Our Farming Practice
We're constantly adjusting the way we farm, both to find better ways to raise animals and to cope with changes we are seeing seasonally. It's truly a trial and error process and it's governed by three key ideas
It has to be Good for the Grass
We are grass farmers first. Everything we do is dependent on being able to grow a lot of high quality forage on our pastures. It is our most precious resource and every year we manage our grazing rotations, manure spreading, supplemental seeding, and even how we feed hay so that next year the soil health is better and the pasture yield is greater.
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It has to be Good for the Animals
A happy animal is a well fed animal with water, shelter, and shade who gets to move onto new grass daily. And a happy animal is a healthy animal. We think that's reflected in the taste and quality of the meat we produce. It also makes our lives simpler because a happy animal is easier to handle, isn't breaking through fences and isn't raiding our garden.
It has to be Good for Wildlife
You can either fight wildlife or work with it. We find it's a lot easier working with wildlife. Predators keep animals like groundhogs and rabbits at bay. The lack of burrows makes the pastures safer for our animals and our equipment. Song birds help reduce the fly population which pester our cattle and wild pollinators play a major roll revitalizing our grasslands.
The "One Bad Day" Philosophy
We raise our animals with the goal that they only experience One Bad Day - the day they go to the abattoir. It's a hard goal to achieve requiring constant planning, attention, and work. And I'll be honest, we're not always successful. Illness and injury are struggles we deal with every year. But we feel that our herds and flocks deserve the best life we can provide them, considering we end that life early to feed our family and yours. We can't abide needless suffering or mistreatment just to squeeze out a little more profit. And while abattoir days are sincerely sad days here, we can sit down among the grasses in the pasture and feel contentment watching the sun set over the lake while the calves play and nature buzzes around us.
