11/30/2023 0 Comments Hidden acres barnThey rotate livestock through the pastures, with the chickens following the cattle, in chicken tractors. They raise beef cattle and broiler chickens. He used that experience and design as a model for the second barn, which he built mostly on his own. They hired someone to put up one barn, which Zach helped with. The Herzbergers put up most of the fences and buildings on the property. That made start up costs cheaper than they would have been otherwise. They don’t need a lot of machinery or chemical inputs. They’ve used parts of an old barn that blew down to rebuild the new barn. They’ve made chicken feeders out of gutters, and let the livestock graze and fertilize pastures. The Hidden Acres, the Herzbergers’ farm, is all about using what they have, and making the farm as self-sufficient as possible. I can take a look around at what I have and make something work.” Sustainable “It’s very minimalist, as far as inputs … I can do that. “We thought that kind of management-intensive grazing operation would fit here,” Zach said. So, they decided to give livestock farming a go. And the Herzbergers had been reading about Joel Salatin’s method of farming with pastured livestock. Zach had gotten a masters degree in crop science before the move to Ohio - getting into row crops is expensive, and he wanted to be prepared in case they decided to go that direction.īut the farm seemed like a good fit for a sustainable livestock grazing operation. Part of the farm was in row crops at the time. In 2014, Zach found a job in Bucyrus, and they found a 33-acre farm in Mansfield. Once Zach was off active duty, they started looking for jobs and farms. During those years, they talked about whether they might want to raise livestock, or try their hands at row crops. They traveled around the country for years, most recently living in Tennessee, while Zach served in the U.S. But they weren’t always sure exactly what they wanted to farm. Z ach and Kristin Herzberger have known they wanted to be farmers for a long time.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |