Last month, our staff visited Mills Family Farm and Back Creek Farm, two of our North Carolina meat suppliers. We learned about animal feed and care, the business of raising meat animals, and the families behind the farms.
Bradley and Nicole Mills run Mills Family Farm in Iredell County, which has been in their family since 1935; for decades it was a dairy farm, and beef was added in 1970. The Millses ran a “cow-calf operation,” breeding cows and producing calves to raise, until Bradley’s full-time vet work began to keep him away from home. They now buy calves from neighboring cow-calf operations and grow them on pasture until they are ready to slaughter. They only raise steers, which gain weight more consistently than heifers and have a longer window at the end of their growing period; heifers begin to gain fat too rapidly when they reach their endpoint. The Millses have about 265 cattle at one time.
Nicole met us at the farm store, tucked into the corner of a barn by the road. All around were fenced pastures and houses belonging to siblings and cousins. The store, which consists of several coolers filled with different cuts of meat, is not fancy, but customers (both chefs and families) love to visit because they have an authentic farm experience. In addition to helping on the farm, Nicole manages all of the orders, sending cattle to Mays Meats in Taylorsville for processing and communicating how the meat is to be cut. Weaver Street Market buys whole steers, which are processed down to retail cuts at Mays Meats. Selling whole steers is better for farmers because they have a guaranteed sale for the entire animal as opposed to having to market the cuts individually. We also buy an additional supply of the most popular cuts; the types change with the seasons.
Bradley arrived to take us to see some of the cattle. We started at a shed with three piles of supplemental feed. Bradley explained the cattle diet: on pasture, cattle get fiber from the grasses they eat, which is processed in their rumen. To produce tender meat with appealing marbling, however, the cattle need to gain over two pounds each day. (If a steer only gained one pound per day, it would be old and tough before it was ready to slaughter.) Bradley monitors the weight gain of the cattle and supplements when necessary, moreso when the grass gets dry. He held out a handful of damp brown material like wood shavings, and we sniffed it: staff commented that it smelled malty, earthy, like coffee, fermented, and hoppy. The cattle love to eat the supplements: the wet corn fiber from Winston-Salem that Bradley was showing us, a coproduct of the corn syrup industry that has had the sugar soaked out of it; a mix of fatty peanut skins and cotton lint with an occasional tortilla chip mixed in; and soy hulls from plants in North and South Carolina, a coproduct of the soybean oil and tofu industry.
Someone asked about the difference between an operation like Mills Farm’s and a feedyard. Bradley, whose vet work takes him to feedyards, explained that feedyard cattle are on pasture until they weigh about 800 pounds. At the feedyard, their diet transitions from grass (fiber) to corn (starch). The animals must be managed more carefully to keep them healthy, and they gain weight more rapidly. This kind of farming is more efficient, which is why the meat costs less than pasture-raised meat like Mills Farm’s. But mismanagement of a high-starch diet can lead to health problems for the cattle. In contrast, Mills Family Farm’s cattle are on pasture their entire lives, never confined. The supplemental feed, which is less than 4 percent of their diet, is also different than feedyard feed: it is not the whole grain but only the fiber, skins, or hulls. When asked why he farms the way he does, Bradley said that he is used to the pasture-based system, which his family has used for decades.
We walked down a gravel drive between the pastures. On our right, a small group of multicolored steers watched us warily: Angus crosses in all colors, hybrid White Charolais, and red Herefords. There are six pastures, each with between 20 and 56 steers. The Millses leave some pastures open to regrow and occasionally bush hog the weeds and reseed with a clover-fescue mix. Certain areas are managed intensely for conservation purposes, with earthen dams to guide water into the creek and prevent erosion. The cattle drink well water to keep the creek clean and preserve the vegetation on its banks. Mills Farm worked with the Natural Resource Conservation Service to manage their soil and water resources; they helped the Mills family install the wells to exclude the steers from the creek. Mills Family Farm is an Iredell County farmland preservation district.
As we neared a second pasture on the left, a herd of black steers ran toward us, stopping a hundred feet away to stare before turning to jog away. “We really enjoy raising quality cattle and having a delicious beef product for all of our customers,” Bradley said.
The second half of our trip, visiting Back Creek Farm, will be covered in an upcoming post.