The facilities managed by Big Horn Ranch are amongst the very cleanest in the agricultural industry. Our management philosophy is so simple and obvious that it is overlooked by mainstream agribusiness. . . healthy, unstressed animals do not get sick. To understand this simpleton’s premise we must first examine the modern factory farm setting. In order to meet the demand of a low cost, high volume “Wal-martized” food source, these vertically integrated agricultural corporations raise livestock in what equates to concentration camps. These facilities are single specie, overcrowded, and lacking sunlight and green forages. This setting results in highly stressed animals which require daily doses of antibiotics to even survive to slaughter age. This concentration of livestock is also very hard on the environment. The manure build up results in toxic rain water runoff into local streams and wetlands. The air within these facilities is so laden with ammonia and fecal particulate matter that the animals often live in a state of sub clinical pneumonia, it‘s symptoms suppressed by the medicated rations.

  Nope. Not here. The worst impurities our pastured animals may encounter are the pollen of clover or the fragrance of wild apple blossoms. And, on occasion,  the woodsmoke from us roasting marshmallows on a campfire with the kids at field’s edge on a balmy June night.

Instead of highly concentrated toxic disinfectants which are required in the concrete floored meat factories, we use nature’s cleanser-  direct sunshine.

During the grazing season, our animals are rotated regularly in their natural social groups to fresh leafy pasture allowing the previously grazed pasture to rest, regrow, and be cleansed by the sun. Portable electric fences keep the animals where they safely belong and also keep predators on the outside of the fence where they are welcome to hunt for mice, wild rabbits, and chipmunks in our field edge brush piles. Clean gravity fed troughs of fresh spring water ( the same spring that supplies our house) are available at all times.

Come winter, as the hard working ecosystems of our pastures rest beneath a blanket of snow, grass hay and hay silage ( chopped, pickled forages) make up the mainstay of our stock‘s diet. The manure build up from our wintering areas is processed through our composting facility. The finished product resembles potting soil and is a highly nutritious fertilizer when spread on  the next year’s grass crop. Pigs root for sprouted grain that we inject into the compost beds. This composting process has no ammonia smell and creates a tremendous amount of heat which the hogs really enjoy on a sub zero January day.