Cattle

When we first decided to raise beef cattle there were somethings that we wanted in our future herd. Firstly, we wanted cows that had great mothering ability and are docile. Secondly, we wanted cattle that would grow and finish well with minimal input. Basically, cattle that can grow and finish out without us having to spend a ton of money pushing feed to them. We also wanted cattle that are parasite and disease resistant, so we could cut down on the number of vaccines and wormer we use. And lastly, we wanted something with some color, we have nothing against Angus but, I like looking out and seeing a variety of color in the field. 

After some research and talking to a couple fellow beef producers we settled on Shorthorns. A couple years later we found the British White Parks and fell in love with them also. Both breeds meet all the above criteria that we want in our cattle, and we are grateful that we were able to find both breeds relatively quickly. We are proud to be members of and support both the following associations.

Hogs

At first, we were not sure if we wanted to breed our own hogs, but the cost of buying feeders to raise became too expensive. So, once again we asked ourselves what we wanted in a hog. We decided that we wanted a hog that had great feed conversion and growth, along with marbling. We also needed the sows to be great mothers and docile. They also had to have litters of at least 8 piglets. We played around with different breeds before finally settling on Durocs and Berkshires. We are proud belong to and support the following associations.

Sheep

Sheep are an entirely new thing for us to start raising. While slightly similar to cattle they are also nothing like cows at the same time. They have been an interesting animal to raise for sure. We knew that if we were going to start raising sheep, we might eventually start breeding our own, so like the cattle and hogs we did our research. We wanted a breed that once again were good mothers, and easy to handle. They needed to have an average of 2 lambs per lambing and have great feed conversion. Shropshire ended up being the breed that we decided to try out and so far, they have been a perfect fit for what we need. Hopefully we'll have a small flock of our own soon. Until then to learn more about them check out the registry at the link below.