Protocols

All of our poultry (meat chickens, laying hens, ducks, and turkeys) are raised on pasture using the following:

• Rotational grazing in chicken tractors (young birds 10 weeks and under)
• The ability to free range our entire 10 acres as they please (laying hens, ducks, turkeys)
• The ability to free range in a large paddock behind electric poultry netting
• No antibiotics or hormones added to the feed ever (life-saving antibiotics on a case-by-case basis for our layer flock and breeding flock -- which we have never had to use)
• No vaccines in any birds for meat production
• Vaccines for Marek's and Coccidiosis only in our laying hen flock - spent layer hens for sale for stew meat will have this disclosed in the item description
• Soy-free, corn-free, and non-GMO feed is fed for the life of all meat birds and layers from our local mill (main ingredients are peanut and milo)
• Emergency feed is only used when our mill has had a shortage of the non-GMO feed (which has happened once) and is conventional corn and soy feed, but has only ever been fed to our layer flock for a short period of 2 weeks until the supply was available again
• All birds are processed at a USDA inspected facility locally -- any others fall under the 1000 bird exemption for on the farm processing (such as ducks and quail as none of the local USDA processors are certified to do either of those species)

All of our hogs are raised on pasture using the following:

• Rotational grazing behind our cattle and contained by polywire or electric netting
• When too young for rotation, or during extreme periods of cold or heat, they are either kept in grow-out pens on pasture with shelter, larger hogs are kept on 1-2 fenced acres with shelter
• Free of antibiotics and hormones added to feed
• Biochar made on our farm or sourced from another local producer is used in the feed on occasion as well as apple cider vinegar with the mother and a little bit of Redmond conditioner (volcanic clay and mineral mined in the USA)
• Vaccine and antibiotic free unless otherwise disclosed in the item description -- life saving measures will always be taken for our animals when necessary (case in point, we had an outbreak of pneumonia in our hogs November of 2024 which required antibiotics to treat one young piglet and one breeding sow, and the rest of the herd had to be vaccinated to prevent further spread)
• All breeding stock are vaccinated for pneumonia at the time of purchase and sows are vaccinated for it before each farrowing; parvovirus vaccine is given once as a piglet to breeding stock.  Any breeding stock that is sent for processing will have these vaccinations disclosed on the product page until the entirety of the meat is sold
• All piglets born on our farm receive an injection of supplemental iron vitamin at 3 days of age because our soil is severely iron deficient and piglets will become anemic and die without it
• Corn-free, soy-free, and non-GMO feed from a local mill (main ingredients are peanut and milo) is given throughout the animal's life
• Only during shortages from our local mill will we resort to feeding conventional feed -- a shortage has not yet occurred
• Any changes to any of these protocols during an animal's life will be disclosed on the product page when that animal is processed and the meat added to the inventory until it is all sold

All of our beef are raised on pasture using the following:

• Rotational grazing in appropriately sized paddocks behind polywire
• The ability to free range our entire 10 acres as they please during the summer and winter months so they can seek our stock pond to cool off during the summer and shelter during winter
• No antibiotics or hormones added to the feed ever (life-saving antibiotics on a case-by-case basis -- which we have never had to use except on a cull cow for our own freezer)
• Vaccine for tetanus is given to bull calves before castration at 6 months of age -- disclosure of this practice is given in the item description when and if it was used in an animal
• Vaccines for 5-way respiratory and Blackleg 7-way are given to breeding animals only -- any breeding animals sent for processing and sale will have this vaccination status disclosed on the product page until all of that product is sold
• Hay is sourced from local farms that use organic fertilizer (fish emulsion, sea kelp, molasses) and is fed during summer droughts and the winter months
• Emergency hay is only purchased when we have a shortage and is sourced from a local feed store if we can't get our regular organic hay and is fed for short periods (not longer than 2-4 weeks) until more organic hay can be sourced. The hay from the feed store is conventionally grown using commercial fertilizer and practices.
• Treats are given on occasion to move cattle when necessary or when we are training them -- treats are in the form of alfalfa/timothy hay cubes and are conventionally grown using commercial fertilizer and practices. No more than 50lbs of treats are fed per year, per head.
• Cattle mineral is given using our own mix made in-house using Kansas gray salt (mined in the USA), Redmond conditioner (volcanic clay and minerals mined in the USA), biochar produced ourselves or from another local source, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), and dried molasses as an enticer all in a 1:1 ratio. Free choice apple cider vinegar with the mother is offered alongside this custom mixture. This is our deworming and fly control protocol for our cattle.
• All beef is processed and inspected at a local butcher with a certified USDA inspector on site
• Of note, we genetically test all of our beef using the Igenity Leptin/Tenderness test and only breed animals that have scored a 6 out of 10 -- we benchmarked a steer that scored a 6 in the Fall of 2024 and we were not disappointed with how tender the beef was!  Anything that scores a 6 or better will be made into cuts, anything that scores a 5 or lower will be made into ground beef only.

Our entire property is sprayed from March-November by Dave at Big Little Farm using his homemade worm compost tea, fish emulsion, sea kelp, and molasses. What this mixture does for our grass is it helps add beneficial bacteria to the soil, and provides nutrients like nitrogen, trace minerals, and sugar to feed the bacteria. This is a safe to use (and eat!) mixture for both the land, the plants, and the livestock! In fact, we've noticed our cows eat their mineral and protein tubs far less since we started using this product, which means they're benefiting more from the grass they're eating! 

This mixture also helps to build organic matter and carbon into our soil which is key to helping retain water, get better rain water infiltration and less run-off, helping to make our Texas farm more drought resilient. Even better, this organic fertilizer is a fraction of the cost of your conventional NPK! Since adding Dave's fertilizer to the equation of our farm, we've been able to double our head count of all of our animals as the land can now support more, which means we can feed more North Texas families and beyond! As an added bonus, Dave says that after 2 years of spraying, the soil will have built up enough nutrients and bacteria that it will be able to sustain itself, no more spraying required! (Which means he'll need more work and more referrals... he certainly has ours!)