For centuries the land upon which Fort Lewis is situated has provided for its inhabitants. The Shawnee cleared these fields and regarded them as sacred hunting grounds. Early settlers introduced domestic livestock and learned to cultivate the foothills. Today, we continue to care for this land and strive to uphold sustainable farming practices that will allow it to flourish for generations to come.
At our farmstead we grow fresh produce, keep chickens for eggs & raise pigs for meat – all endeavors help us in supplying the best possible ingredients for our kitchen. But the main focus of our farmland is our cattle operation. We run a cow-calf herd, which means we keep a herd of mother cows that produce a weaning age calf of some 500-600 pounds each year. We then sell these calves to other producers who take them on to finish weights through stocker and feeder programs.
With sustainability as a focus, we embrace rotational grazing with long rest periods and adjusted calving dates to better align livestock needs with forage quality peaks. Through fencing, we’ve excluded livestock from all waterways to protect the water quality of our free flowing streams and rivers. We’ve also invested in building fertility levels and are continually fighting the encroachment of invasive plant species.
In the end, we consider ourselves stewards of this land and love working with, and what really is living with, our cows and bulls. Our vision: a regenerative farming mindset. We want to return carbon and other missing elements to the soil, support biological diversity, restore a natural, self-supporting system, and produce a sustainable, nutritious, and tasty beef product.
