USDA
Animal Production Claims
100% Grassfed
Year round all of our cattle and lambs harvest their own grass during the growing season. During the non-growing season, they have free choice forage, baled hay, or haylage. Salt and mineral are the only supplements to their all-forage diet.
All of our lambs and half of our calves are born here on the farm. We buy half of our calves from other farms, but only farms that also manage their cattle as 100% grass fed.
All cattle and lambs are ear tagged, and we keep meticulous records of them. Our processor keeps a log of our cattle and lamb ear tags, when they are slaughtered, and which carcass belongs to which animal. After our meat is clearly packaged and labeled by the processor, we pick up and deliver. We do not have any non-conforming cattle or lambs in our program, which means that all of our cattle and lambs are 100% GRASSFED.
Always Pastured
Our cattle, sheep, and pigs are always on pasture, fields, or in silvopasture (woodland pasture). They are never confined. During the spring, summer, and fall, we graze our animals on pasture. In late fall, winter, and early spring, we supplement them with hay or haylage on fields or on woodland pasture.
During inclement weather, our cattle, sheep, and pigs have access to either heavy tree cover or open 3-sided barns. At all times, they have continuous free access to pasture.
All our lambs and piglets are born here on the farm. Half of our calves are born here. We buy half of our calves from other farms, but only farms that also manage their cattle as 100% grass fed.
As soon as our chicks and ducklings are old enough to take out of the brooder (at about 3 weeks old), they go outside to be on fields or in woodland pasture. The chickens and ducks have access to movable shelters on pasture for the duration of their life.
All of our cattle, lambs, sheep, and pigs are ear tagged, and we keep meticulous records of them. Our processor keeps a log of our animals’ ear tags, when they are slaughtered, and which carcass belongs to which animal. Our processor keeps all of our chickens separated from other growers, boxed, and marked. After our meat is clearly packaged and labeled by the processor, we pick up and deliver. We do not have any non-conforming animals in our program, which means that all of our animals are ALWAYS PASTURED.
Humanely Raised
All of our animals are pastured because animals need clean ground, space, and light to be healthy and grow. Moving animals often and keeping them outside prevents and cures many common diseases. It also means the meat from our animals is from fit, healthy, clean stock. We are careful to move animals during the cool part of the day in the summer, and not on the coldest days in winter. We care about their comfort and we know that heat or cold can stress the animals.
We only haul our animals to the closest possible processors with good records. We never overload our trailers, and we have a sturdy, safe place to load animals for hauling. Our processors are all USDA inspected facilities that are newly built. Our processor for beef, pork, lamb, and sheep is Certified Humane.
We have invested in handling equipment including a cattle chute, gates, alleys, and panels. This equipment makes it safer and less stressful for farmers and animals when we need to sort, vaccinate, treat, and move animals. We also practice low stress stock handling, which is basically moving animals as quietly and calmly as possible.
Our animals always have access to as much clean water as they can drink. We never limit their water, and we always keep their water tanks clean.
We always have the best interests of the animal in mind, which includes disease prevention; prompt treatments for health issues, i.e. we never withhold treatments. We also put forth maximum effort towards providing the animal with a life that mirrors nature as closely as possible.
We try to work with the natural tendencies of each type of animal which includes making sure they have something to do. For instance, all animals need space to run around, trees to scratch on, and things to investigate. One of the ways we provide entertainment is by moving the animals often: the sheep and cows normally have daily moves and the pigs and chickens move once a week. This means that our animals get new grass and bushes to eat, holes to dig, logs to flip over, and flowers to smell. We do a great job of providing a rich mental life in a natural environment for all our animals. When animals don’t have an interesting environment they often start exhibiting unhealthy behaviors like hurting each other or themselves, and they also start to test the fence and escape. Please read more about this in Temple Grandin’s books on animal behavior.
During the summer, we make sure that all of our animals have access to shade during the hot parts of the day. That means that we plan and execute our pasture plans with consideration to tree patches, sun angles, and cool spots.
We only load chickens at night when it is cool and when they are sleepy. This helps reduce the stress of the chickens and keep them from overheating. Chickens are transported in specially designed crates that allow airflow and ample space for the birds.
All our lambs and piglets are born here on the farm. Half of our calves are born here. We buy half of our calves from other farms, but only farms that also manage their cattle as humanely raised.
All of our cattle, sheep, and pigs are ear tagged, and we keep meticulous records. Our processor keeps a log of our animals’ ear tags, when they are slaughtered, and which carcass belongs to which animal. Our processor keeps all of our chickens separated from other growers, boxed, and marked. After our meat is clearly packaged and labeled by the processor, we do the pick up and delivery. We do not have any non-conforming animals in our program, which means that all of our animals are HUMANELY RAISED.
Sustainably Farmed
We are serious about sustainable farming. We pasture all of our animals, which reduces the use of fossil fuels– since most of the animals can harvest their own feed, grass, during the growing season from April-December. All of our ruminant animals are 100% grass-fed which mean that not eating grains is not buying, transporting, tilling, cultivating, fertilizing, or harvesting grain which is a big cost to the environment. For our non-ruminant animals like pigs and chickens, we feed only organic grains from a very local mill in Barnet, VT. Buying organic grain is more than twice as expensive as conventional grain, but we know that organic grain has a much lower cost on the environment and is not GMO.
Pasturing all our animals also means that we don’t spend as much time spreading manure with fossil fuels on a tractor. We do have to spread some manure and we do that with an eye to mitigating run off.
We love weeds here and our animals eat them right up. We don’t use any chemicals to kill weeds, no pesticides to kill insects and no synthetic fertilizers to grow plants. We do use our own manure, and purchased organic seaweed and fish fertilizers for our perennials, orchards, and gardens. We do some foraging for wild edibles but are careful to only take 5% or less so the plants we use aren’t overharvested.
We manage our animal parasite control using wormers that do not harm the pasture environment. The result of this has been a dramatic increase of dung beetle populations on the farm and an increase of soil diversity. This method keeps our animals and environment healthy.
We have many gardens, flower gardens, fruit bushes, orchards, etc. We have planted pollinator friendly flowers almost exclusively. We plant many varieties of each kind of plant or berry. We keep at least 6 bee hives at a time, and we give away NUC splits to other farmers who want to become beekeepers. We also maintain at least 15 bluebird houses, 2 bat houses, 1 purple martin palace, and 2 native bee houses on the property.
We try to reduce waste as much as possible on the farm. We have several people living here year round, plus a full crew, and lodge guests. We minimize trash by scrapping metal and burning scrap wood and paper in our wood boiler, which heats our house and our water. We compost everything that will actually break down, and we recycle anything the dump will take. We use our compostable feedbags to start brush piles that result from cutting firewood.
We use firewood to heat our farmhouse, apartment, lodge, and hot water here on the farm. When we thin our woodlots, we selectively cut to leave behind a healthier forest and to grow more grass in our woodland pastures. We try to never cut wildlife friendly trees like Hawthorne, serviceberry, ironwood, and apples.
Anytime our animals have access to natural water sources like streams or ponds, their drinking point is limited to a very small area, less than 15 feet, and the rest of the water source is fenced off with a large buffer zone.
We are serious about preventing predation, because we love our animals and we admire our local predators. Here is a list of the kinds of prevention that work to keep our animals safe and our wildlife non-dependant on our livestock. We have a very hot electric fence; we keep it on, cleaned up, and tight. We run our poultry in 48″ net, we have realistic scarecrows that are moved twice a day, and we keep a water- proof radio playing rock music on 24/7. Our sheep have a guard Llama, and our piglets are run in the pasture close to our farmhouse each spring until they are big enough to fend for themselves. We bury or burn anything that dies instead of attracting predators with a dead pile. We keep our compost contained and inaccessible, and we relocate scavengers that get too friendly. We spend time with our animals, we see them twice a day, and we make our presence known. We don’t kill predators.
All our lambs and piglets are born here on the farm. Half of our calves are born here. We buy half of our calves from other farms, but only farms that also manage their cattle as sustainably farmed.
All of our cattle, sheep, and pigs are ear tagged, and we keep meticulous records. Our processors keeps a log of our animals’ ear tags when they are slaughtered and which carcass belongs to which animal. Our processor keeps all of our chickens separated from other growers, boxed, and marked. After our meat is clearly packaged and labeled by the processor, we do the pick up and delivery. We do not have any non-conforming cattle, sheep, lambs, pigs, or poultry in our program, which means that all of our animals are SUSTAINABLY FARMED.