What Exactly does " Gentle Farming Practices" mean?

Hello and thank you for clicking the link that brought you here. We're so grateful for every person who takes the time to support cruelty free farming by reading, sharing, commenting on this blog or purchasing from our small backyard fiber farm online gift shop. 

Lets dig right in. . .

What is gentle farming?  It is a new movement being brought on by all the new and old homesteaders who are finding that there is a better, healthier, cruelty free way to produce food for themselves and for those interested in purchasing from them. 

Gentle farming practices implement a better and more humane way to treat all animals and livestock while being raised for humans to use. Regardless whether they are being raised for food or food products such as milk, cheese, eggs, yogurt and ice cream or for wool and wool products used in insulations, rugs and carpets, clothing and blankets, there is no reason that any animal should be treated with harsh and cruel practices. This is the year 2025 we all know better and we should all be doing better.

We here at Wild Daisy Homestead believe that just because " man has been given dominion over the animals" does not entitle them to be cruel and unkind to the very creatures giving their lives while sustaining ours.

Is it possible to be humane even on large commercial farms? That is one of the largest mountains we have to climb while bringing awareness to new, better ways of livestock raising, consuming and usage.  

The things I have been studying and horrified to discover are the complete despicable and horrific things that commercial produced animals are continuing to go through because these huge corporations don't want to spend a little money or change their set ups and actions. Why? Because they simply do not care for anything except their own lives and conveniences. They're all millionaires yet can't seem to find a way to treat animals better. 

We as the consumers see the adorable or comical commercials showing cute animals living in green pastures appearing happy in their little cow, chicken, pig or duck lives. When in reality, the places they are living are disgusting filthy, cruel buildings, chained up, locked up with more animals of their kind in such cramped conditions they literally can not even turn around or lay down to even rest their heads with even the smallest of comfortable positions.

These ways are not what God had intended when he gave us dominion over the animals, nor Mother Nature intended for animals to live like. Depriving any animals of doing what is natural and inbred in them to do is a horrible act on our part as humans, Such as grazing and eating in fields of grass and keeping weeds down. Scratching and pecking at the ground for bugs and worms, reproducing and taking part in raising their own babies as they share milk with us. These are just a few of the ways we have taken all humanity out of raising animals through commercial businesses and created horrible living conditions and treatment of the animals. 

I will use chickens as the largest part of my shared examples for the purposes of this blog.

If our local governments would stop putting in ordinances that stop people from owning a few chickens of their own, I can guarantee a lot more people would have them in their back yards. How many chicken lives would then be saved and or improved because these huge egg plants would no longer be able to sell everything they are currently producing. It will start to change as we in our society begin to change one family, one home, one farm at a time. 

It is the large farms and egg plants that are full of the diseases and horrific circumstances that have produced the latest out breaks of " bird flu" and other such diseases, causing spikes and inflation of the egg prices, not your basic small backyard flock of chickens being cared for by a family that is actually teaching their children some compassion and being good stewards to their animals who give their whole lives to serve us. 

We as consumers are so busy figuring out how to pay rent or our mortgage , raising children and going to work that we do not have the time or ability to research or look into where our food actually comes from. 

I have always been an animal lover. I have always treated animals with dignity and respect as I believe they deserve no less than we do. 

Did you know in egg farms they cut off the beak of the chickens so they can not peck each other or their fresh laid eggs because they are so crammed into one tiny cage they literally can not even move in? 

Not only is that incredibly cruel and painful for the chicken,  what a horrible filthy living condition that your eggs are coming from. Your eggs have been washed on the outside before you see them in the stores, have you any idea what the space they came from actually looks like? Do you know the sadness and torture of the chicken currently taking place that gave you the egg you're cracking for breakfast? 

We all see labels with evidence of the " cage free" or " pasture raised" eggs which is all a manipulation of words with dishonest intent and actions behind the scene. These are set into play so you can purchase free of conscience and they can earn more money. The fact is, they may have a slightly larger cage but they are not roaming free out in the fields or even on dirt ground somewhere. Theyre still standing on metal wire cage bottoms and small filthy areas full of thousands of chickens squished, confused, living horrible lives being deprived of everything inbred in them to know.  That's the reality of where your cage free eggs originate. Same egg plants, same business, same company and same housing. I promise you they do not have someone walking arpund gathering eggs out of clean little chicken coops every morning. The chickens are literally deprived of everything that makes them a chicken, causing them depression, sadness, loss of life in cruel ways, and a horrible existence until they're thrown in another cage and taken for slaughter, done in the most cruel fashion possible so the corporation can maximize their profits. 

I get it, there are millions and millions of people to feed everyday. I do not have all the answers, but I do know that being cruel and unkind towards another living creature so "any person can profit more" was never supposed to be the accepted norm. 

The same and worse happens to pigs, beef cows and especially milk cows. babies literally taken the second they're born from a frantic mother screaming and crying for her baby she just carried for the past year. It's in her dna to care for her calf that was just cruelly taken as she gets thrown into the " milking group" never to see her baby again. What kind of fear and panic do we suppose that instills into this new momma cow? What kind of fear would we all suffer if someone grabbed our child the second it was born and we didn't see it again? 

So how do we fix this? We can't fight the big corporations. Nope, small town as well as state leaders and officials have made sure of that.  I once had a Mayor tell me that the ordinances are actually more of a suggestion to be manipulated in such a way to control the masses if necessary and for the leaders to be able to implement what they want to, even if the public does not agree.

For many years now I have watched the latest homesteading movement take place on YouTube and other social media platforms. Some may have just been in it for a moment, but the majority of us that are still trying and doing, filming and sharing for the better part of a decade and some for closer to two decades, are actually living and practicing what we are claiming.

Many of the homesteads have and continue to successfully raise sheep, cows, ducks, chickens, pigs, goats, and many other animals, in humane, clean and organized healthy environments. There is a plethora of people, farms and small backyard spaces that raise these animals for a plethora of uses from food, to clothing and shelter. All of whom have done so while still being kind, gentle and loving towards these creatures whose lives are in our hands. 

Some of my favorite YouTube Farms and Permaculture channels are

#1 Homesteady -

#2 The Hollar Homestead

 #3 Lumnah Acres

#4 Stivers Homestead

#5 Red Poppy Ranch

#6 Doug and Stacy.

Those are just a few of the many hundreds out there. Everyone of these channels started as regular nobody citizens fighting to make ends meet and living unhealthy lives, to becoming working and functioning in much healthier, happier life styles.

I've watched as hundreds and hundreds and even thousands of people follow along with these channels and do whatever little or big things they can do to implement even one or two things towards becoming healthier and eating better that they have learned from these and so many other families and channels.

I have watched their physical and mental selves become healthier as well as their families and their relationships have become stronger. Their sense of community and their children are growing up with values and practices as they teach the importance of each animal, treating them with dignity and respect through human practices. They have learned and are sharing with the world, their lives and the lives of their animals, showing how to use them in the natural ways they were intended to be used, and creating the most amazing farms and spaces by allowing all the animals to work together in whatever their God given way was suppose to be, to make a whole different level of healthy and sustainable food practices.  And they have done it while still being cruelty free and giving the best lives they possibly could to their animals. 

When it comes time to harvest those animals, they have found the lest stressful and most humane ways to do so. Many have set up stations right on their own properties to do this themselves. They are able to keep the animals stress free and humanely processed.

Not every farm  raises the same animals for the same purposes, but I have watched how may places grow one thing and other farms raise something else. They purchase or trade amongst each other. Even those that have to travel a distance to do so have figured a way to do so as they all share and help each other in this new homesteading movement and community. 

I know it can be done because I am doing it, or at least I am still doing the best I can.  Doing what I can to raise  and care for all animals in cruelty free ways  and use the animals in a humane and loving manner the way they were intended. 

Is it worth purchasing meat at a higher price or eggs at a higher price to know that the egg you're boiling for breakfast tomorrow came from an actual happy chicken living in a peaceful healthy space instead of stuffed in a filthy cage with its beak cut off? 

Is it worth knowing the milk you are drinking came from a healthy happy cow that was able to help raise its own baby as it still producing milk for you to purchase and consume instead of a cow that was treated horribly and the baby ripped away as it got thrown into the"milk cow" line to be commercially milked? 

What kind of energy do you suppose surrounds and fills the food we consume in all of those different situations?

What kind of energy and surrounding conditions do we want to know our food came from? Is it worth it to you and I to drive an extra few miles and or pay an extra $1 to purchase from a small backyard business when you're baking for your family? 

If you have never done so, I encourage you to find an egg from chickens raised on a small backyard farm by a family that believes in gentle practices and humane treatment for their animals, and then purchase an egg from the store. crack them both and you can literally see the difference in the egg yolk. The store bought yolks are pale in comparison to the fresh farm eggs that have the deep yellow and sometimes almost orange yolks. Then make yourself your favorite egg breakfast using each egg and do your own taste tests.  How do we feel as we take a bite from each one?

Perhaps set a picture of a commercial chicken cage filled with tortured chickens with their beaks cut off next to the eggs we cook from the store and set a picture of the chicken coop where the farm fresh eggs came from next to the eggs we cooked from there. As we do our taste test which eggs make us feel better? Thats the energy we are feeling as we consume the egg products. 

I don't know about anybody else, but I can eat eggs completely free of any sad or guilty conscience when I know they are coming from the chickens in my own back yard. 

It's literally like eating a completely different food. Now imagine the energy surrounding those eggs, or meat  or milk products that you don't see coming from all of these different type situations.  Try to really feel what kind of energy surrounds each product. 

For me personally, I am still forced to purchase much of our food from the store, but there are some things I am able to grow for ourselves now that I was not able to grow 5 years ago. That helps me feel so much better and healthier. Even if only a little bit, I know I'm doing what I can.

As Justin Rhodes has stated many times, "everyday do 1% better than the day before." 

That is what I have been and will continue to do. 1% better in some way than what I did yesterday. 

We do not use our animals for meat here on our farm, we use them for eggs, and most prominently  we're known for having fiber sheep.  We are striving so hard to create better situations to have a better wool harvest each year. Improving our farm, the living conditions and user friendly practices with every ounce of energy we can muster up. 

Yes we have been through literal Hell many times over trying to get this farm up and running. We've lost everything multiple times over the past decade due to floods, septic tank back ups, and even a house fire. However, no matter the challenges, I refuse to give up. I refuse to say I will just forget it and go with the norm and pretend I don't know what I actually know. I personally do not want to become numb to the quality of lives happening to millions of animals that don't need to be living like this. 

Yes it's true,  I don't make lots of money or have the most popular channel on YouTube. In fact I have less than 3,000 subscribers which is considered a failure as far as YouTube channels go. 

 I don't have all the nice recording equipment to make amazing professional videos. I don't have all the big beautiful barns and out buildings with snow removal machines, plows and tractors, I have to do it all by hand.

I don't have 50-100 acres so I can catapult my efforts forward in an expedited manner so I can produce better products and produce the product in an abundance and make lots of money. 

I don't have many of the things that could make our lives more productive and financially successful if I just went to work instead of fighting for this more gentle way of farming, living it and doing my best to share it based on what I have actually done and witnessed for myself. 

The big farmers dislike anybody like myself, the corporations and animal processing plants want us all forced out of our efforts and to shut us up and they all contin ue to make things more difficult and pricy for us to even exist. And many of the small backyard farms I know around here have failed and given up due to the very thing we are dealing with right now. Everything to expensive and being shot down from every angle we try to improve our situation or make eough money from our own products to continue to support our farms. 

Yes I could spend less of my small income if I purchased everything from the stores and supported the big corporations and animal processing plants like the rest of the world. I could have more money if I got rid of all the animals and just worried about waking up every morning and driving to a job somewhere instead of fighting everyday to keep our little farm up and running. 

But, then what would I have? Well...... I wouldn't have me or our little farm. I wouldn't have the videos and opportunity to continue to share through example and kindness, what I believe is a better way for everyone, both people and animals. 

Caring for my animals and my family is who I am. It's what I love and I believe it is my soul purpose for being on this earth.

Sharing a better way, a more gentle and humane way to farm is doable and I believe I have a small ability to influence or share through my example how to begin implementing some of these practices into others lives. 

If you can I encourage you to become very aware and prepare your food with purpose and intention. If you can, find that raw milk small farm that has happy cows living on it, or that little house a mile away that sells farm fresh eggs that were laid by the happy chickens roaming around in their yard. Even if all you can do is change one small thing in an effort to support a more gentle way of farming, I encourage you to do so. 

Support those families and small local businesses everytime you possibly can. It may take a bit more effort or take you 10 extra minutes of driving, but I promise as you begin to be more in tune with your intentions and desires to eat more healthy and support cruelty free farming, you'll find other areas of your life begin to connect and iron themselves out because your actions are being supportive of something bigger and better than what you supported yesterday.

The Universe is watching and it will repay you with karma, bring blessings to your life and provide a way for the good things you are desiring and dreaming of, to come into your path over the next few years. 

Thank you for taking time to read this blog. Thank you for taking time to visit our website. Thank you for taking time to consider and ponder on your own situation and deciding in what ways you feel you can help change the world one person, one family, one homestead or farm at a time.  I am grateful for you.  And, always remember        "It's the little things"       

Thank you for becoming part of my dreams                                                                                                                                          Wild Daisy Homestead.