About Us
We started this journey with a few chickens for ourselves, and fell in love with the ability to control where our food comes from and the act of farming itself. Since then, our operation has expanded greatly. We now do multiple batches of White Rock chicken, Heritage pork, and have our own breeding operation for our Katahdin/Dorper sheep for lamb.
We like to say our food is ‘beyond organic’ (thanks Joel Salatin), because organic feed doesn’t mean much. There is more to be said in creating a nutrient dense product that can regenerate the soil. Beyond organic to us means that we practice regenerative agriculture. Regenerative agriculture methods build top soil, sequester carbon, and create polycultures.
We do this through holistic grazing, which simply means that we rotate our animals constantly! By rotating them, this allows the manure to be spread, their grazing to be maximized, and for the pasture to regrow naturally – which sequesters carbon, builds top soils, and remineralizes the soil.
There are no shortcuts at Sage & Shepherd Ranch. We aim to be as transparent as possible, and want to answer all of your questions! We love to keep a meaningful, honest, and quality relationship with our customers. You should have the whole picture behind the food that you put in your body. We raise happy and healthy animals, 100% guaranteed.
Eating meat that is raised in a regenerative manner is super healthy for you! We hope that you will put the same passion and responsibility in deciding what food you eat as we do raising it for you.
Our Guiding Principles
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Pasture Based
Our animals are consistently moved to new pasture or forest. This keeps our animals happy, reduces the parasite load, and allows the grass to get ample regeneration time.
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Nutrient Dense
Animals that consume what they were made to eat (grass and other natural forages) are richer in omega 3 fatty acids, beta-carotene, vitamin b6 and CLA (conjugated linolic acid).
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Beyond Organic
Our poultry and pigs are fed a supplemental non-gmo, soy-free feed. Our sheep are 100% grass fed and finished. All our products are hormone and antibiotic free!
100% Grass Fed & Finished Lamb
Our Katahdin/Dorper flock is fed and finished on 100% grass and is organic! In the winter they are fed chemical and acid free hay. Grass fed and rotated sheep are more happy and parasite resistant, they are rotated in mobile electric netting weekly. We use a leader follow system - the chickens follow the sheep to spread the sheep manure and eat fly larvae, which keeps the fly strike down for the sheep and grows lush pasture. We also feed our sheep a custom free choice mineral lick that keeps them healthy and remineralizes the soil. They are hormone and antibiotic free.
Heritage Pasture Raised Pork
Our heritage Berkshire cross pigs are quite the workers! They are rotated in electric net throughout our pasture. They till up the ground for grubs, worms, roots and whatever else they can find. Our pigs are so happy outside as they find leaves, roots, bugs, grasses, legumes, weeds, nuts, grubs, etc. We even feed them leftover eggs from our layers and food scraps. They are also fed a supplemental non-gmo feed that is soy-free, and are hormone and antibiotic free.
Pasture Raised Chicken
Our Cornish cross chickens are raised on pasture the majority of their life. We get them as day-olds and they live in the brooder for two to three weeks, until they are brought out to pasture. They are then moved every 2-3 days to new pasture. We keep them in mobile electric netting which keeps them in and keeps predators out. They get 20% of their diet from foraging the pasture which includes grass, bugs, legumes, worms, frogs, etc. whatever they can find. Birds are omnivores, after all! The rest of their food comes from a supplemental non-gmo, soy-free feed. They are hormone and antibiotic free.
100% Grass Fed & Finished Beef from Fishburn Ranch
Beef from Fishburn Ranch, Pincher Creek
"Our regenerative grazing plan has our cattle eating a wide variety of plants when they are at their best stage of nutrition and growth. Our cattle are chosen based on their ability to stay fat naturally in the grassland environment they live in. They are grass-fed and grass-finsihed and organic. They are hormone and antibiotic free. There is a difference. The results are amazing and we can't wait to share them with you." - Casey & Jacklyn
100% Grass Fed & Finished Beef - 21 Day Dry Aged
Beef from Cowboy Meats, Pincher Creek.
"Our cattle is a Black Angus herd who live on the ranch in Pincher Creek, Alberta; roaming freely in mountain passes and grazing prairie grasses. Our ranching methods and beliefs help to preserve and protect the land and respect the animals from birth through processing. We continually seek to improve our soils through rotational grazing so we can pursue this ranching lifestyle for not only ourselves, but our children." - The Peters