Youngblood GrassFed Farm

We’re heading down home… to your farms! Urban, suburban, or rural — whatever you’re growing and doing, we want to see it.

Welcome to the Down Home Farm Tours series. To see all the farms and homesteads featured in this series, click here. If you’d like to be featured, please read here for guidelines.

Welcome, Youngblood GrassFed Farm!

Today, you get to meet Youngblood GrassFed Farm from Southwest Arkansas. Tracy and her family have vision, let me tell you, and it’s invigorating! They raise cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens on pasture. In 2013, they will be opening a one-of-a-kind butcher shop, too. Visit their website here.

What is your name and the names of your family members?
We are the Youngblood family: Andy, Tracy, Ben and Matti. I am Tracy.

What is the name of your farm/homestead?
Our farm name is Youngblood GrassFed Farm.

How long have you been farming/homesteading?
Our farming operation is generational. We are the fourth generation to live on this farm; my children are the fifth. Both of us were raised in farming families, but we feel we began to farm sustainably~correctly~righteously in 2006.

Share a brief description of your farm/homestead.
We began transitioning our farm operations from conventional to sustainable grass farming in 2006. We had always had beef cattle, but added pigs, sheep, goats, and a dairy cow. We have since increased our land through family land leases. We manage all our land without pesticides or herbicides. Our goal is to increase organic matter and carrying capacity of the land, and produce superior meat products from the grass! We want to supply ourselves, family, and friends with healthy real food. We also work with other producers to build their herds of grass genetic stock.

What are you raising, growing, and doing?
We raise grassfed/finished beef from Devon and Devon-cross cattle. We raise lamb from Katahdin sheep. Goat from Kiko goats. All of them are grass finished. We raise heritage Large Black Hogs and Tamworth cross pigs in woodlots and pastures. Our daughter just started producing eggs from her pastured hen operation — she gave up her playhouse to make the chicken house!

How did you get into farming/homesteading?
We have always been farmers. Born into it, I guess. Where the story begins is with a health crisis and production crisis. My dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2005. I finally woke up to the overwhelming hereditary trait of abdominal cancers in his family. I began researching and came across the nutritional genius of real food. For me, it took an event, a health crisis in my family to look at alternative options for our farm. My husband was reading and researching about how to raise more animals on the same amount of land. He was given Joel Salatin’s book: Salad Bar Beef. We were completely convinced and realized we could make a change for the better. Our FOOD supply was something we could control, even if heredity wasn’t.

Any future plans?
We are a small farm, so we have acquired more land and animals to try to meet our growing demand. We are in the process of opening a one of a kind butcher shop! There are only a couple of these in the states. We will open a retail, whole-animal butcher shop, and real food market in May of 2013: MeatWorks Butchery and Market (website not functional yet). We own the farm and animals that will be butchered; we own the shop and will deliver directly to the customers. This is a complete system through which we can control the quality of the product much better! We are also opening our market to other farming entrepreneurs to feature their products in our store. We will sell their organic produce, artisanal honey, spices, and value-added items like breads and cheeses. We are tremendously excited about this endeavor. Our store will be located in Mena, Arkansas.

Let’s Tour Youngblood GrassFed Farm!

(Wardee: In the captions below, you’re hearing from Tracy, as she tells what is in each picture.)

Our lovely milk cow! We love raw milk and believe in it’s healing properties!

Our cows on pasture last winter.

Matti and her chickens, she love them and has done a great job raising them, caring for them, acquiring customers, and managing her money.

Moving cows to a new pasture down the road.

Some of our sheep.

Piggies like grass too.

Andy feeding hay late last winter.

(Back to Wardee) Tracy, thank you for sharing with us! We hope you enjoy your free thank you video, our gift to you. Plus, feel free to display the following graphic on your site. (Right-click and save to your computer, then upload to your site and link to this farm tour post.)

Please give Tracy and her family a warm welcome in the comments! Be sure to visit their website for farm information, nourishing ideas, and more.