Practices

Farming for a sustainable future

AJHC originated simply as a way to provide as much as possible for my family that was the highest quality, chemical-free, and as humane as possible. It is of the utmost importance that our animals are happy and healthy and even when they are destined to be harvested they are loved and cared for with an emphasis on minimizing any stress or pain. Although not everything we produce has undergone the certification process I can assure you that every inch of our farm and lifestyle is done in the most natural way possible.

Our customers can be sure that with or without the organic certification label everything that comes off AJHC farm is raised or grown using only sustainable practices including but not limited to rotational grazing, permaculture techniques, and regular veterinary check-ups of all animals. We carry VOF organic certifications for most of our products and the farm itself is certified by The Real Organic Project.

What We Offer

Animal Husbandry

Our ewes, lambs & and goats are wintered over in what is known as the purple barn, rams are housed in the red barn and the cows have their own smaller barn we refer to as the “cow cabin” All groups have access to the outdoors all year long. Our barns are kept clean, I learned animal husbandry at a show barn in Amherst MA and those lessons stuck.

Water buckets are cleaned out twice daily, as are stalls and the cow cabin, the barns that house sheep are stripped to the concrete and re-bedded 4-5 times a year. Not only is this extremely beneficial for the health and wellbeing of our flocks and herds but also for us, I spend many hours every day with them and the entire month of April during lambing season.

For the carnivores

AJ’s happy Chick Farm offers lamb meat that is both certified organic by the VOF and Real Organic Project and not. Both are raised together and are fed all the same things; certified organic grain and hay when needed, and pasture raised all season. The most common reason for a lamb to come off our certification list is receiving supplemental milk. Finnsheep are well known for their multiple lams and I have several that birth quintuplets. Often with that many lambs I need to supplement milk and there are no lamb milk replacements on the market that are certified organic. For us there is very little difference, if any, in cost, care, or processing fees, therefore we do not price our certified and non certified organic lamb meat differently both are of outstanding quality.

On Farm harvests or purchasing a “herd share” is our most preferred method when it comes to harvesting an animal. We offer on farm harvests every fall for our lambs and goats, and the occasional steer. This allows us full control over the whole process and doesn’t involve any traveling for the animal. Brian and I handle the initial process and everything prior to final stage with a licensed butcher where it is custom cut and packaged.

For the sale of individual cuts of any meat, like all farmers in the US, we are required by the USDA to have the animals arrive live at the slaughter house. AJHC farm proudly uses the services of Northeast Kingdom Processors they carry their organic certification and are state of the art, humane and respectful. To limit stress on our livestock that take this route we practice getting on and off the trailer weeks prior to taking the actual trip making it a smooth and fear free experience for them.

In either senerio above nothing is wasted, all parts are harvested for various uses and is available. All hides from both styles of harvest are collected and salted before being sent to Driftless Tannery where they produce the most luxurious lamb skins and goat hides using a chemical free tanning process made from Mimosa bark. While harvest days are definitely my least favorite part of farming I know we have expressed our gratitude for their sacrifice by making sure that, for each animal, every moment in our care was the best we could possibly make it.

By mid May the grass has grown enough for everyone to go out to pasture. Each group, the ewes and new lambs, goats, rams, and cattle all begin their rotational grazing. Each group moves every few days to new pasture and will not return there again for a minimum of 4 weeks. This is both beneficial to the soil and for parasitic control in the livestock mimicking their natural movement in the wild. Everyone is pasture fed using this rotational grazing method until frost arrives and then are transitioned back to their respective barns where they are hay fed over winter. We provide our own hay from our designated hay fields which we keep healthy by fertilizing with wood ash, aged manure from our livestock and light grazing after hay season.

For the vegetarians and fiber artists

Our hay fields, pastures, orchards, blueberry field, grape vines, berries and sugarbush are certified organic with the VOF and The Real Organic Project. All of the water is gravity spring fed and all gardens and new plantings are being designed using permaculture techniques. We use our own mulch and compost to keep our soil and plants healthy and till small areas only as a last resort. Every year we participate in the Farm Agronomic Practices (FAP) program. Although we started out with fowl most of what we raise today is for our own farm needs however in extra productive seasons we do make our surplus available to the public. Our chickens, turkeys, geese, and ducks all free range the property safely protected by our Maremma LGD.

I choose Finnsheep to work with for many reasons but above all that they are a wonderful fiber sheep. The wool is soft and wonderful to work with and harvesting it allows many of my sheep who are not being bred to contribute to their long term care. To put it bluntly a good portion of our fiber comes from sheep that, for lack of a better word, are pets. Every skein we sell comes with a tag revealing the names of the sheep whose wool that yarn is made from. When it comes to harvesting their fleeces we count ourselves blessed to have Mary Lake as our shearer whose skill well known in the community and guarantees a stressless quick experience for each sheep. After careful skirting of each fleece our fiber is sent to Junction Fiber mill for processing. All dying is done here at AJ’s Happy chick farm and we offer an array of colors including a new line of all natural colors using dyes made from plants grown on the farm. It is our intention to expand this collection each year until we are able to replace our conventional dye collection entirely with naturally made chemical free dyes sustainably sourced on farm.