Blog - Drover Hill Farm

Fishin' & Tractor Pulls for some Down-time

We have scraped up a little time for ourselves and the kids recently and went fishing with family and a tractor pull.I discovered Beth likes to swing worms around freely, and Kaye is scared to death of them, if you can imagine the fun Beth had with that!We have so many great ponds around to go fishing, but this day was at Rob's brothers' (Tuff and Sarah's) place, and we caught a bunch of good size bass.Rob has two brothers who helped us through many tough times when we had the dairy, and they LOVE tractor pulling. They both live just down the road with their families, and the boys have all worked and built their Oliver 1800 tractor up to what it is now. All I know is she blows smoke, makes lots of noise, and we all have a great time with family together when we go to a tractor pull.Here's one of my nephews lounging in the wheel well in the picture below.Hay season is finally winding down, and I think we are all done doing custom work for other farms. Soon it will be time to clean all of the equipment up and get it ready for winter. Rob will go through everything that he can, fix what had a band-aid on it to get through the season, and park it for the rest of the year.Have a beautiful week, and look for those trees changing color! A bunch of ours are already golden.

Picking up the Slack

I must have said it 1000 times - I don't know what I would do without my family and great friends. I hope you have a network of those that love you close by. They are invaluable.

What is Regenerative Ag anyways? Soil Health Principle 2

In the last Blog Post, I started a series about regenerative agriculture and what it is as I explained Soil Health Principle 1, Limit Disturbance. If you have not read it yet you may find it within the blog posts.

Holding Pattern

The cattle are doing fantastic and just love doing their thing. Grazing, pooping, drinking, socializing, moving to new pasture, and repeat. They are also in a holding pattern, although I’m not sure what kind of crazy randomness they have in their life. Maybe it’s when Patchy (our Border Collie) follows the buggy up to check on them. They don’t care for him or any dogs.

What is Regenerative Ag anyways? Soil Health Principle 1

Why is pasture-raised food better and why regenerative ag? You may already know the different benefits of pasture raising and all the benefits of regenerative ag, but just in case you didn’t or need help explaining to a friend or family member I want to unwrap it a little bit in this blog post for you today. I’ll unpack this into several parts (or blog posts) so that it isn’t too long. We believe it’s the love and care we give to both our land and our animals. Good soil, rich grass, and happy grazing critters play not only a huge part in forming the flavors and nutrients in your food, but also heal the planet and make a huge impact on our ecosystem in a powerful way. Let’s talk quickly about good soil (i.e. regenerative agriculture).

Hay & Rotating Critters

We have had some beautiful hay weather and have gotten quite a bit done. Rob stayed back from all of the 4th of July family gatherings we had, to do hay again this year. It's always beautiful hay weather on the 4th weekend!

It Takes A Village

I was just recently asked "how do you do it all?" by one of our customers, and the answer is, I DON'T. And I hope you feel my heart when I say I hope you don't try to do everything too.

Hay, Hay, Hay

Where has the time gone! I can't believe it's this far into June already. We have been busy rotating animals around and still occasionally chasing beefers back into their temp fencing. One of our heifers Poppy seems to be one of the biggest trouble makers. She was a bottle-fed baby raised by us last year because her mother had difficulty calving her and didn't want her afterward. She's kind of a big baby and thinks she owns the place and is free to go through fences whenever the mood strikes her. We've also been doing hay, hay, and more hay. Rob lives in the hayfield this time of year and doesn't quit until long after dark. Some nights he doesn't get in until 10:30 PM.. but he loves it.We love knowing we are providing the feed for our animals to eat throughout the winter and are in charge of the quality. Without great quality hay and grasses, you can't grow great animals. He's known as the Balage King among the local farmers and does some custom work for them as well.

Money for you

This is exciting! We rely on faithful customers like you to spread the word about our mission for healthy families and healthy soil. If you have friends, family, or coworkers interested in regenerative agriculture and good food, this could be a great way to bless them and earn some store credit for yourself.

Naughty Beefers

Pouring Rain and wild Beefs

The Piglet Shuffle

Around the FarmThe youngest group of pigs went out with the older group today for the first time. They are the black and spotted ones and were basically too small to go out right away because they could squeeze through the wires and looked like good coyote bait. (And we have heard the coyotes lately)They are little piggies in hog heaven now! After they get used to being with the older group and the fence, they will get moved into a larger paddock and start right in the rotational grazing. Happy pigs!

Meet Astra!

Meet Astra- our new Guardian Dog.