As I drive up the gravel route and peak at the top of a ridge , the Equus caballus in the pasture on my left wing were bathed in my wake of dust . That day recently last fall , I was visiting Dry Ridge Farm in Mars Hill , North Carolina , in the middle of what felt like a never-endingdrought . At that time , a res publica of emergency had been declared , and even citizen and Farmer alike were all feeling a tiny bit scorched . I wonder how the farm was come in the midst of these condition .
With my 3 - year - onetime daughter in tow , I met up with Wendy Brugh , Dry Ridge ’s carbon monoxide gas - possessor and co - Fannie Farmer . She was eight months significant and had her own vernal daughter , Molly Mae , toddling along . For a woman in charge of everything around me — a mark - fresh barn containing piglet know down for the winter , trilled pastures of volaille , herd of cow , a few odd sheep , a home site , several old store social organization , and the wee one at her feet — Wendy was amazingly fooling and completely at ease . Kristina Mercedes Urquhart
She and her husband , Graham , started Dry Ridge Farm in the early hebdomad of 2011 , a speculation that concluded a whirlwind romance with the attainment of a number of farm animals in quick succession and the showtime of the next chapter of their relationship .
“ We bought our land on Oct. 12 , 2011 , and got engaged on Feb. 7 , 2012 , ” she says . “ We get our first meat chickens on Feb. 10 , our sows and boar on the 12th , and our rabbit and first layers on the 27th . ”
Both are behave and bred North Carolinians , each from family that evaluate the open and sentence spent in nature . The originally met in their teen old age and rekindled their connector over summertime spent at camps in the mountains of western North Carolina . They split up ways to attend school : Wendy at Carleton College in Northfield , Minnesota , and Graham at the University of North Carolina at Asheville . Kristina Mercedes Urquhart
Wendy focalise on biology and environmental scientific discipline and spent a year traveling to work on constitutional farms , while Graham study environmental scientific discipline and economic science , function for several yr on a small farm managing a 30 - header team of hogs and a 100 - head herd of moo-cow . Meanwhile , Wendy started a minor grocery entrepot in a low - income biotic community outside of Durham , North Carolina . Their combined educations and brute , retail and selling experience provided the stark creation they would need to become responsible stewards of the land , their animals and their business .
Their paths sweep again 10 years after their first get together . They quickly fall in love with each other , and with animal agriculture and the rural life-style they had begun to cultivate . The respite , as Wendy says , “ is a predictable story . ”
Dry Ridge Values
As we walk through the barn , the fuzz ’ Pavlovian reply was strong : They saw humans and immediately thought “ food ! ” Just like a school of fish , they moved as a swift , single entity in their enclosure , following along with me and my girl as we surpass through the b , only the flyspeck piglet trail at the end of the grouping . They were cosily bedded down for the wintertime in the safety and comfort of an open - air travel b .
We made our way out to the pasture where Graham and Wendy ’s quite a little of 700 crybaby was grazing . A heavy , goofy white Great Pyrenees named Henrietta—“Hen ” for short — greet us with more enthusiasm than Wendy would have preferred . Although Hen was already on active livestock guardian duty , lodge in full time with the flock , she was still just a pup aroused to see multitude . They had two mobile coop in their current lay hen pasture that day : one in cheery yellow and another in a cheery redness . The birds were friendly and warm and did n’t mind our company one turn . We lease our daughters check out thenest boxesfor egg while Wendy shared more about their farm ’s visual sense .
Within the philosophy of their environmental values , the Brughs pick out to focus on raising goodly animals , preserving their species ’ genetical diversity and using them to hold the biodiversity of their pastures and woodland . This primarily includes raise heritage breeds and breeds that by nature crop well and never giving them internal secretion , steroids or antibiotic drug . Kristina Mercedes Urquhart
The other key component is rotational graze : By rotating pastures , their Gunter Grass and legumes are able to grow and flourish , never depleting under a single species of grazing creature . ley are seeded after chickens and hogs take a flip , and then cows graze those pasture before the chickens and Sus scrofa are moved back . In general , the chickens and hogs inseminate the pastures , while the cattle help to control the nutrient levels in the soil .
Another major aspect the Dry Ridge philosophy is the grandness of the Brugh ’s social values , which really set it apart from large commercial essence producer and factory - farm - elan direction . “ Our societal values differentiate us from many kernel producer and include a focus on strengthening two communities that are important to us : our own human community of interests and the animate being communities that help support us , ” Wendy says .
For the animate being community of interests , this means that the Brughs allow their charges to go the life they were intended to , with the freedom , respect and right caution they merit . For the human communities , this means carve out the combining weight of 1 percent of their sales for heart and soul donation , either by donate the food now or give their customer the option to buy a production for contribution . “ It ’s neighbour helping neighbor , and together , we ’re building a solid community , ” Wendy aver .
The Chickens
While the Brughs also raise about 100 hogs per year , keep a 10 - cow herd and process 10 hint per year , eggs are their large profit generators . “ The legal age of Farmer - market shoppers buying their calendar week ’s grocery will purchase ballock weekly , which make them a very true and unchanging source of income , ” Wendy says . rear broilersdiversifies their meat oblation at Fannie Merritt Farmer securities industry , too . The Brughs find that carrying and selling such a wide of the mark range of meat mathematical product allows them to be a one - stop shop class for their customers , because food market shoppers can get beef , pork and chicken all from the same farm .
With a laying flock 700 strong , plus five unit of ammunition of 400 broilers raised per twelvemonth , Dry Ridge Farm has double its chicken production in just a few short old age . The laying hen now consist of reddened and smutty sex - link chickens , chosen for their splendid lay abilities as well as their ability to be sexed at hatching , making sure the farm is putting imagination only into laying females .
“ [ Sex links ] are a cross between Rhode Island Red roosters and Delaware hens [ for red ] or Barred Rocks [ for black-market ] , ” Wendy says . “ They ’re a higher - producing razz than most true inheritance breeds , while maintain the inheritance character of doing well on pasture and hold back their instincts . Kristina Mercedes Urquhart
“ We keep our layer for two years , so we replace half the mickle each year , alternate between red and mordant birds , so we know what to wreak to the central processing unit each year , ” Wendy order . “ Our retired layers alumna to grizzle - biddy status , which we sell at $ 5 each to make our processing cost back . Very few breeds are good for both egg and meat production , but all position hens make the practiced chicken soup and stock imaginable ! ”
The Brughs are n’t purist about raising their own laying stock by any way , and mostly , it seems , this ability to delegate and share the duty has had a large helping hand in the farm ’s achiever .
“ We bonk that breeding , incubating and hatch bird is a completely different business from raising chicks to maturity . ” Wendy says . “ We do n’t keep rooster , and we do n’t have incubators . ” The couple prefers to purchase their layers and broilers as day - old skirt rather than as pullets , which are normally 22 - week - old point - of - ballad females .
As for their broilers , the Brughs take a similar approach as with their layers . While broiler wimp offer consumer a brisk poultry option when they ’re shopping at Dry Ridge , the raising of these fowl lend straight back to the farm , as well . “ We ’ve also used broilers to increase grass output on alimentary deficient grazing land , ” Wendy says . “ It always amazes me how much more exuberant the grass is that grow where the broilers have been .
“ The broilers that we betray for meat are Freedom Rangers , but we ’ve also raised Red Broilers in the past , ” Wendy enjoin . “ They ’re slower - growing than the distinctive Cornish Cross that conventional growers raise . Rather than reaching market weight in five to six week like Cornish Cross , Freedom Rangers are ready to process in 10 to 11 hebdomad . Kristina Mercedes Urquhart
“ The slower growth relieve oneself for a in the main healthier bird that can take the air around our pastures and eat hemipteron and gage and exercise , unlike a Cornish Cross which can become lame simply because it ’s been so overbred for meat growth that its skeletal system ca n’t keep up with and support its own organic structure weight , ” Wendy remark . “ A healthier bird make for a tastier Bronx cheer , so while the irksome growth restrict the turn of Gallus gallus we can raise each year , we ’re capable to charge a premium for chickens that ‘ taste like chicken used to taste , ’ as Graham ’s grandma always says . ”
As we said our good day at the theater — a beautiful new social system at the highest peak of the holding , ring by pasturage — I was once again amazed at the landscape of Dry Ridge Farm . I get it on there are overpowering moments of stress and loss when it comes to owning and make out a farm , but as a visitor that day , it all feel smooth and well-situated . The contentment of the farm ’s denizen — bovine , porcine , galline , human or otherwise — was palpable , and that form of feeling is contagious .
