Our Practices
Pasture-Raised
We aim to produce the healthiest meat and eggs possible by treating each animal with love and respect. We provide an environment suitable for each species’ needs while improving the land they graze on using regenerative techniques. We avoid herbicides, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, hormones, and antibiotics. All animals are raised on pasture and rotated to new paddocks regularly, if not daily.
Cattle
We raise Black Angus and Hereford cattle that are 100% grass-fed and finished. They are also offered: free choice of mineral salt, apple cider vinegar, and kelp mixed with dry molasses. Immunizations are not administered to our cattle, and we worm them with soap rather than chemicals. Twice a year, we analyze our pastures and plant a variety of non-GMO grasses and legumes to meet their nutritional needs. In the winter, nutritionally dense hay is always available.
We do not line-breed our heifers or cows, and keep two bulls on the farm for breeding. Currently, these two are named Walmart and Jumper. We expose the females to them in the summer to ensure that all calves are born during warm weather and when a stand of grass is available for grazing.
Unlike commercially raised feed-lot beef, which is slaughtered at 16 to 18 months, our cattle live their whole lives on pasture and are harvested at close to 30 months. Grass feeding, using rotational grazing, and allowing them to grow naturally produce a healthy animal that, in turn, provides a nutritionally superior product.
Sheep
Sheep were the first animals raised on the farm. Many of the lessons we learned were taught by our sheep! Of all the animals on the farm, they require the most care. They are vulnerable to many things: predators, parasites, diseases, overeating, which causes bloat, difficulty during childbirth, and accidents. For this reason, we employ several techniques that are not used with the other livestock.
The lambs are given a tetanus shot at one day of age and a CDT shot at two weeks and again at four weeks to prevent disease. We employ FAMACHA testing regularly to check for parasites and only worm when necessary, using an organic wormer as the first course of treatment. If the parasite problem persists, we will use a commercial wormer. We employ other methods to mitigate the parasite problem: rotational grazing, grazing sheep and cattle together, offering apple cider vinegar, and planting specific vegetation known to help. The sheep spend their day on pasture, eating grass, and are fed a small amount of feed with molasses, which encourages them to come in at night. They spend their nights in shelters to keep them safe from coyotes and foxes.
All breeding is done following the natural cycle of the ewes. They come into season in the fall and give birth in the spring. Many farms artificially force breeding twice a year, but we believe this is too hard on the animal and not natural. When lambing begins, we are always watching and ready to help when necessary. We have spent many days and nights in the spring helping deliver lambs and, on one occasion, saving one via mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. That lamb is named Minnie Grace and is still with us on the farm today.
Pigs
Our pigs are “the wildcard on the farm.” You never know what they are going to get into. They keep us humble! When sheep get out of the pasture, we say, “What are you doing? Get back in there,” and they do. Pigs, on the other hand, do whatever they want in the most unexpected ways. Digging under fences, eating the wires and valves off the tractor, breaking down the gate on the stock trailer, simply breaking things, they are professionals! They are smart and entertaining. They live the life of a pig, rooting in the grass, eating bugs, roots, and nuts, creating wallows of mud to roll around in, and hiding in the trees. We provide locally milled non-GMO feed and give them our table scraps. One of their favorite treats is what we call pig eggs. These are the eggs that our chickens lay in places other than their nesting boxes.
Chickens & Turkeys
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Meat Chickens - We raise Cornish Cross Chickens, which supply nice meaty breasts. While on pasture, they are protected in movable, open-air poultry tractors, which are moved every day to provide them with clean grass. These birds remain on pasture for 8 to 9 weeks, at which time they are humanely processed and packaged.
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Meat Turkeys - Each year, we raise White Broad Breasted turkeys that are then available fresh, not frozen, for Thanksgiving. These birds are raised initially in a chicken tractor and later within a large movable poultry yard to keep them safe from predators.
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Egg Layers - Our egg-laying chickens are in a large area protected by movable poultry fencing and have chicken houses they can roost in, get out of the weather, and lay eggs. These houses remain open, so they are free to live the life of a chicken on pasture. This chicken yard is moved regularly. In addition, our Great Pyrenees dog named Lilly lives with them to protect them from predators. We collect eggs twice a day.
