We’ve all heard of growing veggies, but growing a business? Both Donna O’Shaughnessy & Keith Parish of South Pork Ranch and Kevin Kilgus of Living Waters Farm have certainly done that - they have grown their farm businesses from small start-ups to thriving enterprises focused on sustainability: economically, socially, and environmentally.
Our farm field day on July 13th for 30 participants began at Living Waters Farm, where hydroponic greens production was featured. We then traveled to South Pork Ranch, where they raise organic Red Waddle hogs and also beef, have a farm store, and sell raw milk. One point taken away by many participants was the scale of these enterprises, both in space, infrastructure, and with human resources.
Living Waters Farm has a very small footprint when it comes to space (around 1 acre), devoted to their greenhouses and operations building, where South Pork Ranch is situated on 51 acres of mainly pasture, where they graze their animals. Both enterprises require quite a bit of infrastructure: but different types.
Living Waters Farm started out with one greenhouse where they grew all their products and an office over Kevin’s garage. South Pork Ranch has many barns, a farm store, and a variety of different structures in which they raise their animals.
Living Waters Farm now has a few full-time and many part-time employees and South Pork Ranch is primarily operated by Keith and Donna, both working full-time (and more than full-time too!!).
Each of these farms started off small and have grown into successful sustainable farm businesses - a point well taken by many of the participants who were new to farming!
South Pork Ranch Website: http://www.south-pork-ranch.com/
Living Waters Website: http://livingwaterfarms.com/
