Kevin Trimm bought his property 11 years ago, having moved from Montreal but didn\u2019t start operating it as a farm until about five years ago.<\/p>\n
It was a steep learning curve for him, even though he had some familiarity with living in a rural setting. He didn\u2019t grow up on a farm but worked on his grandparents\u2019 farm and at dairy operations, acknowledging that \u201cthere is a big difference\u201d between working on a farm as a teenager and actually owning and operating a farm.<\/p>\n
Trimm cites the regular chores of having a septic system to maintain, splitting wood to heat the house, cutting a lot of grass and having a very long driveway that needs to be cleared of snow.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were shocks,\u201d he notes. \u201cOur septic system froze the very first winter, so we had to use camping gear to manage toilet things over several months in the first year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Undaunted, however, Trimm and his family persevered and adjusted and the result is the Yeoman Beef Farm you see today \u2013 what might be called \u201cregenerative agriculture,\u201d \u201csustainable farming\u201d or \u201cpermaculture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drawing on a lot of research and reading \u2013 and using sustainable farming-pioneer Joel Salatin as his north star \u2013 Trimm learned the finer details of the farming he wanted to do.<\/p>\n
Yet he doesn\u2019t care to get too much caught up in jargon or the catch phrases and nomenclature of the farming he does: it\u2019s more about what he calls \u201cdoing the right thing\u201d and taking proper care of the land and the animals he\u2019s raising on it.<\/p>\n
Yeoman\u2019s farming practices feature few inputs, and a lot of labour, to keep the soil whole and healthy and rich.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe soil builds up instead of depleting. We never spray anything on our fields. We don\u2019t even add mineral amendments or fertilizer, nor manure that isn\u2019t our own. Our goal is to create a closed system. Our inputs are minimal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting to that point took six years of converting a conventional cash crop soy and corn farm to certified organic land.<\/p>\n
He renovated an old barn, installed a watering system and fences, equipment buildings, planted 3,000 trees and transitioned to organic, with a caveat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pricey and a lot of paperwork to get certified, so we just do the actual land. The more things you certify, the more complex it gets. We did use to certify the animals, but it just wasn\u2019t worth it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Key is the fact that the farm produces sustainable, grass-fed beef, but it\u2019s almost a by-product of caring for the environment, good animal welfare, developing food security and engaging in the tradition and love of the \u201cnatural world,\u201d according to Trimm.<\/p>\n
Currently, his pricing for beef is similar to the most expensive supermarket products. But the value therein is much, much higher given the way it is farmed, he maintains.<\/p>\n
Yeoman Beef Farm operates as a fashion of \u201cbeef club:\u201d as a \u201cmember,\u201d you get about 10 pounds of beef each month, whatever the cuts are. You come to the farm to pick up and that\u2019s your monthly portion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe retention rate is extremely high,\u201d says Trimm. \u201cPeople rarely drop out. If they do, it\u2019s probably because they moved away.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the commercial matters take place, the business of the animals continues steadily. The cattle, sheep and chicken eat from the land, and Trimm says they sequester more carbon than they produce.<\/p>\n
Small cattle herds can claim that.<\/p>\n
A longhorn grass-fed cattle farmer in Norfolk County once told me, \u201cThe cattle are the farmers and in eating the grass here they are essentially harvesting the sun.\u201d It\u2019s a lovely image, and I imagine that is also the sentiment at Yeoman Beef Farm.<\/p>\n
With a little creek running through it, Yeoman is a small but sustainable operation, home to 15 head of cattle \u2013 Galloway, Red Angus and Hereford \u2013 and a dozen or so sheep with a dozen chickens as well.<\/p>\n
The cattle pretty much keep to themselves, living outside year-round with access to shelter in the wintertime and a place to eat, twice a day, and bedding.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s what Trimm calls a \u201cloafing area\u201d and a \u201cshade wagon\u201d for them and an area for collecting manure. He operates rotational grazing where they move every other day or so into a new paddock. They have scratching devices and salt blocks.<\/p>\n
It is all perhaps very idyllic and bucolic \u2013 a landscape painting by John Constable \u2013 but the fact remains this is a very small-scale operation. There\u2019s a waiting list for Yeoman products because what they do isn\u2019t market-driven and more for personal and ecological motivations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to break even in this and eat high-quality food, and while we sell food to a certain number of customers, the waiting list is as long as my arm for people who would like to be customers. But we can only support so many people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
So why do it, it might be asked?<\/p>\n
Part of the answer is a dedication to doing \u201cthe right thing\u201d for the animals and the ecosystem on a local basis as well as his family, but there\u2019s also a proselytizing motive, an intent to tell a persuasive story and educate consumers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do feel like we\u2019re carrying the torch a little bit to keep this kind of farming alive because there\u2019s no support for this kind of thing,\u201d Trimm says, adding that getting bigger and taking on more customers isn\u2019t an option.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d have to buy more land, but this is what this farm is meant to sustain. Roughly this number of animals between the chicken, sheep, and cattle is what this farm can and will produce. Otherwise, I\u2019d be buying hay or bringing in inputs from off-farm in order to feed the animals. I\u2019m not interested in doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
What he wants interested consumers to do is to ask questions about what and how they are eating \u2013 and search out farms similar to Yeoman.<\/p>\n
\u201cI encourage people to look for and support places like this \u2013 small sustainable farms \u2013 so that this type of farming can become more common. The number of farms that exist in this way is rapidly disappearing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Food writer Andrew Coppolino lives in Rockland. He is the author of \u201cFarm to Table\u201d and co-author of \u201cCooking with Shakespeare.\u201d Follow him on Instagram @andrewcoppolino.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kevin Trimm bought his property 11 years ago, having moved from Montreal but didn\u2019t start operating it as a farm until about five years ago. It was a steep learning curve for him, even though he had some familiarity with living in a rural setting. He didn\u2019t grow up on a farm but worked on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":102700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-affaires"],"acf":[],"featured_media_global":[],"yoast_head":"\n