Our cattle live on open pasture — sometimes our neighbours' pasture too. How the exchange works.
Fine grazing comes in patches. One farm holds spring grass with no animals; the next holds animals on heavy ground. A decade back we began trading: our young cattle rest neighbours' fields, their sheep prune our orchard rows. Every farm's land gains, and nobody buys feed they could have grown.
Running the exchange
Each spring the member farms walk all pastures together and settle the moves — which group goes where, for how long, and how the ground should look on exit. Fences and water split down the middle; autumn weigh-in happens in public, with loud debate and a single cup.
“Fences draw a boundary. A shared grazing plan draws neighbours together.”
Why buyers care
Animals that roam mixed pasture and never meet a feedlot give firmer, deeper-flavoured meat — and well-grazed ground grows stronger crops next. Cattle now lead wheat across a third of our acres, and those strips top our yield maps every year.
Seeing the herds
The mobs join our Friday walks through grazing season. Come watch them, meet the graziers, and referee the trophy debate yourself.
