Prairie Bluff Farm - Patterns for Success Steve & Beth Albert
Prairie Bluff Farm - Patterns for Success
Steve & Beth Albert
By Joe Pedretti, Client Services Director
Joel Salatin’s movable pasture pen concept, outlined in his book Pastured Poultry Profits published in 1996, was, and still is, a hugely influential strategy for raising broilers on pasture to reduce labor and input costs. It also taught many how to sell directly to consumers for increased farm profitability. Steve and Beth Albert used the concept to raise broilers on their own 60 acre farm near Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin while raising their children. They had bought the farm in 1992, with plans to start a small organic dairy. Steve, who was not raised on a farm, but who had worked on several dairy farms since the age of 18, had gone to agricultural school at UW-Madison. That, and eventual full-time work as a herdsman for organic dairy farmer Dean Swenson, who was one of the original dairy producers for Organic Valley, sparked his interest in buying and starting his own organic dairy farm. “We started the dairy in 1993 with 20 Jersey cows, but by 1997 we had sold all of them and the last of the heifers. We had some serious equipment and herd health issues, along with my own personal health issues,” noted Steve.
“We kept the farm, but I did remodeling and built cabinets for ten years. During that time we had all sorts of animal adventures, including horses, goats, pigs, peacocks and chickens. By the early 2000s we were raising meat birds. My brother-in-law showed me the Joel Salatin book, and for the next two to three years we raised a few hundred broilers in movable pens. Then we modified the pens to include nest boxes and roosts and tried using them for layers. By 2006 or so, we noticed the growing interest in pastured livestock and pastured products, and also noticed that no one was selling pastored eggs in the local grocery stores. I thought it could be an avenue back into fulltime farming which I missed.
“I experimented with several designs for layers in the summer of 2007 and that next very snowy winter, came up with a new design for a movable layer pen that I could build at scale. I had run my own business for the past ten years, so I was comfortable with the business and customer aspect but getting started was challenging,” shared Steve.
“Buyers wouldn’t commit to buying until you have eggs to sell and it was tough to determine the right scale to begin with. Bulk organic layer feed was a one and a half to two hour drive and it was tough to make that trip every week, so we needed a truck to deliver. At the time we needed about 2000 hens to make bulk deliveries economically viable with no sure market for the eggs.”
“Pricing our eggs was also tricky. We knew we wanted to control our price. That was important if we had a shot. We also knew we wanted to sell directly and locally. We bought an old refrigerated sprinter van, put on signage and launched our new business- Pasture Pattern Eggs. We named it that for the patterns the movable pens leave in the pasture as they move across the field. We did anything we could to promote. We visited stores. We left leaflets. We were always searching for potential customers. The small town groceries were the first to open up a spot on the shelf. Carl Miller of Miller and Sons Supermarket in Verona, was very supportive of local producers. That led to more local grocery stores like Bill’s, (now HyVee), Piggly Wiggly and then The Willy Street Cooperative. We also started selling to restaurants, bakeries, CSA farms and developed neighborhood drop off locations. At first, it was just surviving day to day, then month to month and eventually year to year. I learned from a farmer who was from a multi-generational farm, that through difficult and good times it helps to tell yourself ‘this is what I do’. Don’t question the decision to do it, just try and solve problems and move forward.
“We buy in about 1500 pullets annually, and each flock has about a two month overlap. We try to have them arrive in May. There have been disruptions in availability in recent years, and sometimes I could only get the new birds in March, which meant more difficult weather. We used to raise pullets ourselves but it was too expensive and we don’t have the best facility for it. We try to keep the birds out on pasture until November, but the weather affects that decision.”
“Our pens have steel pipe frames with wire mesh and fabric covers. There are roosts and nest boxes built into each pen. We fill the feeders by hand each day, and run water lines out to the field to fill our waterers. Each pen has an electric wire around the base (4” off the ground) to deter predators from digging under. Each pen houses 75 hens, but we will reduce that to 60 soon to comply with the new poultry requirements. We move our pens through two larger fields, each one about 11-12 acres, and we move the pens every other day with a skidsteer. It takes us about 20 minutes to move the pens and another 25 minutes to collect ground eggs and check the pens. We tried solar fencing, but have had better luck running a line out to the pens and use a high powered fencer. We have adapted the system to keep the predators out rather than get rid of the predators. Each pen also has a light to extend the day to 16 hours of light (used to November) ,” said Steve.
“A normal day starts at 6:00AM when we open up the nest boxes and feed and water the hens. That takes about an hour. Then we come back in and wash the previous day’s eggs. That takes about an hour and a half. Then we usually have breakfast. Then we pack eggs for an hour and a half, and then collect the new eggs at 11AM, which also takes about an hour and a half. We close up the nest boxes about 30 minutes before sunset.” (Time frames are for one person)
“We sold our tractors. We just use two electric carts and a skid steer. We do most everything by hand. Our neighbor custom bales our hay for us. We use the hay as bedding during the winter when the hens move to the hoophouses. We have three passive solar hoophouses with large outdoor pasture areas for our winter housing.”
“We wash and pack about 1350-1400 eggs per day. After washing and grading, they go into our cartons and into the cooler. Our cartons highlight our product name ‘Pasture Patterns’ and our farm story in pictures. Beth delivers to our customers over two delivery days. We sell about one third of our eggs to bakeries/restaurants, one third to retail customers and the last third to CSA farms and our own customers. We deliver year round. During Covid, restaurant sales went down, but our grocery sales went up, so it balanced out. We had our first retail sales in 2007 and 19 years later we are still using the same process,” noted Steve.
“It’s good to have different markets. A diversified customer base has been really important to us. If possible, I recommend that new farmers build up incrementally but economies of scale are real and can make that difficult. Think about your core beliefs. I knew that I didn’t want to work in a warehouse full of birds but hoped to build a system that was healthy for the hens, the eggs they produced and for us. Our process can still be improved, but that’s what keeps it interesting.”
To learn more about Prairie Bluff Farm, and Pasture Patterns Eggs, visit Steve and Beth’s website: Prairie Bluff Farm
To learn even more about Prairie Bluff Farm, plan to attend the Marbleseed Field Day at the farm, scheduled for October 8: Marbleseed Events