We are grateful to the energetic and hardworking youth of Faith Baptist Church in Longview that gave up one of their last summer Fridays off from school to come help us finish our summer project–a new walk-in freezer!
The job was to use a bucket brigade to carry concrete into the double-insulated shell of a refrigeration truck-trailer that Matt and our farm hands had modified to meet our… ... Continue reading
Announcement! This Saturday, the regular Shreveport Farmers Market will be closed on Saturday, June 21, to make way for an event in Festival Plaza. Instead, we will be attending a special pop-up market located at Provenance Development in south Shreveport along with 40+ other vendors from the Shreveport Farmers Market. We hope you will join us!
The market is located at Windrush Park and runs from 7am to 1pm… ... Continue reading
We often get the question, “What breed of cows do you raise?” We never quite know how to answer because we have such a hodge-podge of breeds. Why is that? It is mostly because we have purchased breeding cows when we’ve had opportunities to obtain cows that display the physical characteristics coupled with a history of our style of husbandry that we know will produce great grass-fed beef
By Jerica Cadman A lot of folks think of farming as hard labor out in the dirt, under the hot sun with a rake in hand. And sometimes it is that—that or stacking hay, installing fences, digging holes, cutting down trees, moving cows, transporting chickens, assisting with the birth of new piglets. But there’s a more hidden side… ... Continue reading | 1 Comment
Matt has been researching and experimenting with a new cattle management technique called High Density Pasture Management. The strategy changes throughout the year depending upon seasons and the types of cows being grazed (momma cows nursing calves versus finishing steers versus pregnant dry cows), and is quite complex in strategy, so we won’t attempt to describe the entire method here and now. However, we can share what we’re doing right… ... Continue reading
Matt has been experimenting with rotational methods that enhance the health of our pastures but that reduce our labor load in moving the critters regularly. We move our chickens and pigs very frequently and decided to try a shared fence set-up during the cool months when wallowing isn’t necessary for the pigs.
The strategy is to use a shared net set-up and only have… ... Continue reading | 2 Comments
A little fact you may not have known: Before Matt and Jerica became farmers, we were engineers. It’s a good thing, because sometimes there are problems here on the farm where classes like Statics and Physics really come in handy.
For example, we recently bought a larger cattle trailer that was “homemade,” not uncommon in East Texas. It’s very nice, and we like it, but on one of our… ... Continue reading
We have a handful of turkeys left from the holiday season, large sizes only. We received great feedback on turkeys this year—tender, flavorful, and moist. Purchase one now to put up for Easter, or just have off-season turkey!
Every turkey processing has a few mess-ups during plucking, so… ... Continue reading
Check out our latest project, constructing a new nest box facility for our youngest batch of layer chickens. It will provide shade, night protection from predators, mobile feed, nesting space, roosting space, and of course will be totally mobile so it can be moved across pasture easily. Regular movement of chickens across pasture encourages healthy growth of grasses and non-toxic incorporation of manure into the ground. Plus it gives the… ... Continue reading | 1 Comment
The turkeys are finally ready! They are really nice this year—plump, beautiful, and having been raised in large mobile paddocks on pasture for their entire lives. We are proud to offer these special birds for your Thanksgiving (and other holidays!) meal.
But they’re taking up lots of freezer space, which we need for organizing our incoming batch of beef and pork! If you have the ability… ... Continue reading
