Category Archives: Sustainability

The Feed & Breed Experiment

A major component of successful sustainable farming is figuring out what strategy works best in your climate for which animals. Pastured poultry is one of the most difficult and unpredictable aspects of our operation here at Shady Grove Ranch. Everything loves to eat chicken: people, owls, skunks, dogs, coyotes, snakes, foxes… Only the first on that list are paying customers! Young chickens also like to die when it rains, when the wind blows, when it gets too cold, and when it gets too hot. It’s not easy being a chicken!

As a result, we are continually searching for the best combination of nutrition and genetics (just like with our pigs and beef cows) to ensure minimal losses and nice plump, healthy meat chickens. Our first batch of broilers are in the brooder now, working on growing their big-bird feathers, and almost ready to be moved to pasture. We purchased two different types of feeds and birds from two different breeders, so we have four combinations of broilers to test which combination performs best for us here in East Texas. Matt keeps close track of mortality rate, unusual events, and feed consumption rate, and will compare the input costs to final harvest in August.

Despite the severe weather patterns we’ve been experiencing over the 18 months, it’s important to maintain our standards without reducing the quality of our products. Matt’s and Jerica’s engineering degrees really come in handy around here where it’s all about learning how to fit the pieces of the puzzle together!

A Whole Lotta Bull and Pastured Chicken Virtual Tour

A Whole Lotta Bull
Being a rancher means so much more than simply making sure the animals have food and water. A good husband (to animals, as in “husbandry”) learns what to look for in the offspring produced by his herd in order to make plans for the future. Read more…

Egg Layer Virtual Tour
Ever wanted to see pasture-raised laying chickens? Here’s a short virtual tour of our laying flock. Scroll down and click on “Chicken Primer.” Go there…

Shreveport Farmers Market has gotten off to a great start! Come and see us in the East Pavilion in booth C8 at the Festival Plaza!

Welcome to Shady Grove Ranch in Jefferson, Texas!

Check out our current chicken sale!

Download the Shady Grove Ranch Brochure

We are Shady Grove Ranch (SGR) from Jefferson, Texas, and we are proud to offer the best pasture-raised products you can find! Our products include grass-fed beef, pastured-pork, really-free-range-chickens, yard eggs, pastured turkeys, and occasionally some veggies (if we have extras). We also sell some of the farm products we use, including soy-free, certified organic, third-party tested GMO-free livestock feeds (layer, broiler, dairy, swine grower, and sow feed), and livestock minerals (Redmond Sea Salt, kelp, and several products produced by Agri-Dynamics).

We welcome you to inspect our practices to ensure they fit with your values on how food is fit to be raised. We think you’ll like what you find: no chemicals, no routine medications, no hormones, no inappropriate feeds, no genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and no confinement. We’re good to our land and our animals so that we can harvest the best tasting, most nutritious, and most sustainable foods that east Texas has to offer. Come see, taste, and experience what farming really is!

Want to come see the farm? We welcome visits. Check our our hours page for details. Visits by appointment only, please.

903-665-7076

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