Our Farm

Cattle

Here on the farm we have a herd of 50 registered Herefords and 20 registered Simmental. Herefords are known for their high-quality meat, excellent maternal characteristics, and docile temperament. Simmentals have a good temperament, high yield of meat, and high weaning growth.

All of our cattle are raised on pasture here in Polk County, IA. Calves are weaned the beginning of October and brought back to the farm to be finished on a total mixed ration of corn, silage, hay, and dried distillers grains.

We AI our cattle with industry leaders which gives us the advantage to improve our herds quality without breaking the bank. We then clean them up with our two herd bulls. Bulls are turned out with the cows usually the first week of May and then brought home again in September.

Hogs

We currently have one Berkshire sow that we breed to our boar twice a year. She averages litters of between 8-10 piglets each cycle. Choosing to raise this heritage breed has many benefits. They are known for having a calm disposition, excellent mothering skills, and the ability to grow quickly.

Because of their intelligence this breed is also great for pasture raised pork, a method we hope to implement in the near future.

Berkshires produce high quality pork that is juicy and known for its marbling.

Honey Bees

We began our honey adventure with two hives here on the property and over the past 4 years have worked our way up to eight hives total. Our hives and bees are owned by PGFF and meticulously cared for by beekeeper Ryan Buman here on our farm.

We currently offer our raw honey for sale in three sizes: 12-ounce, 16-ounce, and 32-ounce jars. Raw honey is extracted from the hive, strained, and then bottled. Raw honey is described as honey "as it exists in the beehive". Local, raw honey is a well-known way to replace sweeteners in your diet and has numerous health benefits.

Laying Hens & Broilers

The majority of our laying flock are red stars and a combination of barred rock and buff orpingtons. All of these varieties are great brown egg layers and dual- purpose breeds.

We currently have a flock of around 90 hens. Our hens free range when possible and have an attached yard to their coop when free ranging is not manageable due to weather or threats from predators.

Each spring/summer we also feed150-200 broilers for butcher. We choose to raise our meat birds on grass and supplement with feed. The broilers are moved daily and harvested around 8 weeks old.