Grazefest '04 Dubbed Major Success
Auburn meat scientist Chris Kerth, left, and agronomy professor Don Ball, right, talk with Teddy Gentry before making their presentations during Grazefest Alabama 2004.
Teddy Gentry's goal was 250. If 250 people participated in the Grazefest Alabama 2004 weekend his U.S. Grass-Fed Society was sponsoring in Montgomery September 11-12, he would consider it a success.
As it was, some 600 folks from across the country traveled to Alabama's capital city to attend Grazefest, the nation's first-ever conference and festival to raise awareness of pasture-raised food.
"Are people interested in and excited about raising cattle on grass? You tell me." said Gentry, as he swept his arm across the crowd. "That all these people would come and sit through eight hours of speakers shows me there's a lot of folks interested in learning a lot more."
While the second day of the event featured an open-to-the-public trade show and a food festival complete with samples of pasture-raised foods, day one was filled with back-to-back educational sessions primarily for producers who have already adopted the pasture-based approach to farming and for others who are considering it.
Among those leading sessions were AU agronomy and soils professor Don Ball , who discussed forages in the Southeast, and meat scientist Chris Kerth from the Department of Animal Sciences, who covered proper butchering and shear force tests for beef tenderness.
The U.S. Grass-Fed Society, Grazefest's sponsor, is a new nonprofit organization based in Fort Payne and headed by Gentry from his Bent Tree Farms in DeKalb County. Gentry is best known as bassist for the legendary country music group Alabama .
Pasture-based farming, where food animals graze in pastures through the finishing stage instead of being fed high-grain diets in feedlots, is gaining momentum in the United States. As one who has converted his own livestock operation into a grass-fed cattle farm, Gentry's goal with Grazefest was to promote the health, environmental and agricultural benefits of raising and eating pasture-raised meats and other products.
In the audience at Grazefest was Walt Prevatt , an Alabama Cooperative Extension System economist and CoAg professor of agricultural economics who, working with Kerth, is spearheading efforts to educate more Alabama growers about the merits of grass-fed beef, including its health benefits, its flavor, its growing appeal to consumers and its profit potential. Prevatt says it is possible that within 10 years, more than half of the feeder calves produced in the state–roughly a quarter of a million animals–could be turned out through a grass-fed system.
Grazefest 2005 will be held in Mississippi.