January 2024 LtGov Hoseman wrote an opinion piece that was published in newspapers across the state. The jist of his opinion was Mississippi's labor market is at a critical inflection point where only 53% of our population is working and the balance is not. While I fully agree Mississippi has a critical labor market issue - I also know GOVERNMENT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT!!! Full disclosure - I tried three times to discuss this point with Hoseman, but he never returned my call. I will be sending him ..read more

The documentary Sacred Cow is known for the phrase "It's NOT the Cow, It's The How!" The meaning is simple. The cow is not responsible for any environmental effects on our land, water, or air. However, the way MAN insists on managing the cow IS RESPONSIBLE. The cow left to her nature and instinct would never confine themselves into a feedlot situration where they would be standing in their waste. Nor would the cow, when left to their nature and instinct, confine themselves to a single pasture on continuous graze. The cow's nature and instinct would be to eat, graze, and move - very similar to ..read more

Before I share our exciting news let me update you on beef! You may remember that we communicated our intent to combine April & May custom half orders and process them late March. That way we could increase the amount of inventory we are able to sell through our website. This week our team spent three long days cutting and packing eight beef that was added to our store late Friday afternoon. That represents two beef extra than typical to satisfy the demand we have for our beef. Now, for the exciting news. For some time I have been wanting to add to as well as upgrade our beef herd ..read more

It may surprise you that I do receive AND read several weekly newsletters from other farms that I know and trust. Last week, Paul Brown who owns Nourished By Nature in Bismark, ND (son of Gabe Brown) wrote a really good article on import beef and he agreed to let me share with my customers. So, here goes! If you recall, the last newsletter we sent out referred to the statistic that today, only 2% of the population in the US produces food for the entire country (plus imports) as compared to 17% in 1940. This is unprecedented and it makes me wonder, what happened over the last 80 years? And wher ..read more

This week I received an email from Sec. Watson regarding his offices' plan and successes in eliminating administrative and MS Code bottlenecks that hold back business growth. He also asked for input on areas that affect our business. Have you ever heard the saying, "Be Careful What You Ask For?" Well, here is my response to Sec. Watson. I'm still waiting to hear back from him - which I truly hope will happen. Sec. Watson, first let me thank you for aggressively tackling these tough issues. Too many politicians today are mere pawns of ..read more

First, a quick followup from last week's email where I shared my letter to Sec. Watson. This generated a lot of interest and response from our customers - ALL very positive and thankful for us taking the stand we do. Several customers also shared that they were personal friends with Sec. Watson and would contact him regarding our farm. So far, I have not heard from him. Cindy shared the following: Thank you for speaking out about issues that many of us are very upset about and feel like we have no voice. Hopefully, Secretary Watson will actually do something. In my opinion, Farm Bureau is agai ..read more

This week was beef cut & pack week (actually 3 full days of intense work). For the first time on our farm we not only slaughtered beef under USDA inspection, but we also cut & packed under USDA inspection. This is something you have to do in order to sell into a retail outlet. We only sell into ONE retail ourlet and that is Vitamin's Plus in Hattiesburg. The Rayburns have been strong supporters of our farm from the beginning and faithfully stocked their store with our beef, chicken, and eggs. And now that we have our ..read more

It is hard to believe that we are at the end of 2023!!! Where does time go. Beth suggested I share some of the highlights from our farm for this year - so, here goes. Infrastructure: - Installed 4,950 feet of high tensil net fence along the property line of one of our pastures - Built a pond on the Hamilton property for drainage and backup water option for livestock - Sprayed our first making of compost extract on 300 acres - Purchased a pasture aerator to improve oxygen in soil while also applying compost extract onto 250 acres - Completed Soil Food Web (SFW) Classes ..read more

There are a lot of books written about how to farm without feeding your cows hay in the winter. I can think of one person who advocates for "kicking the hay habit" who also hays his cows in the winter - he even designed a hay unroller (similar to what we use) to unroll his hay as well as sell to other farmers. I have learned the best approach is to graze your warm season grass as long as possible while planting cool season grass - AND to have enough hay available for at least 90 days. After all, the weather is unpredictable. Like this year, the hot and dry summer through fall period limited bo ..read more

First, an update on our Whole Turkeys. Last Saturday we offered 60 turkeys for sale via Pre-Order. More than 40 were spoken for by close of business Sunday afternoon. Today, there are only 7 left. The turkeys shipped Monday and arrived from MI at 8:30 Tuesday morning. I unloaded them with my pallet forks through the slaughter plant 12' roll up door and then used the floor jack to move the pallet straight into our freezer, less than 10 minutes from the time they arrived until they were tucked away in our freezer. Each turkey is individually boxed in a neat white box. Price is $8/ Lb. for 12 Lb ..read more