Our Farm Philosophy
What do you get when you mix a hippie homestead upbringing and a more traditional horsey homestead upbringing? Add in a healthy dose of interest in sustainability, native plants, and homesteading, plus a couple farm-crazy toddlers, and you get our farm! We bought our 10 acre home farm in 2017, 10 years after Matt bought his first Katahdin hair sheep to begin the journey. We lease approximately 50 more acres which we manage and harvest for hay, additional acreage for the sheep flock’s summer pastures.
Between Masters degrees in agricultural science and applied animal behavior and welfare, you get the desire to have a menagerie of fun animals, to raise them well, and to share the bounty with our neighbors, friends, and customers (just new friends we’re getting to know!). The ultimate goal is a home farm with many more acres, a home with love and laughter bouncing all around, a huge sheep flock to enjoy, a huge garden, and enough other various livestock to ensure no one in the family has an empty freezer. To demonstrate our dedication to good farming practices, we are working with NRCS EQIP programs and pursuing verification through the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program, as well as exploring some additional certifications.
Our Growing Practices
We have a 10 acre home farm and lease approximately 100 additional acres for hay and pasture. At home, the majority of our animals spend the long Michigan winters bedded down in our barn and various coops or other natural shelters. Our outdoor-stored round bales offer a good windbreak on our flat property, and the covered storage and coops give plenty of space for the free range poultry to roost in the winter. Some of the animals are surprisingly happy to stay out throughout the day and night given the choice!
In the spring and fall, certain areas of the home farm may be planted to annual or perennial seed mixes, to grow out for the sheep and other livestock to graze later in the year or, in the case of fall planting, early the next spring. In 2021 and 2022, we replanted a large portion to natives species to assist with long-term soil quality enhancement, and our flock of free-range poultry was reduced for this critical growth period, so that the natives have a chance to take root and thrive.
Our sheep are available for hire! Do you have overgrowth to maintain or brush to clear from woods? Contact us to learn more about our mobile grazing jobs!
Animal Feed
As one of Matt’s areas of interest is feed ration development, we tend to use custom-mixed feeds and various species-appropriate silage, haylage, protein tubs, grain, corn, minerals, and salts depending on their life stage - lactating ewes certainly need lots of calories to raise healthy demanding lambs between January and April!
Our feed, sourced through our extended family’s feed store, typically comes from regional feed mills with whom we work closely, and we also use spent grains from a local brewery when available! We have our own large capacity feed mixer and storage for custom blends we mix up right here on the farm including those spent grains, feed from the feed store, and any appropriate vitamins and minerals. We are happy to discuss feed with anyone curious, just ask!
In addition to pastures, the sheep occasionally go out on grazing jobs for vegetation management, which gives them additional forage and gives our own rotations a break. These jobs can be anything from brush and invasive species clearing to mowing down someone’s extra large yard! We are exploring bigger projects including solar grazing, and we’ve even used the sheep to help fellow farmers build up the organic matter in their crop fields by grazing after the harvest and planting those fields with some quick-growing forages to extend the job.
In addition, we plant and harvest our own hay throughout the growing season to ensure there is plenty of nutritious forage throughout times of drought as well as through the cold winter months.
Medication, GMOs, Organics, oh my!
Our animals do not receive artificial growth hormones or unnecessary antibiotics, and the feed for many of our animals is non-GMO; however due to the range of feeds we use and limitations on local availability, we cannot guarantee that all animals eat a GMO-free diet.
If an animal is ill, they will be treated humanely and with the most effective, efficient medications available. Depending on the situation and medication given, we may remove these animals from the food supply chain. All animals are past any medication withdrawal periods long before they go to the butcher. To sell meat retail, we take all animals through USDA processing, which includes testing for food safety. We’d be happy to tell you more about our practices surrounding medication, GMOs, organics, etc.
Visiting the Farm
Due to biosecurity efforts to keep our animals healthy and happy, we ask that any current visits are by appointment only. We love to take people to meet the animals! They are much calmer with small groups and individuals than with a large crowd, and we can often accommodate customers coming by to pick up meat on the farm. But with a busy schedule, we ask that you please contact us for an appointment if you wish to visit the farm.
