Our Livestock
Our Devon Cattle & Our Katahdin Sheep
Our herd of cattle is mostly of the Devon breed. This year we’ve brought in a low-line Black Angus bull, of Black Queen Angus Farm genetics. We love grazing cattle, and are still growing the herd to keep up with our awesome pastureland.
Our Sheep are mostly Katahdin, with some crossed to Dorper. We’ve decided to phase out of raising sheep here at MCF! We prefer working with cattle and want to streamline our grazing work. We hope to find a partner farm raising grass-fed Lamb nearby, so that we may continue to offer it to you, and to make our super tasty Lamb Merguez.
Our Beef & Lamb are 100% Grass-Fed. All of the animals aside from the sires (males brought in for breeding) are born here at the farm. Maintaining a herd means that we are breeding an animal well suited to this very place, and creating a herd culture that is relaxed and at home here in our management system.
Because we’re still focused on growing our her, we occasionally buy in some 100% grass-fed cows from farms in the area, like Full & By Farm or Woods ‘n Meadow Farm.
Our Amazing Piggies
Our good-natured, nice looking piggies are born on the farm in the ‘Farrowing Barn’ adjacent to their forest paddocks. They are raised among their age group, moving through paddocks we’ve carved out of dense, young forest on the farm. True to their reputation, they have cleared a great deal of buckthorn thicket and many trees in their higher use paddocks through the years. It is up to us to find and implement a management practice in coming years, as the land opens up, that will accommodate some protected shade trees and strong forage crops. We broadcast forage crop seed behind the pigs as they move on to new ground, to boost the greenery ready for them when they return and to help break up soil compaction. Slowly but surely we are fencing more paddocks to add to the rotation - one of our top farm goals.
Our pigs eat forage, dirt, and grain. Our grain comes from Green Mountain Feed Mill in Vermont. It is 70% mixed organic small grains and 30% non-GMO corn and soy.
Our Poultry - Turkeys, Broilers, and Egg Layers
These are the only animals here who are not born here! They ship at one day old from the hatchery. Did you know that part of the yolk of an egg becomes a nutrient-pack in the tummy of a new chick? With this nourishment already in tow, baby chicks survive their trip from hatchery to farm, where we unpack them, give them a drink, and set them on their way. A couple weeks in a brooder, then a couple weeks in an open air “teenager” paddock in the greenhouse, and then out to pasture where they move daily and have grass to chow and weather to weather.
They eat grass, bugs, and grain. Our grain comes from Green Mountain Feed Mill in Vermont. It is 70% mixed organic small grains and 30% non-GMO corn and soy.