As it is with most farms, not all of our livestock are here to stay. We are proud to raise our own food with compassion and respect. We do sell piglets and on occasion other livestock. However there are some that stick around much longer than others. Here you can meet some of our long-term farm members.
Our primary focus is on breeding and raising heritage breeds of swine. After years of the kids bringing home scramble pigs, we decided it would be nice to know exactly where our pork comes from start to finish. There was a great deal of research involved, eventually bringing us to the Tamworth. This breed is winter hearty, sun burn resistant, excellent mothers and overall easy to be around. Take all that and add in the fact that they are known as a “bacon” breed, you can’t go wrong.
We started with 2 Tamworth gilts and a Hampshire boar. That brings us to where we are now. We have 8 breeding females and 1 boar.
We also have the cattle that the kids use as their 4-H projects. We were never planning on having cows, but when the kids took interest we just went with it! It started off slow. We purchased one Hereford heifer. She became Russell’s project, he named her Style. We never got her registered, but she is a great example of the breed. She does have some distinguishing features, the poor girl suffered frostbite on her ears and an amputated tail, her mother stepped on her. But we still saw a lovely little calf. She couldn’t be alone so we picked up a lineback steer, Norman, to keep her company.
Now in the past couple years we have had cattle come and go. Some have been leases from other farms, some were 4-H projects that were auctioned off, some have gone to our freezer.
Before our farm grew to what it is now, we had just horses and poultry. We still have 2 senior equines. Angus, a 27 year old retired Standardbred, and Holly, a 33 year old pony.
Angus and Holly
We have plans for sheep in the Spring of 2016, Becca’s new project!
There are plenty of poultry around the farm, including chickens, guinea hens and peafowl! Chaos, the white male and Athena, the India Blue hen.
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