ABOUT US
OUR STORY
We are a mix of a small-town girl and a boy born in the suburbs of Chicago. We met at work and dated for only one month before becoming engaged. This farm journey was not on our radar until 7 years later and it all started with one very special horse, and then another, and meeting a few wonderful friends who showed us how much work and enjoyment you can have living on a farm.
Prior to finding this haven, I was driving over 100 miles a day to go to work and then tend to one of our horses who needed some extra care for a bit and then back home. So something had to change. That decision was easy, but It still took 5 years to find just the right place. Once we made the move and got the horses settled in, we found we needed a little help keeping the pastures maintained. That's when we found hair sheep to be a great low-maintenance addition to the farm, and after a time we found a ram so we could breed the sheep to have lambs! Spring is now not complete without baby lambs scampering about the pastures!
Read more about our practices down below!
WHAT WE OFFER
OUR PRACTICES
We did some farm visits as we got started, and instantly knew we wanted to only feed non GMO and organic products to our animals. It took some time, some searching and a lot of phone calls to find the right feed mill that wasn't hours away who could produce the feed we needed to be organic and non-GMO. When the pastures are put to rest and Iowa winter starts to creep in we have small batches of our feed made up and hay available for all the animals so the pastures can replenish for the next season.
We also enlisted the help of our local NRCS office to start to grasp the capacity of our current pastures and how to sustainably graze them and even improve them while grazing the sheep. We rotationally graze the pastures during the summer months using temporary fencing and moving the group to different pastures every 5 days.
Certificates and Training
Food Safety Handling
Cornell Small Farms Program Sheep Production Certificate
Cornell Small Farms Program Grazing Management Certificate
