Contact Us
1 - Introduction
2 - Basics
3 - Health Care
4 - Living Conditions
5 - Processing
6 - Species Info
7 - Conclusion
8 - Resources
Feedback
Main Menu
Livestock
1 - Introduction
Basics
1 - Overview
2 - What the Standards say about the origins of livestock
3 - What the Standards say about feed
4 - Feed additives and supplements
5 - Feeding dairy herds through the transition
6 - Feed quality is paramount
7 - Water
8 - Summary
Health care
1 - Overview
2 - What the Standards say about livestock health care
3 - Select well-adapted species and breeds
4 - Minimize stress
5 - Provide pasture for ruminants
6 - Health care without antibiotics
7 - Sanitation
8 - Alternative treatments
9 - Homeopathy
10 - Internal parasites
11 - External parasites
12 - Physical alterations
13 - Summary
Living conditions
1 - Overview
2 - What the Standards say about living conditions
3 - Defining "access to pasture"
4 - Access to pasture in practice
5 - Grazing success
6 - Shelter and housing
7 - How much space?
8 - Defining "temporary confinement"
9 - Manure handling
10 - Pest management
11 - Summary
Processing
1 - Overview
2 - What the Standards say about livestock processing
3 - On-farm meat processing
4 - Low-stress animal handling methods
5 - HACCP
6 - Dairy processing
7 - Egg handling and packing
8 - Animal fibers
9 - Documentation and labeling
10 - Summary
Species Info
1 - Dairy Cows
2 - Dairy nutrition
3 - Dairy health care
4 - Calf management
5 - Grazing for beef
6 - Sheep and goats
7 - Sheep and pasture
8 - Goats and browsers
9 - Hogs
10 - Hogs on pasture
11 - Deep-bedded hoophouses
12 - Let pigs be pigs
13 - Organic egg production
14 - Poultry health issues
15 - Structures for organic poultry
16 - Organic broilers
17 - Organic turkeys
18 - Organic beekeeping
19 - Hive management
Conclusion
1 - Conclusion
Resources
1 - General/Pasture
2 - Dairy/Beef
3 - Sheep and Goats/Pigs
What the Standards say about the origins of livestock
Section 205.236 of the NOP Standards states that to be sold as organic, an animal must be managed organically for its entire life plus a third of its time in the womb or hatching. Special circumstances apply for poultry,
breeder stock
and dairy animals, as follows:
•
Poultry
must be managed organically from the second day of life.
•
Breeder stock
"may be brought from a non-organic operation onto an organic operation at any time" (
§205.236(a)(3)
). Bulls, rams, billy goats, etc., do not need to be managed organically. Of course, if you buy a non- organic pregnant ewe and you want to sell its offspring as organic, you must bring the ewe to the farm prior to the last third of gestation, and you must manage it organically from then on.
•
Dairy animals
must be managed organically for a full year prior to the sale of any milk or milk products as organic. Once a farm's entire herd has been converted to organic, all dairy animals on the farm must be managed organically from the last third of gestation. (In other words, it's not okay to move your organic heifer calves to non-organic feed for the first part of their young lives, then shift them back to organic feed one year prior to their first lactation.)
Once they've transitioned, some organic farmers seek to keep a closed herd in order to minimize the possibility of introducing disease organisms with new stock. Note that artificial insemination (AI) is allowed under organic standards, but the use of hormones to regulate breeding cycles is not.
