For his 7th birthday our grandson was presented with a heifer from his great grandfather to start his herd. Her name is Patricia and she lives on our farm and will be bred to our belted galloway bull.

Nearly 4000 feet of water line, 4 tire tanks, 1 two-hole waterer, and 2 yard faucets were completed, inspected AND we received payment before the end of the year! Next year high tensile fencing and the beginnings of rotational grazing. Our cows love the tire tanks. 

We have had 8 calves since September 11. They are so cute, but the cows keep them hidden in tall grass for a few days so it requires some close inspection to find them. We usually notice the large udders on the cow first and then know to look for a calf. Only 1 heifer and 7 bull calves.

We harvested a steer last Thursday! Part of our farm plan is to raise and sell grass-fed beef direct to consumers. Although all cattle eat grass during their lives, cattle raised for grocery store sales usually end up in a feed lot where they are fed large amounts of corn to fatten up quickly. The corn helps these animals increase the amount of marbling in the muscle tissue. The fat adds flavor, but many people are now concerned about how much fat they ingest, along with what types of fat they consume.

Belted Galloway cattle have lower amounts of fat naturally (see the links on our Cattle page). Grass-fed and grass-finished beef also put on less fat because grass is their natural diet. We don't feed corn to our cattle. The fat on our animals is deposited as part of their normal metabolism. Our cattle eat grass grown on our farm nine months of the year, and eat hay grown on our farm the other three months. Our cattle are provided clean water from a deep well, resulting in happy cows!

We sell our beef to consumers in two ways. First, we sell our beef by the split quarter, half, or whole animal. A split quarter shares a half between two customers, with each customer receiving equal parts of the front half and the back half. We take deposits, and when all four quarters are sold, we then schedule a harvest date. 

We also sell packages of beef cuts directly to consumers in Missouri. Our packages are state-inspected for re-sale direct to consumers. We have frozen ground beef, steaks, and roasts for sale. We can arrange delivery locally or to the Kansas City metro area.

For more information and current prices, see the tab on our "Cattle" page!

I discovered one of the three hives that survived the winter and the first one I put supers on had left. Completely cleaned out except for a few SHB and some wax moths. So I guessed it swarmed and I missed it and then pests invaded. Guess it must have happened a couple of weeks ago. After putting supers on I had not checked inside the hive. Always activity on landing board and there were a few hundred bees - but only open comb. Guess I will start a nuc.

As you can tell I am working on redesigning the website. I hope you will like the new format. We hope to be able to share what we are doing and sharing our hopes, successes, and occasional struggle.