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A New Direction for Our Family Farm

I want to share a little slice of our life on the family farm—our journey to regenerative agriculture. It’s been a wild ride, full of learning, laughter, blood, sweat and tears, and lots of hard work, and we are ALWAYS working to do better but every moment has been worth it.

Eight years ago, we moved back from Louisiana to help out on our family farm. My husband grew up here, and we knew there was more we could do than just run a traditional cow-calf operation. We wanted to honor our family legacy and take our farm to a new level—one where we could be good stewards of the animals and land that God has given us and supports sustainable farming. After all, we have those two little farm hands to think about.

Learning, Summits, and Farmer Friends

I attended every summit, course, webinar, and workshop I could. I met so many amazing farmer friends, some of whom became trusted mentors and close friends…I’m looking at you Barry and Aliceson (Bales Farms.) They showed me that regenerative agriculture isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a practical way to improve soil health and boost farm outputs while cutting down on synthetic inputs. Essentially, we needed to trade off more time spent doing it for less money put into it from a strictly financial standpoint but we began to see that the time we spent changing things reduced our inputs of time down the road too. There are nine of us here and we all have our strengths but nobody wants to be tied down to 24/7 farm work.

Every conversation, every piece of research, and every trial (and error!) helped us see the difference in our land. It’s funny when we look at all that we still want to accomplish it seems insurmountable, but when we look at pictures and soil samples of our pastures all those years ago compared to now we are reminded just how far we’ve come.

Small Changes, Big Results

We started with simple changes: rotational grazing (this was a practice they did here in the early 90’s but had gotten away from), rolling out hay and then moving into more complex cover cropping, and erosion prevention. Our cows stopped going where they wanted and went where we told them to go and they do it so obediently now. We started paying more attention to body condition and good genetics. Culled the bad mamas, the ones that can’t breed, the giant bull that made huge babies and caused calving issues. Now they calf unassisted and we have an 80% or better breed back rate. We only keep enough cattle to meet our yearly goal so our pastures are back to a more reasonable carrying capacity.  We get to raise every beef that we sell from this farm, they are born here and they live a good life here. We no longer sell them in the traditional cow-calf business model and sell direct-to-consumer retail now. Slowly but surely, we saw our soil come back to life. Healthier soil means better water retention, less erosion, and cattle that thrive. It’s all about working with nature, not against it—and our family values of care, sustainability, and honesty drive that every day.

Why We’re Passionate About Regenerative Agriculture

Switching to regenerative methods wasn’t easy and NOT everyone was on board, but it’s brought our family closer together. We’re proud of our sustainable, farm-to-table approach that feeds our community and nurtures our land. I love sharing this journey because I know other busy farm families can find inspiration to transform their own spaces and make agriculture see the reprise it needs.  It makes a difference in the way our animals live and the way our beef tastes!

Some people might think we’re crazy for the way we do it. Never buying feed or grain … crazy! That’s okay though, it’s not the first time we’ve heard that, and not just for that. We have found a method that works for our family, our finances, and our sanity. Have you ever thought about switching up your farming methods or making small changes that have a big impact? I’d love to hear your thoughts and stories—drop a comment or shoot me a message!

Until next time…