next door neighbor was on fire last week, um, not him, but the farm because of a lightning strike. And so, you know, there's helicopters going over this morning with buckets of water with grass fires and so forth. So we as we see that landscape change, but it's totally out of your control. So, how did you keep your head straight, I guess?

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Or have you been doing it long enough that you well I think, yeah, I think um so because we've been doing the regenerative practicing, you know, of de stocking and restocking for nearly 30 years, you've got to plan. So you've got things that you can do. So you're not just doing it on ad hoc, you know, like or what you're not waiting to see what happens next week if it rains and you know, we're we're pre-planning because we know how much grass we've got ahead of us. We know if we get to a certain date and we're still carrying that amount of stock, you know, two months later we're not gonna have enough grass to carry them on. So you have to you have to lighten up. But it works the other way too. You know, if you get rain, you your grass can grow, you can go, oh well, I I can bring some more stock in. So by the time the big dry came that you know just was so widespread, which is another thing. Normally, the the dry spells that we'd had in the past, there was grass somewhere else. So you a lot of people did adjustment and things we didn't, but you know, you had options, but the last one everybody had no grass. So for us, it was just a uh a natural thing to do is just to sell. You know, some people chose to keep their stock and feed them economically. We looked at that and it just didn't stack up. It just, you know, how value what value do you put on your animals, you know, and how you can grip some people with stud stock and those sort of things definitely, but we just took that that we love our our cows and we're emotionally attached to them and and you you you have to get get through that emotion. But we knew that there was probably better stock out there than ours if we had to replace them. You know, we weren't arrogant enough to think that ours were better than everybody's, you know, that's so so they weren't they were not irreplaceable, which I think makes the decision easier to sell them. Do you know? Uh you know, this cat, some of these cows have been on the farm for years and years. And if you don't have grass, the idea of leaving animals to get poor or in reduced condition was something that we would never do. And when we're fair. Everything. And you know, we through that dry score, you saw terrible, terrible, you know, footage of skinny cows and stock being bogged in dams. That's to me should never happen. But there's no reason why that should happen. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

It's more about management. Speaking about management, let's go to some of your awards. And I mean, you guys have been kind of consistently getting attention for this space for a few years now, at least. So it's how are you finding that space? I constantly see beautiful photographs where you guys dressed up, going to awards nights, and like it must be a nice change.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Um it is. I mean, the awards are a bonus. The awards are um like validation that we have got a product that's that is consistent, you know, because we've been in the delicious circle since really we started with the Summerland chickens. And that's because they're just so different from you know normal conventional chicken that you get to get to, you know, that 99% of Australians have uh access to. So so it was good that to have yeah back-to-back winnings because it means that we're doing the right thing, that we're keeping the product consistent, that it I actually think it's probably improved over the years because we fine-tuned it as we get a little bit more heads around our breeding program. It yeah, the wards are are nice, but what happens in the paddock is really what's important to us, you know. And I think one of the things about the wards are changing too. Some of the criteria about it is they're taking in what happens over the paddock. Um brilliant. So, yeah, so regenerative practices are important. Um, and also um, you know, ground cover and animal um miles, and you know, because we have our own processing facility on farm as well. So everything's bred here and grown and then processed here. So I think that has an ability with the the awards too, because nobody does. It's probably one or two other people in Australia that breed their own chickens for meat on farm, grows them and prost them. So we're you know, we're very much in the minority of what we do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

I have a gift just for you, beautiful soul. My gift is my free course, which you can join up for right now at www.stoppay naturally.com.au, designed to empower you to know how to plate up every time with confidence and ease, even when you are tired. I am passionate about simple wellness for women and helping you understand the language of your body. Yeah, it's very bespoke. It's very bespoke, but you can tell that it's very well considered. You know, it feels great. Like, you know, you've you've got a really smart operation there, and you can tell that how you do business is is it's serious. Like, you know, you you've got a lot of pride and it show and it shows in every facet of the farm, it just shows there's just pride. You can see it in the practices and you can see it in your your packaging, in how you present your products, your communication to your clients, like your whole process is just seamless. Well, it seems as a consumer, by the way. But I'm sure that's seamless on your end. I'm sure there's days where it doesn't feel so seamless at your end.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Yeah, but that goes back to um our value system. Like, you know, if we wouldn't want to eat it, we don't sell it, do you know? And I think if you're doing things in the paddock, and I keep going back to the paddock, but it's sort of that's the fundamentals. If you're doing that right, then growing good quality food just happens, do you know? And then you can add things like processing facility and genetics and stuff, and you can tweak it. But what happens out in the paddock is just so important. That's where your animal is spends most of its time, that's where it grows up, that's where it eats. We know ourselves that you know how much better we feel when we eat good quality food and you know, haven't done the fast food junk thing for a week before crappy. It's the same for animals in the paddock, you know, if they're if they're being have got the nutrition from good micro organisms in the soil that go into the grasses, then they're gonna be more nutrient-dense. So it's a full circle.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Yeah, absolutely. And it's the only in my view, like um, I don't think I will ever buy another chicken that's been conventionally raised only now because of what I know, and even um some of the processing methods, which we'll get into a little bit later, just in around some of the inputs that are used in the usual system. And and you know, we we're just trying so hard in life to be healthy, right? Like this is it's it's not easy to be healthy. Like, let's be really honest. It's actually a lot harder. It's a lot harder these days than it ever has been to make conscious choices for our health. But I view it as a way to show myself that I'm I'm worthwhile and that my greatest value is health and well-being and educating others. So on your website, you actually share in detail the comparison between your farming methods and conventional systems. Can we highlight some of these differences for for some of our listeners?

SPEAKER_00 27:06

You touched on it before the five-week process from from you know egg to day old, day old chickens, a conventional chicken and take they take five weeks to before they process it. Ours, we take out to 10 to 12 weeks, sometimes even a bit longer, just depending on seasons. And that's another thing. So we let them have it, they have a slower natural pace of growing. So we're not on any timelines of having to meet whatever market requirements at a certain age. So we are lucky enough with our birds that we can take three processing, three like cuts out of them, if you like to say it that way. So we can do the tops of which are the all the roosters and the heavy birds at 10 weeks, then the majority of that batch will come out at 12 weeks, and then we'll have the slower growing ones, which is just a natural part of the batch, will will be finished at 14 weeks. So we we have that flexibility being on the farm, but in the barns, when you've got 30,000 in a barn, all of them go all at once, and they're yeah, around that five weeks. So they don't even have um the mature feathers on them by then. So crazy.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

So I'm sorry, apart from the aging, uh, what other subtle differences would you say are obvious in your methods versus conventional?

SPEAKER_00 28:26

Okay, so genetics to start with. Okay, so we use the Summerlad chicken, which was put together by the Summerlad family, it took them 25 years to create the genetic pool that we we use, and it's been developed for our extreme Australian seasons. Okay, so it handles 40 degree heat, snow, winter, and is happy to forage out in the paddock. You know, they're they're stronger boned, bigger, bigger birds. So, and then so what other subtleties is it? I mean, I suppose that that creates the major difference between the the two different types of chickens.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Yeah, what about medicines and antibiotics? And you know, how do you do you find that you you have to have those inputs at all, or it's just no?

SPEAKER_00 29:09

No, so we don't we don't use any any inputs, um, medications or antibiotics or any certain things and hormones aren't in the chicken industry. The hormones is, you know, when people say things are hormone-free, the barn-fed guys use medications and things as growth enhancements. So our chickens, because they're out in the pet from about three weeks old when they have can regulate their own temperature, they're allowed to go in and out of their shelters and they're never sort of locked up again. So they can naturally decide what they want to do. We have that they have access to whole grains from when they're three weeks old, which they grind. We don't, other people don't do whole grains. We we find that it creates better gut health because they use the whole grains with soil and rocks to grind in their gizzards, which is the natural way that they would source their food and it creates a healthier gut. So we don't have to medicate our chickens, they do it all themselves. Like, you know, if you let them be their own little, you know, chicken because they've got all these amazing things that keep themselves healthy, then you don't need it. You don't you don't need those extra additives into them. So and that's the simplicity piece, isn't it? Why make work for yourself? Why make work more work for yourself? Do you know, or more cost of inputs? Do you know? Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

And and playing, playing God in a sense, like you know, trying to rescue things all the time or to be, you know, preventative health, you know, but doing it from a different angle, like you know, injecting chickens with different things so that they don't get sick in those environments. But you kind of have to when you've got 30,000 birds under one roof and they're all pooing right next to each other and they don't have access to outdoors and they don't have access to natural light, and they're not synthesizing the vitamin D from the sun or all the antibacterial properties of being in the sun, like you know, like when you think about that, it's like, well, of course we need those additional inputs.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Well, they they need a little bit of help because they haven't nature's been taken away from them.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

Away from them, yeah, absolutely. And so then, but what are the consequences to human health? Like, these are the questions that we need to be uh getting answers to. And I I recently tried to get in contact with a major supermarket just to see what their grass-fed chicken was kind of fed, you know, in ancillary, because there's always usually an ancillary product that's fed if they're free range. Uh, but I can't get answers, you know, like you can't get answers to the questions. So what are they fed? Are they fed GMO? Like, we how do we know really what the consequences are of a genetically modified grain being given to a chicken, which then theoretically we eat. So, how you know, how does that affect human health? We don't, we don't know, do we?

SPEAKER_00 31:45

Well, we don't know, do we? Has it has the research been put into that? Probably not because no, there's no money in it.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

There's no money. There's no money in it. No one's gonna make money from that study. I can tell you right now, no one's paying for it.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

Um so yeah, yeah, but I mean, but it doesn't stop us from asking those questions, or like you know, if you're big guys at Woolworths or oh, sorry, don't say supermarkets. Yeah, supermarkets. Not not not saying anybody, but um, if they're not don't have the answers for you and you're concerned about Ethiona, then you then you need to go do your farmer markets or you need to to find a farmer that you can actually ask those questions to. And that's what I advocate, you know, people to doing. If if you're really concerned about where your food comes from and what you're feeding your family, you need to find a farmer and ask them those questions. And if they don't have the answers, then you know, at least maybe you've triggered in that farmer to find out the answers for themselves, or you know, you find a farmer that does have the answers. You know, that's the thing. We're creating people, we're growing people's food. For us, it's really, really important. We we know exactly what our animals eat and what sort of input that has, you know, on people's health. And that's you know, that's an important role. It's not something to be taken lightly, I don't think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

I love that you've just shared that because that is exactly right. Like, you know, this is not to be taken lightly. And you do you can tell that everything that you do at Grassland Poultry is totally ethical, value driven. There's no cut corners just to save a dollar. Like it's all about, okay, this is the way we'd like to do things because this aligns with our value set. Can we make this reasonably profitable so that we can also feed our family or you know, sustain these practices? And so the the profit question is kind of at the end of that that thought process as opposed to the front.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

It's it's a three-legged pot, okay. And you know, you have what goes out in the paddock, you have all your inputs and things, well, your people, you know how that makes you feel and your ethics and things, but you also have the business side. It's we're a farm, a business. So this enterprise has got to stack up um and it's got to be profitable. And I think that's important to educate people too. You know, the value of buying what where you spend your money supports how that food is growing and that that type of industry. So, you know, even then you need to ask the questions. But this is what I was sort of alluding to earlier, you know, for our young people, we we need to to make sure that they understand that farming can be a good life and it can be a good business. Do you know it you don't have to have that poor me farmer, you know, chip on your like it's it's not doesn't have to be like that. You know, it can be can be successful, it can be a good enterprise, it can be, you know, can pay your bills. It's it's um, and I think all of that's got to be taken into consideration. Yeah, besides growing good quality food.

SPEAKER_01 34:34

Yeah, absolutely. So we talked when we went to your processing on the farm, we went through you show you showed me kind of how that operation or that part of the operation works. Um you mentioned the chlorine for washing, which they use in washing conventional non-regen, not your methods. And I uh, you know, it made me think back to all the times where I've opened up a whole chicken bag and I've just been overwhelmed by this the the chemical smell. And so I had never even thought about this, but I didn't realize that this was part, you know, part of the process at the end of the processing is to dump them in chlorinated.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

Yeah, so so we've we've got our own processing facility. So um our water, we don't use any chemicals or anything in it. We we run it through an ultraviolet light, so it kills all the requirement bugs but from New South Wales Food Authority. So the bigger guys or you know, other people use their water is chlorinated, so that kills all the bugs on the so you the chicken gets washed down in it, gets cooled down in it, and so the hot chickens norm hot all chickens as they're processed and they cool down, if they're in water, will absorb water. It's just a natural thing that the flesh does, okay? So that white stuff that you see in your chicken breast, then when you're cooking it, it's not chicken fat, it's the water that's coming out. So if that water has been treated with chlorine, that's chlorinated water that's that's coming out. So that's that smell that you get. We do things completely different. We do use water baths to cool our um chickens down because the quicker you get their core core temperature down, the bit the longer the shelf lies. But we also put our birds on drying racks for 24 hours before they're even looked at to be bagged, so you don't have any excess water. So when you cook our birds and you put them in the oven, you get that same amount of weight coming out. You don't get any shrinkage because it's you have, you know, I think the statistic is something like 10% of water is is weight is water in the conventional birds. So that's 10% that you're paying, but it's just water.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

And it's got chlorine in it. Like, let's be real, like if you've done all the gut health work, guess what? Chlorine is actually patented as an antibiotic. Um, it's a mild antibiotic, so then you're consuming that. And I know a lot of my listeners have water filters and they're doing all the things, you know. So then if you're eating the chicken, then you're it then you kind of you know, you compromise. And it look, I know it's the last piece in the puzzle. Like these are the things where if you've been on your healing journey for a while, you you you just process and you do one thing at a time and you do the things that are most accessible to you. You know, you do need to change your habits. And and I and what I mean by that is instead of just buying chicken breasts for a recipe, buy a whole chicken, like and and and use that and do it, do it as a bit of a ceremonial roast and and have some beautiful nutrient dense seasonal veggies instead of just doing a stir-fry with chicken breast or you know, and fight, you know, having those beautiful bone-in pieces, they just roast so beautifully. The flavor comes alive, um, particularly the the the Marylands that you guys do, like they're just extraordinary. So, you know, you do need to change the way that you you cook a little bit, but it certainly helps your health because I can tell you right now, the nutrients in the chicken isn't necessarily in the chicken breast, it's in all of the the the up the other the other pieces where all the flavour is.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

Well, our chicken's breasts have beautiful skin on them and the big rich layer layer of fat.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

But uh, they do when you rent when you cook them down. Um, yeah, they're they're pretty amazing. I'm not gonna lie. And they don't shrink. That is the thing that's so fascinating. They come out of the oven almost exactly the same size as they they went in.

SPEAKER_00 38:11

And you actually only need to eat, you need to eat less of them too to be to feel filled because your appetite is satisfied because of the nutrients in the quality of the meat. This is the thing. So you might look at our birds and go, oh, they're way more expensive than I can get at the supermarket, but you're going to get more meals of them. So actually, if you portion them down and and you know, you can fight feed a family of six of one roast bird, well, you know, per head, that works out at quite a reasonable, you know, cost for your budget. So it's really educating people that you know to pay for good quality because then you actually only need to eat less of it. So, you know, that's that's a good thing. And also it's the whole eating of the whole bird, do you know? That's head to tail, no wastage. You know, why should we just have chicken thighs? Do you know? That's just nuts. But anyhow.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

I look, I I agree. And it's taken me a little while, you know, years now, uh, seven or eight years to sort of get my head wrapped around that. But now I I feel good, you know, when people come over for dinner, I can proudly say, hey, this is the stock and for the gravies made with grassland frames. And you know, like I, you know, like I know that I'm nourishing those that I love and care about, and that's that's important. Uh you do farm energy work. And did this where did it? I guess I'm trying to understand where did this fit into the puzzle and and what does this entail? Because you don't just do it for your own farm, you do it for other farms and other properties as well.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

Yeah, so I suppose um the landscape energy work just sort of spun out of because I've always had the feel of connection with landscape. So um it was even as a young person, you know, I just love to be, you know, hanging out with my pony. Um and I had an opportunity to do an apprenticeship with um Patrick McManaway, who's third generation landscape energy worker. And so it just opened my eyes up to being able to help other people, you know, besides being able to practice it on our own farm. It gives that another connection for farmers. And as I said earlier, this isn't you don't have to be gifted, this is not and it's not new, you know. We've been using these practices for centuries and centuries. It's just that we've forgotten how to tap in, you know. We used to always sing to our wells and be grateful for our water. And we just, you know, we feel awkward doing those sort of things now. Do you know? We don't dance and we don't, you know, don't we don't have that gratitude for things. Now, most farmers are connected and they don't even realize that they're connected. So they'll, why do they go over the hill and check that water source? You know, they weren't going to go into that paddock, but for some reason that day they needed to go over there and they find the trough that's, you know, been, you know, water's been running down the paddock, or the heifer that's having trouble carving, but it's not with the mob, but they end up, you know, just happen to be checking another paddock and they find it, you know, like so. We we all have these connections. So it's just enhancing them and being able to tap into them and recognising the opportunity and when the universe touches us on the shoulder to just go, oh, that's what that means. I just need to go and do that. So that's what I help farmers do. So I can either, and it's all on different levels of who where the farmers up to. Some people don't really want to know how it works, but are happy to have me come in and just help clear all the negativeness in in the farm. And that can present itself by say if you had a set of cattle yards and there's a particular gate that you're always having trouble getting those cows through, you know, that'll be the first place that I check to see whether there's any any deposit of negative energy there from say me, you know, a cow that was stressed or somebody that was angry, or do you know, or the yards were built on a a site where there's already a deposit. So how do I how do you do this? You use dowsing tools. So um, I don't know if anybody, everybody has probably seen the diviner, you know, the film. So same concept. So dowsing for water, you can douse for energy spots in the landscape. So there's there's a bit of protocol around it because you just don't want to go and save the world. There's some things that need to stay in landscape. So there you need a bit of a training and understanding and respect because some stuff is just not for you. Do you know some stuff is meant to be in landscape, whether it's good or bad, they're not the words I want to say. So negative or positive, do you know? Um, for some reason, those sort of things may need to stay there to finish their journey. So it's being respectful for your landscape. So if you do the clearing and create like what you felt when you came to the farm, more things fall in place. Your holistic bubble is not being twisted by outside energy, and so things happen at a more easier and and and roll a much easier, so you don't seem to be fighting against everything all the time. So you have that sense of calmness, and so that creates good energy for everybody. So, in creating that space, though, too, then you have clear thinking for the people that are working there. I don't want to always bring it back to profit, but all of these sort of things are judged by profit.

SPEAKER_01 43:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:21

Yeah. Okay, so profit is not everything. I I I that's what drives us. It's an output, but it doesn't lead to harmony. You need your profit to pay your bills, you know, and to go on your holidays and do so do sort of sort of thing. When you you're in this bigger picture of holistics and thinking of the whole concept of how things are interacted and creating a better space, then everybody works, you know, more connected with each other and things happen and you're clearer thinking, so business decisions can be easier. And do you know? So it's it's a bigger picture thing. It's not just landscape, it's a collective of everything. I don't know, you need to be in it. Experience, I think.

SPEAKER_01 44:01

So sounds absolutely fascinating. And uh I'm gonna put that on my list for 2023 is get Kim out to uh to give me a demo because you know we are more than the food we eat, where the thoughts that we have, where the energy, you know, systems within our body, and the reason why we we connect and like people is because of that flow of energy. So we I think taking that back to the food systems, which is what we're both so passionate about, is to to appreciate that there's more harmony. And when there's more harmony, you know, things are more in flow and things are healthier, you know, we're healthier, the animals are healthier, etc. And I think that's that's it. Like we all want to save the world in our way. And I think there's this big, huge vegan movement where, you know, people are taking those those actions with the best spirit of intent. But I really feel like there's some bigger questions that need to be asked, which is, you know, in monocropping cultures, we we have, you know, lots of things die. We all die. That's part of the framework of life. Uh, whether or not you're a plant or you're an insect or you're an animal or you're a human, like we all have that vibration of life. And ultimately, I think we get to to sort of choose what frequency we we we radiate at. And it's not about being right or wrong, but correct me if I'm wrong by saying, but I know that if I nourish my intestinal tract with a grassland poultry bird, that theoretically I'm I'm doing a better thing for the planet based on the landscape that you've created and the environment that you yeah, I suppose if you uh if you take it on a completely vibrational level.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

Okay, so the birds are grown in a harmony and a balanced environment. Um, so their energy space is balanced. We we one of the things I do with the chicks, we hatch out every fortnight is introduce them to the landscape that they're going to grow in and thank them. We are grateful that they are going to be part of the food chain and and part of our farming practices and building soil. You know, we are very grateful for what they give us. And I think, you know, whether you're a vegan or vegetarian or whatever, I think if you can take that concept of gratitude with a layer of finding out actually how your food's grown, you know, a challenge everybody of whatever diet they're on is to find the farmer and how their wheat is grown or how they're, you know, what they're putting, what you're putting into your bodies. You know, let's all grow your own vegetables. You know, how how much could we you can do that on your balcony? You don't have to have a plot of land, you know, pots, soil do the same things. You can create the right vibrational energy around your food and your veggie garden. Do you know it's about yeah, unconditional love and gratitude. And I think that's probably the you know, the important thing.

SPEAKER_01 46:49

I'm gonna finish on that because that was just so beautiful. And I think that that is the essence of human humanity, right? Like we all want to come from that space. Uh and what you're doing, I highly recommend if anybody is in that Wellington region, uh, you know, drop a line to Kim and Brian and see if they're they're they're available to show you the farm. Where where do people find you, Kim? How do they get hold of you? What do they where do they buy a chicken?

SPEAKER_00 47:14

Buy a chicken. So um, best contact probably is to go to the website first, Grassland Poultry. There's various different links there that you can. There's contacts for us if you want to personally talk to me. That's not a problem. We always pick up or leave a message and I'll get back to you. So there is also a stockers list on the website. So we do food in Sydney and have a national um Shirley from a hand source does um nationally for us. And then we deliver ourselves regionally. So Orange, Wellington, Mudgy, Jubbo, and all the little places in between, if we organise it. So um, yeah, so just yeah, check us out on the website and um obviously on Facebook and Instagram as well. But most of the information that you need is on the website.

SPEAKER_01 48:01

And there is some really fantastic, like you have gone to a lot of lengths to really describe, you know, the process and and what you do on your website. So thank you for for being so informative there and transparent. Like I think it's important.

SPEAKER_00 48:12

Transparency, yeah. It's transparency is what we're about. You know, we want people to know and be, you know, and to know how their how their chicken's been grown. That you know, that's what we try to educate other people to do. So, you know, we're transparent. And buy the whole bird. Buy the whole bird.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

Buy the whole bird. Um that'll be our hashtag for 2022. Head to town. Excellent. Look, thank you so much, Kim. I just value you and everything that you guys are doing there is just extraordinary. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 48:45

Thanks very much.

SPEAKER_01 48:49

I am on a mission to help you break free from pain and inflammation to be active and joyful again. Are you ready to finally find the answers on what has been holding you back with your health? Welcome to Nutrition Gateway. I'm your host, Sally Ann Kearns, functional nutritional therapy practitioner, international best selling author, health hacker, and blessed to be the mum of two active young boys. Let me help you regain your health one plate at a time.