Raising turkeys on the farm has been one of the most stressful, yet rewarding parts of our farm system. Why did we even start raising turkeys? It made sense after we became familiar raising chickens alongside our pigs and cattle. The equipment is similar, the pasture needs are similar, and turkeys bring their own benefits to the land.
But beyond the challenges, there are so many things we love about raising these birds. They really are majestic out on pasture, strutting around with a presence that demands attention. Our farm dog Tig fits right in with them, almost like they’ve accepted him as part of their flock. And even better, is the sound of their chatter. When bellowing out your best turkey call, they almost always gaggle back a chorus that immediately sparks joy.
Out on pasture, the turkeys live the way they are designed. They forage for bugs, grasses, and all sorts of little critters of the land, and finish their long playful days by roosting safely at night. This year, we turned old hay wagons into their nighttime perch, which doubles as their automatic watering system. It’s been one of those simple, but brilliant solutions that makes farm life a little smoother.
Of course, there are still challenges. Turkeys are seasonal, we start in July and finish just in time for Thanksgiving. Because we pre-sell them, every single bird matters. If something unexpected hits, like storms or illness, it isn’t just our farm’s loss. It means families counting on our birds might be left without their Thanksgiving centerpiece from our farm, and that weighs heavy on us.
Processing has been another hurdle. In southwest Michigan, there are only a couple USDA-inspected turkey processors within 200 miles. Last year, our scheduled plant sold just before harvest, and the place that stepped in didn’t meet our standards. Some birds came back with feathers not fully removed; it was definitely not what we wanted you dealing with before your big feast. We were so grateful for the grace and stories shared as we worked through it all.
This year, we’ve made changes to lower the stress and raise the quality. We’re raising smaller groups of turkeys staggered throughout the growing season, which has made a huge difference - less fighting, healthier birds, and fewer losses. It also means we can haul them ourselves in livestock trailers, no semis required. And best of all, we’re back with a trusted processor we know will handle our birds with care.
It’s not always easy raising turkeys, but when we step back and watch them out on the land gobbling, foraging, roosting at night - we are thankful. And it reminds us of how much it means to you to feel a connection to the land, and to honor it by sharing a feast with your closest family and friends on Thanksgiving. That makes it all worth it.
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Earlier this month, we welcomed the Cass County Historical Society to our farm for their September event and meeting. We gathered together to talk about the history of our farm, seven generations of agriculture, and all the ways farming has changed along the way. Then we loaded everyone onto hay wagons and headed out to see what farming here looks like today.
It was an evening about history, but the conversation felt just as relevant to the future. Because the story of how agriculture has changed is also part of the story of how we all buy food today.
Walk through a grocery store and there are plenty of labels trying to help you decide what to buy. Natural. Local. Grass-fed. Pasture-raised. Sustainable. Premium. You can spend a lot of time reading packages and researching claims and still wonder what any of it actually looked like on the farm. That's one reason we believe knowing where your food comes from, and knowing the people who raised it, matters.
Our Farm Changed, Too
Generations ago, farms in this area were diversified because they needed to be. Livestock, crops, gardens and families existed together on the same piece of ground. Animals provided fertility for the soil, crops fed animals and people, and farms relied heavily on what they could produce themselves and on the communities surrounding them.
As agriculture changed, farms became larger and more specialized. Livestock increasingly moved into confinement, and farmers became more dependent on commodity systems where they could be very efficient at raising something while having very little control over what they were paid for it.
Our family lived that story. We raised hogs in confinement and sold into the commodity market. When hog prices collapsed in the late 1990s, our family had to take a hard look at whether that system could provide a future for our farm. Instead of getting bigger, we eventually chose a different direction: downsizing, diversifying and getting closer to the people actually eating the food we raised.
Animals moved back outside. Pigs returned to pastures and woodlands. Cattle and sheep became part of our grazing system. Chickens and turkeys moved across pasture. We began thinking more intentionally about the relationship between soil, plants, animals and people, while building our own market to sell our food directly to you.
What Does That Have to Do With Your Dinner?
Quite a bit, actually.
If you're trying to feed your family well, there's an overwhelming amount of information telling you what you should and shouldn't buy. One of the things a direct relationship with a farmer can offer is something much simpler: a source you can actually know.
You can ask us what our pigs eat, how our cattle are raised, where our animals are processed or why we make a particular farming decision. You can visit the farm, see our animals and pastures, meet our family and employees, and follow along throughout the year. When you have questions, there's a real person on the other side of them.
To us, that's one of the most valuable things about local food. "Local" shouldn't only mean that something traveled fewer miles. It can also mean accountability, transparency and a relationship with the people responsible for raising your food.
We Aren't Trying to Farm in the Past
After our talk, we headed outside to see some of these ideas in practice. We talked about grazing, livestock, soil and pasture, and we visited some baby pigs that held everyone's attention more than any story we could tell.
Some of what we do today probably looks familiar to farmers from generations ago, but we're not trying to recreate the past. We use electric fencing, portable watering systems, tractors, refrigeration, USDA-inspected processing, delivery trucks, inventory software and online ordering. We're combining principles that have worked for generations with the tools and knowledge available to us today.
That's part of agriculture. Farmers have to adapt.
The question for us isn't how to make farming look like it did 100 years ago. It's how to take care of our land, raise animals well, produce really great food and build a farm economically strong enough to still be here 100 years from now.
Strong Farms. Strong Communities.
There's a lot of conversation about supporting the American farmer. When you choose to buy directly from us, you help create a market for farmers who want to do things differently. Those dollars help keep farmland in regenerative agriculture, employ local people, support processors and other small businesses. You help build strong communities, and maybe even more importantly with the average age of the American farmer on the rise each year, you give another generation a reason to believe farming can still provide a living.
A Strong farm gives you an option. One that you trust to nourish you well. One that you trust to provide food that tastes incredible. One that you trust will consistently serve you. One that you trust to take care of the animals and land with respect.
A strong farm gives its community a better way to feed itself, and a strong community gives its farms enough support to keep farming.
Seven generations ago, our family couldn't have imagined what this farm would look like in 2026. We can't know what it will look like seven generations from now either. But we hope the people living here will still have the choice to know where some of their food comes from, to ask questions about how it was raised, and to know the farmer responsible for raising it.
Thank you to the Cass County Historical Society for giving us an opportunity to look back at where agriculture has been and think about where it's headed. And thank you to every one of you who chooses to be part of what comes next.
Strong Farms. Strong Communities.Real Food. Rooted Living.
Renee & the Jake's Country Meats family
There has been a lot of beef in the news lately. Beef prices are high, cattle numbers are low, and now there is talk about bringing in more imported beef at a discount to help combat prices for consumers. Then, almost in the same breath, there are announcements aimed at helping American farmers and ranchers by addressing some of the processing and market-access challenges we face. Despite what feels like whiplash, anything in the news today - will take it's effect on American farmers overtime, and the outcomes of these decisions will all be determined in due time. So what do these current events mean for our small family farm? And what can you actually do to help American farmers?
That’s exactly what my parents instilled in us kids growing up on the farm, among many other things. But this one…this one really stuck with me. And I bought into it a little too far, I’ll admit some days, and created a job with responsibility much bigger than I ever dreamed.
