Starr Valley Farm Certified Organic Grass Fed Beef Cattle

02/15/2025

A lot of people have asked us over the years if they could get a MOO shirt (or hoodie or crew) or any other Starr Valley Farm “swag”.

The answer has always been yes but now it’s possible to “self serve”.

Store of StarrValleyFarm

12/17/2024

If a cow has twin calves, they are typically about two weeks early. As such the hard wiring which tells a calf to instinctively follow its mother around and collect milk may not be quite complete. Additionally, cows cannot count so it would not be their instinct to keep an eye on two calves. For this reason, it’s easy to understand how often times only one of the pair will survive.

We have provided a lot of special attention to these heifers to make sure they both survive and thrive. By keeping the mom in the barn with them these first two weeks, we have ensured that both calves have steady access to nutrition. We have also (hopefully) conditioned mom to know that she’s responsible for two babies.

As of tomorrow, these twins would be about full term. We are going to give them a few more days of special attention in the barn and then let them outside to see how they do in a bigger space where the calves need to follow mom around.

12/17/2024

12/07/2024

Today our family and neighbors helped get one of the herds back inside the high tensile fence. It was great fun!

12/05/2024

Today’s Special Entree : Organic Red Clover, Orchard Grass and Brome Grass dried and served on a bed of fresh snow.

12/04/2024

Twins!!!

12/03/2024

Simple fun…

12/01/2024

I’ve gotten some requests to revive the hay bale roll videos. I was trying to hold the camera and push this one at the same time when Ferdinand the Bull came over to help. I stepped back and let him have the fun but was too slow to catch his push on the video.

10/21/2024

Fun fact: The Sober Barn was originally built circa 1810.

1900 was a presidential election year with William McKinley (R) running for re-election vs William Jennings Bryan (D).

The Sober family was actively supporting McKinley while one or more of their farm workers were pulling for Bryan.

When McKinley won re-election, the farm hands burned the barn down.

At that time, there was still plenty of American Chestnut Trees so the barn was rebuilt from this gorgeous and durable hardwood that was subsequently wiped out by a blight. I found piles of the wood in the lofts of the barn and we were used it to do the renovation.

(In 1901, McKinley was assassinated by Leon Czolgosz.)

07/21/2024

Genus Molothrus, aka Cowbird.

07/21/2024

Sharing the road …

07/05/2024

Look at this little cutie ❤️❤️❤️

07/03/2024

I just found a placenta (not shown). That means its former occupant had to be hidden somewhere nearby. Found her! Happy birthday little sweet!

07/03/2024

We moved breeder herd this morning to a new pasture half a mile away. We were careful to wait for entire herd to get to gate before leaving old pasture to ensure we didn’t leave anyone behind.

This evening we found one cow alone half way between the 2 pastures. It appeared to have defeated my attempt to leave no stragglers. I chased it to the rest of the herd.

But then I wondered if maybe it had actually been with the herd and was heading back to look for a calf which may have been napping during the move.

I took a ride back to the former pasture and sure enough saw a lone calf which darted into woods as soon as it saw me.

So Margi and I went back to herd, carved that mom off and nudged through the fence and back from where she came.

She dutifully marched back to former pasture and called her calf out of woods. After giving the calf some firm words about paying attention better next time, she led the calf right back to herd.

All is well.

06/13/2024

150 bales @ 4’ thick x 5’ diameter = ~75 tons