Belted Galloways for the Small Homestead

After reading, and reading, and reading about what breed of cattle would work best for our little farm we honed in on the Belted Galloway. They're highly adaptable from their original Scottish wet and cold to Texas heat. They're very efficient (just behind the Longhorn) in converting marginal pasture into weight gain. The final thing they had going for them was that their meat, even when fully finished on grass is highly marbled.                                                          
From the Joel Salatin school of farming we'll be paddock shifting the ladies and doing our best to repair the pasture and ultimately improve the soil itself. Full grown they'll tip the scales around 1000 pounds, roughly half of most modern beef cattle. As time progresses we should have about 1.5 beeves to sell, hopefully by early 2018.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

Getting ready for another cow to be added to the herd, and if things go well she'll be calving shortly after she gets here and we want to keep her and the calf safe. I'm planning to set up a paddock shift system after the calf is born to help manage the pasture (preven over grazing) and repair the damage that was done to the pasture in the past.

The Snow Permaculture Farm

"There is no greater act of rebellion than growing a garden." -Unknown-

Hello Hill and Ellis County! Welcome to the Snow  Farm!

I had a small 1/3 acre suburban homestead before moving back to Texas. I found my passion in life is growing tasty, healthy, safe food free of pesticides and petroleum based fertilizers.

I bought this little 11 acre farm because I want my kids to know the joys and hard work that come from living on a farm. I want as much money as possible to stay in the local area with locally owned small businesses.

I know you're busy, but still want to give your family the best food you can. As we ramp up production here my hope is to find 5-10 families over the next 3-5 years that we can serve.

There's still a lot of work to do, but my goal is to help you feed your family the best food possible.

Whole chickens will be available in spring of 2016.

Heritage breed turkey orders for Thanksgiving 2016 will be taken in spring 2016.

Free range chicken and duck eggs will be available in the summer of 2016. 

Right now there are 36 trees in the ground that will start producing an excess in 2016. The grapes and blackberries we planted should be coming on-line by then as well.

The two Belted Galloway heifers will be producing there first grass fed beef in 2017. As the herd grows so will our offerings of paddock shifted, grass fed beef.

There are so many other things that we hope to do, and I'm sure as the farm matures we'll find products that we've never dreamt of. Honey, fruit trees for sale, garden starts, lavender, hogs, and rabbits are on our radar right now, but who knows what the future holds.

As the site grows I'll be posting recipes involving the food we grow. My thoughts on gardening, and as much as I can what I've learned from all the mistakes I've made with my prior gardening attempts.

I can't wait to meet you, answer your food and gardening questions, and share our humble homestead's progress with you.

Your friend,

Russ Snow