If you're going to get behind something, you got
to go all in. If you wanted to succeed, you got to go all in. November 27th, we said yes. "We're
going to do this. We're going to start a business. We're going to do this." On the last week of
December, we signed a lease for our first farm. Have you ever wondered how to start
a regenerative farm from scratch? How to take your passion for producing
food sustainably, improving the soil and the environment, or building community
from a hobby to a full-time career? Here at Heifer USA, our mission is to help small
farmers learn and grow through regenerative agricultural practices. But what does it take
to start a brand new farm with no experience? How can an aspiring farmer
become a successful farmer? Those people on the brink, waiting for guidance,
or a sign, or inspiration... How can we empower them to embrace the challenge of building a farm
from the ground up? To answer these questions, we traveled to Rougemont, North Carolina - a
community where two young farmers are doing things differently, starting with the soil and building a
career on the promise of regenerative agriculture. Derrick and Paige Jackson, the founders of Grass
Grazed Farm, raise pastured poultry, forested pork, grass-fed cattle and dairy, pastured laying
hens, and their five children here in Rougemont. We sat down with Derrick and
Paige to learn how they did it: their hardest challenges, their biggest successes,
and the routines that dictate the days in between. Keep watching to hear their story,
and stay tuned until the end of this video to hear the Jacksons' most
important advice for beginning farmers. So, we kind of went down this journey of wanting
to know more about our food. What kind of brought about that was: I started having health issues
after being in the army for about 12 years. After doing a little bit of research, we found
out that it was an issue with the dairy that I was consuming, so that kind of... sparked our
interest in... "What are we really consuming?" You know, at that point, we
weren't ready to grow our own food, but we did want to support local farmers. So we
sought out local farmers, and if we couldn't trace the soil, then we weren't gonna consume it. We
started buying chicken from this one vendor, and one day he was out of chicken,
and Derrick was like, "How do you run out of chicken?!" "This doesn't
-" "I mean, you're a chicken farmer!" So, from there we then decided - well, not WE.
Derrick decided to raise the chicken himself. He was like, "Well, I'll just grow it!"
And I thought he was joking, but... he wasn't joking. He then sends a text
message saying that he ordered 25 chickens in the mail, and I was like "Is this... is this real?"
Deep down inside, I was hoping that the order got, you know - I was gonna get an email saying,
"Hey crazy, you can't order chickens!" No, I got a confirmation saying "Your chickens
will be there. Like, your eggs are brooding." And that started the journey to farming.
Yep. Shortly after the 25 chickens processing, we sat
down at the table, two days after Thanksgiving, and we ate our first harvested chicken. And, you
know, it was like, "Okay... it all makes sense." But then, you know, you hear "Farmers are going
out of business" and "People aren't making money" and like, all this stuff. I'm looking at these
numbers, and these numbers make sense. Like, we could do this. And after the numbers made
sense, I didn't need anything else, because I had already discovered this passion of like,
"Okay, I want to do this. I enjoy raising animals, I enjoy feeding my community, I enjoy
being able to sit at the table and partake of something that we raised."
But we knew that we needed customers. The move from raising 25 chickens in the
backyard of their suburban neighborhood to running a fully functional family farm may have
been quick, but it wasn't easy. We asked Derrick and Paige to break down every step of their
journey to Grass Grazed Farm as it exists today. So, the first steps we took to starting a
business was: we created an LLC. That's just important to any business. You need to have that
liability coverage, because you don't want people going after you! And you want the respect as a
business. And you want the respect as a business. I would say the market research started in
our own backyard. So, when we were raising the chickens - in our backyard - we sold the - well,
not even sold. We gave the product to our friends, to our family, and their feedback really helped us
to kind of fuel, like, the mission of, like, what we were doing. We looked at competition; we looked
at existing farms that were already in the area, and, like, what they were doing; what the markets
looked like; what the climate was - all of the things that, I guess, would be needed in order for
us to really be successful, and how we could stand apart. We were visiting farmers markets all the
time. Like, we want to see what's out there. One of the things that we saw, was there was a lack
of pasture-based, non-GMO, or organic chicken. I was introduced to regenerative agriculture
at a sustainability conference here in Durham, North Carolina in 2019. At the time, I just
knew that I wanted to farm. And I knew pastured poultry was a way. I didn't know about the
all the other aspects of farming. I had been following a few farms that had been using the
regenerative approach, and I was like, "Huh... that kind of makes sense." Like, the more I learn
about these animals, the more it starts to make sense as to... that's how you're able to
raise chickens on pasture and have zero waste. Yeah, I think regenerative agriculture just
makes sense. I think when I look at the commercial industry, I see how things are done
on such a big scale, and the effect that it has on the environment. As a mom, I can't help but
think, "Well, how is that affecting my family?" Caring for the soil is also a part of caring
for our animals. It's caring for our bodies, it's caring for every aspect of who we are.
Traditional organizations don't recognize the type of farming that we're doing.
They'll say that it's not profitable. Yeah, they'll say that it's not traditional.
Trying to find funding as a startup is hard, but let alone as a startup farm, is even harder.
It challenged us to think outside of the box. A mentor was like, "Hey, you know,
everybody talks about starting a new business. All these entrepreneurs that are
here, and everybody wants to start a business. Well, have you ever considered buying a business?"
And I thought about it. I was like, "Wait a minute... Okay... Maybe...
Maybe we should just buy another farm." And sure enough, like a week or two later, I saw
a post on Facebook from a friend saying, "Hey, there's a farm that is...
they're ready for change." And we acquired that farm. But we were able to
buy a majority of the things that we needed from them - outside of the chicken tractors. I built
those. We bought a lot of the, like, small things, like chicken feeders and pig feeders and, like,
just handy stuff that a farm that's been around for some time would have already acquired.
That really helped us to catapult to where we are now. because we we realize, like, "Okay,
we've got a strong brand identity, but at the same time we need to be able to market this
to customers, and we need to be able to grow." I realized like that was kind of a missing piece
for a lot of farmers. Like, this part of really having a brand. I knew that there needed to be
a story in every aspect of what we were doing. Hey, I'm Derrick, and this is my wife.
I'm Paige. And I am a learning farmer.
Yeah, it's funny, right? So, if you come along for the journey, we'll
welcome you to the life of raising chickens. And the next thing was acquiring land, because we
didn't own any. We didn't have any at the time. I just googled "land for sale, land for lease,"
and I looked for a while. I found NC Farmlink. It's a site where it connects farmers to farm
land. So these are farms or owners of property that want to keep the land in agriculture.
I looked and I tried to find something that was as close as possible, that would let me
raise pigs. Then we found a tobacco farm here in Rougemont, and the owner bought the property
because he wanted to save it from development, looking for some young farmers that he
could put on the land. And we contacted him, went and looked at the property. Within
two weeks we signed a lease on it. When you're starting out, sometimes
you don't always have the capital to go all in and buy. And sometimes you really don't
know what you're getting into when you buy it. So, I think leasing is a great start, and
it's a great way to get your feet wet, in terms of really having an understanding of
the land, and what you are going to do next. If you can lease land first, lease the land. I'm
glad I didn't buy, and I'm glad I didn't buy, because it limits you to your abilities to grow.
And it also can put you in a position where you have to spend more money on repairing things like
roads and plumbing and- but when you're leasing the land, you can focus all your capital on your
resources and increasing your supply for demand. With a homestead and a swath of farmable land,
the next steps seemed a bit overwhelming. We asked the Jacksons the question so many have
asked them since they started Grass Grazed Farm: "How did you learn to farm?"
How did we learn? Yeah... Books, podcasts, YouTube, a lot of books - lots of reading.
YouTube was the place of discovery. Channels like Heifer USA were the inspiration to, like,
really take that step. They're doing exactly what we want to do on a large scale - on a commercial
scale. So, from what I've learned, they've done it - they, you know, steward their land well.
And I also watched the 20,000 Chickens on Pasture video multiple times, because it was
unbelievable, but definitely inspirational. We're happy to help, Derrick! Armed
with an arsenal of instructive videos, livestreams, and more, Derrick and Paige
quickly scaled up to their current operation. At Grass Grazed, we raise grass-fed and finished
beef, pastured poultry, and pastured hogs, free-range hens, and grass-grazed dairy. We
have a farrow-to-finish hog operation. We also are planning to raise a good amount of poultry - I
won't put numbers, specific. My target was 8,000. And I say 8,000 because last year we raised 4,600 chickens on pasture. And our plans are to
increase our egg laying operation to 400 hens. If all those numbers sound a
bit overwhelming, don't worry! No matter how many animals they raise, Derrick
and Paige manage their farm one day at a time. A typical day on the farm is...
Wake up - if it's a good day, before 6:30. But if not, it's between 6:30 and 7. I try to get up before Paige, just so that
I can get the cows ready to move, so that when she's ready to milk, they're already ready.
So, we currently raise Dexter cattle for beef, and we have a herd of Jersey dairy cows.
We milk the cows, get milk chores out of the way, collect eggs, move the chickens.
So, we do Cornish Cross and also Red Rangers. So chicken chores and dairy chores are first
thing in the morning. That's normally done by 7:30 if we're on schedule. Derrick,
by that point, comes in to eat. Breakfast time is normally where we sit down,
feed the kids breakfast, do homeschool, bust out the computer, do some admin work. And then
Derrick will head to the farm to do pig stuff. We raise Duroc-Berkshire
crosses, Duroc-Tamworth crosses, Kune-Tamworth crosses, and Heritage Red Wattles. I would say Derrick mostly raises all but the
Kunes. The Kunes are my pigs. And they have a lot of personality. TONS of personality.
But they are a docile breed, and they're not aggressive, so our kids really help a lot with
the chores. And I would say for people who are just starting out or homesteading, it's probably
the ideal pig, because they're heavy grazers. We have a high quality pork, and then we
have a traditional pork. High quality pork, meaning it's known as "the other red meat."
We use it as a teaching tool to educate our customers on the difference in pork,
which they love. That's why we have a heritage breed that we're able
to sell as a high quality item. I head to the other farm at about 10:00, 11:00,
if we're on schedule. We knock out the pig chores in the morning, and we try to be done with all
chores before lunch. That's on a well-run day. Like most farmers, Derrick and Paige fill their
days with animal care and homestead chores, but they've found one surefire way
to save time in their busy schedules, by utilizing streamlined sales methods. So one of our main sources of sales is a CSA in
a local downtown Raleigh: Farm to Fork Food Riot. Farm to Fork is a Community Supported Agriculture
program that describes itself as a "Food Church," working for the good of both farmers and
eaters in the Raleigh-Durham community. So the Food Church is actually a
counter-economic strategy that I created, so that we could operate and speak freely
under a religious exemption, and also that people could tithe and support us financially.
So we actually have a physical Food Church here in Raleigh, North Carolina. We're providing a local
source for the eaters to support local ranchers, and for the ranchers to be regenerating as many acres as possible, while creating
microclimates within our local vicinity. You know, I believe that my
relationship with Paige and Derrick Jackson was very divinely planned,
because I really needed to be able to have an anchoring farm to get going, and they were
just right there. When I needed someone to step up and just really fill the freezers,
you know, they were ready to scale up. Farm to Fork is convenient because the members
value the farmer, and they're willing to show up at a location, as opposed to me having to go to
them. It's open multiple days out of the week, and there's someone there that can
sell my product better than I can. It was just a win in every direction,
so I just feel really blessed. Though Derrick and Paige have
figured out where to farm, where to sell, and how to run a sustainable
business, we wanted to know the toughest challenges they faced as they worked
toward a full-scale regenerative farm. One of the biggest challenges was obtaining land,
but once we obtained land, I think it was more of just getting our footing, you know?
Biggest for me in getting started in regenerative ag, I would say, is the lack
of community. There wasn't a whole lot of models - that we knew of - that were
on display, so that was kind of hard. I think that that's something that encouraged
us to even start The Farmers Concord. We really wanted to be able to put another lens
on sustainable farming and how it's possible, and our plan in terms of developing that program is
to train up-and-coming farmers who want to have an opportunity to be able to intern or learn more
about this, but they don't know where to start. We can always use an extra hand, and we
feel like it could be a mutually beneficial educational platform. We realize the need for
community because... farmers may think they can do everything on their own, but we know that
that's not true. Like, you really do need help and you need community, so whether it's learning
a new skill or borrowing a tractor from somebody, like, you really need this, like, network
of farmers, trailers, whatever it may be. Help with processing, you know.
Like, these are things that I think, in terms of developing The Farmers Concord, it
was like, "Let's, like, kind of band together this, like, network or brotherhood for
farmers to be able to do this together." Other farmers can join us as members, because
we're in the process of developing more processing equipment for, like, poultry, and for farmers
to be able to come and utilize our equipment and learn about processing, because we didn't
have that, right? Outside of just YouTube, we didn't have a farm that said, "Hey, do you need to
learn how to process your birds? Come over here, use this equipment, you can pay a fee, but
this equipment is here for you to use, and, you know, we'll help you find hands to do it."
So that's kind of the heart and the ethos of that. Yeah. With The Farmers Concord, Derrick and Paige
are creating resources to provide guidance, equipment, and fellowship for
new farmers in their community. We asked them to share their most important
advice for aspiring and upcoming farmers. I say, "Start in your backyard."
I think it really just kind of got the wheels turning. It helped us to see
that it is possible, and if you really do want transparency about your food, then
you should just start doing it yourself. I agree with Paige. Yeah, it's - just grow
something. Do something you're - wherever you are. One of the things I tell people...
just, you know, "Know your WHY." We knew what our "why" was. I told Paige
that if we don't farm for anybody else, we're gonna farm for ourselves. I want to provide
healthy food for my kids. That's that's my "why." So at the end of the day, if we have to
close the doors because we just can't do it, or it's just too much, we're going
to always raise food for our family. Right. We made a tagline that said,
"Grass Fed, Raised Right." And I mean, really, that's what it
is. We're raising animals on pasture, the way that we feel it should be done. I
don't bat an eye serving this to my family, because I know what we're raising. I know
how we're raising it, and I think it's good. Thanks for watching us here!
Hopefully it's been inspiring and we've encouraged you to take the next step. If you're east of the Mississippi River and
you're interested in purchasing our products, just visit us at www.grassgrazed.com. You can follow us on Instagram at @grassgrazed, Facebook at @grassgrazed, and
also on YouTube, @Grass Grazed. If you're interested in regenerative farming... Just do it.
