Our History

We decided that we were interested in heritage breeds of animals that would work well with our farm.  Using information from The Livestock Conservancy (formerly The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy), we researched breeds we felt would be a good fit with our goals. 

For cattle we decided that Irish Dexter cattle were the ones for us.  Their small size and dual purpose features went perfectly with our small farm.  The Livestock Conservancy lists Dexters as recovering and there is a definite increase in their numbers in the US.

In early spring of 2012, we started with three local gals that had just been weaned.  That fall we made the trek up to Spruce Grove Farm where we purchased a bull from the John Potter herd.  And as they say, the rest is history.  Just 268 days later, on the Fourth of July of 2013, we welcomed our first calf - a heifer.  That fall, we welcomed two more calves - both bulls.  Now we are 7 strong and starting to think about the next round of calves.

The choice for rabbits was an easy one for us.  A couple of years ago, the family went through the rabbit barn at our local fair and picked out which rabbit breeds we liked.  The only unanimous choice was the American Chinchilla.  The Livestock Conservancy lists Am Chins as critical which was a huge plus since we would be helping with a breed that needs much attention.  The drawback we quickly found was acquiring good foundation stock.

Spring of 2014 found us introducing American Chinchilla rabbits to the farm.  We started our rabbitry with pedigreed stock from the Ed Toebbe (by way of Walt Reichart) lines.  We brought home one bred doe, one young doe, and a young buck to get us started.

Moving on to the spring of 2015, and we brought home our first Netherland Dwarf rabbits.  Suzy, Bow, and Hershey Kiss joined the ranks of the Chinchilla army slowly growing in our barn.

We have since sold the Dexters.  We tried and sold Nigerian Dwarf goats.  We have included a couple Pygmy goats to run around and entertain us.  And now we have recently acquired a start in Katahdin hair sheep.