See ranch that uses regenerative practices to raise lamb, pork, turkey and more

PT Ranch is a pastured meat business. We've been in the business for about 10 years. We sell pastured pork, chicken, lamb, and seasonal turkeys, and when we took over the ranch about 10 years ago, we really wanted to change practices from a conventional cattle ranch to a multi-enterprise business. The history of PT Ranch starts when my dad bought it when he was in college. That was in the mid-50s and he had all these aspirations of raising bulls and doing all sorts of different things. None of that really came to fruition so he leased it to a cattleman and he was just basically what you call a gentleman farmer. About 15 years ago we took over the management of PT Ranch and really wanted to change practices. And that's when we decided to get into the pasture meat business and follow a regenerative style farming as best as we can. So we raise turkeys, chicken, pork, and lamb. So interestingly enough, I am not a lifelong farmer. I did grow up coming to the ranch, and I rode horseback all over the ranch. I was an interior designer, and so when we started P.T. Ranch and our regenerative meat business, there was definitely an incredibly huge learning curve. I honestly can say that I really feel like now, 10 years in, we really are growing some great product that you can taste the difference, and you can see it in the land and our soil health. So each different species has a different impact on the land. And regenerative practices came about when we tried to mimic what used to happen before the white man came. And the bison would roam free in the prairie, and they would move to keep away from predators. So they would move in big herds, and they would poop, pee, and trample the land, and leave enough um so that the plant still had some energy to come back and they wouldn't come back to that spot until the following year they would just keep moving and migrating as a herd and so with farming you do your best to mimic that it's hard it takes a lot of animals it takes a lot land manpower to move quickly in terms of trying to mimic the mob grazing. But what you can do in a way that's a little easier is using the animals to impact and not over grazing and letting giving rest in between grazing periods. This is our flock from this year and they are broad-breasted white turkeys fed non-gmo organic feed and finished on walnuts and the interesting thing about the walnuts is when we started feeding them this year in the beginning right after they came out of the brooder they were just kind of picking at them and they didn't really seem to enjoy them but now they are basically that's the first thing they go to and I really think it changes the flavor and the profile of the meat. Here we are in our sheep field. We raise Dorper sheep. It's a variety that comes from South Africa and they are hairless so they don't require any shearing or anything and the meat is very tender and very mild in flavor so if you're not really a lamb lover, this is the meat for you. We have about 300 sheep and they're in the process of lambing, so that'll continue for the next month or so. And then we will rotate this flock all through the ranch. They've been in here for about a month. And in terms of a regenerative agriculture, this is a great example of leaving armor on the soil and leaving a cover and not grazing down so that the plants have enough in their roots to come back. This is our pasture pork enterprise and we buy piglets from a local breeder. They'll remain two weeks, become weaned, and then they'll go two weeks into a little nursery paddock. They will be rotated through these different paddocks throughout the year. In the winter they go on to a sacrificial paddock not to disturb the soil. But as you can see we're standing underneath a black walnut tree and the black walnut trees are scattered throughout this paddock as well as the other paddocks along with acorns. This is what makes this time of year so amazing with the pigs and the finished pork is because of the natural feed that they're getting and they're all very curious they're super smart animal. Our breed are our breeds are Duroc, Hampshire and Berkshire cross. The Duroc is known for its marbling and just exceptional quality as are the Hampshire. So if you want to come out and visit us we have two Airbnbs on the property. One is about to go into a quick remodel that's called Casa Vieja. It's an 1850s old farmhouse. The other one is called Casa Pequeña and that's just a new rental it's just online so that's one way the other way to visit us is through our fall harvest and turkey pickup day on November 21st we do do school tours in the spring and we have you know seasonal events from time to time chefs dinners wine dinners we are thinking about doing a lifestyle class in the spring so stay tuned for a lot of those events