Dr. Charles Sydnor is a beef farmer and a retired surgeon from Snow camp North Carolina. The almost 80 years old owner of Braeburn Farm has a marvelous product that I treasure. For the last 9 years, I occasionally find the time to visit him and take a tour of the 500 acre farm on his electric cart.
During the tour, I get to see the sustainable operation that he has built for the last twenty years or so when he decided to shift his operation to organic. The biggest difference in this operation from other organic operations is that Dr. Sydnor raises a type of cow known as Red Devon. Why Red Devon, you may ask? According to Dr. Sydnor, a doctoral student did his thesis on finding out the best meat in the world. That endeavor concluded that Red Devon was ranked at the top. So Dr. Sydnor, with the help of a wealthy financier from New York acquired both embryos and simens from New Zealand. That was the beginning of the Red Devon in North Carolina.
The second interesting story about the farm is the way the cows are raised. The herd is divided according to age. It takes about 3 years for a calf to mature into a steer that is ready for market. Each herd is moved to a new pasture every single day. Each pasture has a watering system from the twenty thousand feet of piped well water that allows the cows to drink fresh water every time. Dr. Sydnor told me that pond water is not healthy for animals as it liable to have some contamination from cow dung and other microbes. In other words, these cow don’t eat around their feceas and don’t drink dirty water.
It typically takes the cows about two months before they return to the first pasture. At that time, the cow dung has fully composted. Finally, this system of grazing ensures that the grass stays tall and the cows only eat from the top third of the grass, which are also the most nutritious. The outcome is that these cows stay healthy and add on weight without the use of corn or soy as fattening agents.
In the end, the soil gets better and a superior product is produced with negative carbon impact. While vegan and vegetarian diets have their advantages, using toxic chemicals to produce such food is more damaging to the environment and our health than consuming organic pastured meat such as what Dr. Sydnor is producing. If you going to eat meat, be mindful of its environmental impact as well as your health impact. what I can say is that while I am not a big fan of beef, I truly treasure the quality I get at Braeburn Farm. This kind of meat will be history in a not too distant future. Even if it will be around, the price will be too high for most people to afford. The first time that I visited the farm for some meat from Braeburn Farm was back in 2014. The price of processing one steer was a whooping $600 but that price has since gone up to $1000. Yet the price of the meat has stayed the same. I call that localized and organic welfare. I always encourage African and African Americans to join this bandwagon. Dr. Sydnor may have retired from medical practice but not from offering his beef welfare to the community. I honestly don't have any beef with his beef!