Here’s the weekly roundup from Watson Farms and your direct connection to your farmer. Enjoy the latest edition of Pasture Posts!
Our new Farm Store is fully operational now! Learn more in the video below!
Also, be sure to scroll down for a great offer in this week’s Product Spotlight!
Here’s the weekly roundup from Watson Farms and your direct connection to your farmer. Enjoy the latest edition of Pasture Posts!
Take a look at how our pig herd of 65 are getting along! We give them some extra bedding piles when we have cold rain events like last night.
We take animal husbandry seriously because we know that you expect it, and it’s ultimately what’s best for the animals as well. For our pigs this means:
Just simply pigs in their natural environment, rotated to new paddocks regularly with access to fresh water, shade or bedding when needed, and a natural non-GMO grain ration. Watch the video and see for yourself how happy they look. Also, take a look at this blog post from a couple years ago outlining some key differences between our pigs and their industrial counterparts.
Here’s the weekly roundup from Watson Farms and your direct connection to your farmer. Enjoy the latest edition of Pasture Posts!
Thanks to Kelly for composing this week’s edition!
We are very excited to let you all know that our new building is just about done! We have already moved into both the office and order fulfillment room! Our next biggest move is getting the store moved in. That is going to be a couple day task. Due to this big task we will have to CLOSE the store on TUESDAY (Feb. 7). The NEW Store will open on Thursday if all goes well.
So what does this mean for you all? Well I am glad you asked! (LOL). When you come to pick up an order or shop you will now be able to pull right up to the new building (can’t miss it, it’s the big white building!). There may be some mud or puddles (please be patient with us as we will be getting new gravel laid out as soon as we can!). You will be able to go into the new store and check it out (IT WILL BE BIGGER than it is now!). If you are picking up an order then you will go into the store and the clerk (Rebecca) will be happy to help you with that order.
We will continue to do some work in finishing up some various jobs on the building so you may have to bear with us at times.
This project has been in the making for over a year now. So to say we are excited is an understatement. For the past year it has been chaotic around here with a set up that was not ideal but we made it! We could not be happier with the outcome of the building! We look forward to continuing to grow in the building and using the space to the best of our abilities to better serve you!
Continue reading We’re Moving In! – Pasture Posts #102Here’s the weekly roundup from Watson Farms and your direct connection to your farmer. Enjoy the latest edition of Pasture Posts!
It’s hard to believe we’ve done over 100 editions of Pasture Posts. That number is a testament to the interest that consumers have maintained in our farm over the last several years. This appetite for local pasture based food has not only allowed another generation to steward the land, but also has breathed life into the farm through the various enterprises that have been spun up. These enterprises have grown our team from basically a three-person operation to a team of 12-15 people employed directly and a great number more in collaboration through other local businesses that provide us with inputs or that we provide our products to.
A very important part of our story is the fact that our direct-to-consumer approach has allowed customers to have a direct impact on keeping a family on a local farm that could have easily succumbed to development pressures that exist in our area. Development appears to be an ever-increasing threat for thousands of farms across the country including ours, but we hope that between the appetite of consumers for local pasture based proteins and farmers that are willing to market to these consumers, that farmland can be preserved. As long as the customer base is strong enough, we look forward to seeing just how many animals can sustainably be produced on 300 acres of pasture!
Continue reading The Direct Impact of Consumer Choices – Pasture Posts #101Here’s the weekly roundup from Watson Farms and your direct connection to your farmer. Enjoy the latest edition of Pasture Posts!
We know that purchasing meat online is a relatively new experience for many of you, so we want to make the process as easy and convenient as possible. So every once in a while we like to post some frequently asked questions to help you better understand the ins and outs of buying proteins directly from a farm through a website.
As always if you have questions as you navigate the website, there is a Help Widget in the bottom right. Type your question there and any relevant help articles will show up. If that doesn’t do the trick, then you can message or call us from that Help Widget as well.
We look forward to the opportunities we have each week to serve you and your family with the best pasture raised proteins out there. Thanks for choosing to source directly from a pasture based family farm!
Continue reading Got Questions? – Pasture Posts #100Here’s the weekly roundup from Watson Farms and your direct connection to your farmer. Enjoy the latest edition of Pasture Posts!
We just received a set of South Poll calves from a like-minded South Carolina producer. You can see them on the right in the photo as they are walking out to the other cattle from the corral.
We keep them penned overnight after we receive them to give them a chance to calm down from the ride, fill up their belly with hay, and find the water. This also lets us make sure there aren’t any problems with any of them such as an injury or one not feeling well. These were ready to join with the other herd and are doing well.
Our goal is to give them about a year of stress-free pasture life as we rotate them through the various fields. They won’t ever be administered growth hormones, antibiotics, or offered grain. They won’t have to slog through knee deep mud coming up to a feed bunk or hay ring. They won’t ever be sprayed with chemical insecticides to rid their flies. If we work with nature then we find that these problems are taken care of.
For example, we have put of dozens of tree swallow houses around the farm, and since a pair of tree swallows can eat 8,000 flies per day, we don’t see our fly population get out of control. Also, since we don’t feed grain, our cattle’s rumens don’t acidify, and our cattle don’t get sick at near the rate of the industry, which eliminates the need for drugs.
Read more about our cattle here.
Here’s the weekly roundup from Watson Farms and your direct connection to your farmer. Enjoy the latest edition of Pasture Posts!
Kelly, Gary, Abby and Noah were in charge of this paddock shift for our group of pigs yesterday which has about 15 hogs ready for processing. We’re taking them off today so that we can get more pasture raised pork cuts in stock for you! Check out the video Kelly shot!
Happy New Year! We are looking forward to continuing to serve you with pasture raised proteins you can have confidence in throughout the coming year.
Here’s the weekly roundup from Watson Farms and your direct connection to your farmer. Enjoy the latest edition of Pasture Posts!
We just wanted to take a moment to reflect on the unbelievable journey we have been on in the past 3 years thanks to our growing number of dedicated customers like yourself.
This time 3 years ago we had a set of about 50 cattle that we were grass finishing, which was more than we had attempted at anytime up to that point. We had what we thought was too many fat cattle and not enough customers to purchase it. We were trying to figure out how we were going to market these beef cattle without losing money. Little did we know that in a few short months we would have the opposite problem of not enough cattle thanks to a pandemic-fueled consumer awakening to local pasture-raised proteins.
We made a big transition out of confinement turkey production and took a leap of faith into 100% pasture-raised livestock on the hope that consumers would continue to find us and stick with us. We have not regretted this transition for one minute. We have seen a phenomenal response from a very diverse group of consumers. Some of you come to us simply because you want to source your food locally. Some because you enjoy supporting a family farm instead of a global food corporation. Some because you place a high importance on regenerative agriculture practices which can heal the land while producing nutrient dense proteins. Some because you prioritize good animal welfare practices.
There’s so many more reasons that consumers have searched for something better and found our farm. Our hope in 2023 is that we will continue to have the opportunity to serve you with foods that your family can thrive on. We are so thankful for each of you for using your food dollar to make a difference in our food system.
Here’s a video of a paddock shift with our group of heavy pigs. This happens about once per week and they really look forward to it!
Merry Christmas! We’re thankful for this time of year when we can reflect on the birth of the Savior. We hope that you and your family have a very Merry Christmas!
Here’s the weekly roundup from Watson Farms and your direct connection to your farmer. Enjoy the latest edition of Pasture Posts!
As so many farmers over the past few days across the country put in long hours making sure that livestock are cared for properly, we have found ourselves doing the same. Dealing with frozen water and extra comfort and energy needs for our livestock is no light task. But even with the extra effort required, we don’t like to complain, but rather we like to look at it as an opportunity to provide the best care possible for our animals and, in turn, the best proteins for our customers! Here’s a few things we’ve been doing.
We have modified our Local Area Home Delivery Day for this week to avoid delivering on Christmas Eve. Scroll down for more details.
Here’s the weekly roundup from Watson Farms and your direct connection to your farmer. Enjoy the latest edition of Pasture Posts!
We’ve got several videos for you in this week’s edition of Pasture Posts! After you check them out, be sure to also scroll down for some important announcements and more!
In this first video, we had started sowing the last field of winter annuals right before the last broiler chickens were going to be harvested. These winter annual grasses are key to finishing our cattle each year and will provide us with excellent forage in the cooler months but especially April and May.
In the next video, we turn a set of 24 steers and heifers out onto one of the first fields that we planted about 6 weeks ago. As you’ll see, they really love it!
Continue reading Videos, Announcements and More! – Pasture Posts #95
