Farming is why we’re here. Because we believe we have something to give to the land, and that it has something to give back.
Our Heritage
Farming is in our heritage, and it’s the connection to our food. Farming is a simple process that has taken millennia to perfect as knowledge passed from generation to generation. But the agricultural knowledge passed from mother to daughter and father to son is not the only thing we have been given by the past. We have inherited a rich variety of livestock breeds.
These rare breeds are a part of our national heritage – homestead pigs that could survive thriftily through times of hardship and grow well off kitchen scraps, horses bred not for showmanship but to pull the heaviest implements, and cattle that provided both the richest cream and performed draft work in the field as oxen. The family farm is an integral part of our history, and these breeds are a key part of that story.
The majority of the animals on our farm are members of endangered farm breeds, some of which are so rare that only a handful of farms in the country are keeping them from disappearing.
Randall Cattle
The Randall Lineback is a purebred remnant of the lineback-patterned cattle once common in New England. Though their origins aren’t clear, they’re likely to have originated in New England from a combination of Dutch, English, and French cattle. Our Randall Cattle are the most critically endangered of our farm breeds.
The name Randall comes from the Randall family in Vermont, who kept a closed herd of Linebacks for over 80 years. The Randall herd was one of the few herds of Linebacks that weren’t crossbred with Holsteins. Eventually their herd was dispersed and most of the animals, but a small part of the herd was saved. There are currently only about 500 individuals in North America.
American Guinea Hogs
The guinea hog is a small black breed of swine that is not only unique to the United States but was once the most numerous pig breed found on homesteads in many parts of the country. Its manageable size and ability to forage for itself made it popular with subsistence farmers, and the Guinea Hog traces its history on the family farm back to the beginning of the 1800’s.
Percheron Horses
Although not technically an endangered breed, Percherons – like all draft horses – are becoming increasingly rare. In the early 1900’s as the industrial revolution produced increasingly heavier farming implements, they required stronger horses to pull them, and so the importation of draft breeds from Europe began in earnest.
Infused with the ancient bloodlines of farming and warhorses from Europe, the horse and mule population in the US grew to over 25 million in 1915. But the automobile and the tractor easily displaced the value of the even the most powerful horses, and by 1960, the population had decreased by nearly 90%. Of the remaining horses, very few carried draft genetics, and even fewer were registered purebreds. Although draft horse numbers are on the rise, fewer than ever are still being used for draft work, and the knowledge of this ancient farming practice is at risk of being lost forever.