The Wildroost Farm

The Wildroost Farm Join us for good food and a good life, for the people.

We're 6th generation farmers raising grass finished beef from birth to butcher, pasture raised turkeys and chickens, and some cowkids on our little plot of Northwest Iowa land.

06/08/2026

Anything's possible. 🌝 
 
 
 
Our beefs, the ones that'll be harvested this year, are listening to Seth's call and moving from a paddock they grazed to a new, rested one and the little boys are blocking the driveway so they don't attempt a graze at the house.

Processing + Take Home 🥩   When we began butchering cows and chickens we raised ourselves, I remember searching everywhe...
05/30/2026

Processing + Take Home 🥩  
 
When we began butchering cows and chickens we raised ourselves, I remember searching everywhere online, in books and poems, essays, archives, blogs--for the right little lines that validated and defended and wrapped up morally and scientifically why this was okay and good and worth.  
 
I giggle at that a little now, not with my nose high, but how badly I wanted to be right about being alive and deeply disconnected I was from Life.  
 
The beauty of an ending's inherent tragedy is that, in this case, we have a say in how that animal lived and animaled and how that animal came to pass. This is where our vote as farmers and your vote as consumers play. It's not so much about picking the so-called and ever-changing better producer or even product, it's about knowing that animal lived well and was treated with integrity, in all phases.  
 
This is why, too, it's always been one of the greatest gifts that we can work and trust our local processors or butchers. We've worked closely with for the past few years. They're young and hungry and care deeply about seeing farmers' hard work brought home to families right here.  
 
If you're unsure about the commitment or bigness of a share or jumping ship from the stores, let us walk you through it. Let's continue to build a home and future our kids want to stay for.

05/22/2026

Phase 3: Weaning + Finishing or Breed Back 🌱 
 
This is the longest and most varied of the stages for our beef. A lot of time and management (and feed!) goes here to produce a healthy, hearty and desirable two year old.  
 
Our calves stay with their mom, nursing, until they're 10-11 months old. Then we wean. To some that may be outrageously old to keep a calf with their mom, but for us, it's been a low-stress, strategic weaning. Calves are naturally drinking much less milk from their mom and are ready to forage on their own and endure the adjustment of building their own herds. When we wean, we utilize fence line weaning to reduce stress for both. This simply means Mom and Calf are separated by a fence so they can still interact, see and hear each other.  
 
A few months after weaning, depending largely on our pasture forage, these "weanlings" who are about 1 are moved to their own pasture to graze and put on pounds and health. (This is usually a wilder, freer bunch, picture a pile of teenagers set free on the town slugging down whatever energy drinks are cool now with no curfew, ones that always make us wish we were better with a horse. 😜)  
 
At this point, we still have our steers and heifers together. Our one-year-old steers are our bull calves who've been castrated and are now intended for beef and our one-year-old heifers are the females who have not calved and could be kept here to be bred as 2 year olds. These gals are auditioning, essentially!  
 
After a season of grazing, these one 1.5 year olds return home for the winter. They eat then hay and other dried forage, minerals and salt, and drink lots. They continue on as cattle naturally do: eating, chewing their cud, butting heads, kicking up when a gate opens or Seth rolls in with a bale.... content and building.  
 
Continued in the comments. 😝

05/15/2026

Phase 2: Calving ♥️
 
Calving is ordinary and usual, wild and magical, it will make you run in circles and wake up in the middle of night and coax and fuss and pray and, ironically, it's the one piece of cattling that keeps you sane.  
 
Everything makes sense, any longing you once had flees at the sight of a freshie, dry and clean and full bellied, on the ground with an attentive mother tracking your every move.  
 
In this phase of beef, our goals remain the same: low-stress and encouragement of Nature's way. We step back, intervene and interrupt as little as possible, and create conditions that are as favorable as possible for a healthy cow and calf.  
 
As we get closer to calving, March and April, we keep their yards extra dry and clean so there are clean and warm spaces for cows to calve. A wet, cold, or dirty calf or cow spirals quickly. We make sure the indoor calving pen in our barn is ready. We put cows and calves in here who need less distraction to bond and latch, as well as fresh ones if the night will be too cold or wet. We ensure our hay, dried forage, and mineral is spot on to fill in needs and increased energy demands.  
 
Then when we're real close we begin looking at our cows and heifers for signs of soon calving: 
* sitting away from the herd 
* raised tail 
* big and wide open gate in her walk  
* soft or loose or swollen v***a  
* full, firm udder  
 
When we see a calf we watch closely to see that mom is close, licking and cleaning it off until it's entirely dry and fluffy. We watch that she's nudging it to stand and drink. Colostrum from Mom in the first 2 hours is imperative to long term health and growth for the calf. Calves can walk and even hop around in the first hour of birth!  
 
The insanity! 
The beauty!  
 
We calved our largest crop this year and we had an overwhelming number of bull calves. These will be our beefs in two years. The few heifers, as long as they're calm and have good body scores, will be kept to be bred.  
 
Life, interconnected goes on.🌀

Beef at the Roost, Phase 1: Breeding   Happy first Friday of Beef Month! Let's talk breeding here. Because all good thin...
05/08/2026

Beef at the Roost, Phase 1: Breeding  
 
Happy first Friday of Beef Month! Let's talk breeding here. Because all good things start with an able big boy and his muse. ✨
 
We have a few moderate-framed, angus bulls that are the basis for our beef. Their genetic input is, IMO, the most important. It's thought that much of your calving outcome can be predicted in him.  
 
Each of our bulls or sires have certain strengths that contribute something valuable to our herd. By the time a bull is 2 to 3, they can service 25-35 cows. They're in their prime in doing so for a couple of years. One of our sires, our largest and most mature, is reliable and calm and brings nice size to our herd. This is our red angus, Gus. 
 
Our other two bulls we will use this year are just 2. They have yet to be named.... Randy, Andy, Brody, Dragon Slayer are all name contenders. 😜 
 
One stands a bit shorter than the others and weighs less too. He will service our heifers (never had a calf) and smallest framed cows (have had 2+ calves). The other is a stalky, chonky boy and we hope he will "knock off some legs and add some weight" to our herd. He will service another herd of cows.  
 
On June 1 we turn our bulls out, assigning each a herd of ready cows or heifers. Gestation for most beef cows is 283 days. A June 1 turn out ideally lands us calving in March and April. We choose to calve then because Seth has on off-farm, full time erosion control business and March and April tend to be slower there so he can be more present with calving.  
 
We've chosen our specific bulls for such a range of reasons, but one that can't be understated is their temperament. We want docile and calm. Not just for ease and safety in handling them but also they bring this genetically to their calves.  
 
Mimicking and encouraging nature's way and low stress are our two biggest goals for our program.  
 
 
 
See our stories for more on our bulls!

05/06/2026

Each Friday of May, Beef Month, we'll share a bit about how a phase of a beef's life goes here. We raise moderate-framed grassfed and finished angus from bull to butcher! Seeing the whole cycle has been an unexpected, necessary joy for us all and grounded us in community and nature's cycles.

We hope it gives you an honest look into how beef gets to your plate and a producer and consumer's impact on their locality and its future.

We'll also host a giveaway during this time so stay tuned and follow along!

LONG LIVE (local) BEEF. 🥩

As our herd grows, our options for you are too. ✨As usual, we're offering our select, once-a-year beef shares this summe...
04/30/2026

As our herd grows, our options for you are too. ✨

As usual, we're offering our select, once-a-year beef shares this summer (quarter, halves, and wholes) custom cut to your needs at the best local processors. 🥩

AND we have big hopes for offering other proteins, new-to-you finished beef products, and a range of other buying options for those with limited storage! 🍗

Join our email list from the comments below to be the first to hear about new products, farming updates, recipes, and our family's livestocking. 💛

You could Or you could Wipe out your sink Take your bra offDraw a bath Trace the lines of your baby's chinBe here And fa...
04/14/2026

You could

Or you could
Wipe out your sink
Take your bra off
Draw a bath
Trace the lines of your baby's chin

Be here

And fall

In Love

We have happy eggs available! We get to Sioux Center regularly, are always open to pick ups here at the farm (Boyden), a...
04/02/2026

We have happy eggs available!

We get to Sioux Center regularly, are always open to pick ups here at the farm (Boyden), and are open to meeting up too.

FB message or text me at 7124415507.

$5/dozen

Inevitably, when spring begins to show, I have to press my winter's dreams, you know, see what they're made of. So I tak...
03/25/2026

Inevitably, when spring begins to show, I have to press my winter's dreams, you know, see what they're made of. So I take the drill out, shake out the rugs, change the barn's windows, muck the stalls, wander around the grove completely mystified how the children and wind, very similar really, relocated this and that.

It's like stepping off the airplane with four kids in tow and one too many suitcases into the old and jumbled Key West airport.
Take my hand, don't leave my side, NO SNACKS, head down, to the car! Focus on getting out of here alive and then fun things.

We dissemble the brooder, maybe for the fourth year in a row, and make an improvement dreamt up in my little mind during a sit at the coffee shop. We tighten up the chicken tractor with the newest solution to outsmart raccoon desires. We stack wood, for the first time, anxious to see how the new wood stove rolls. We tidy up and redecorate the milking room with fun winter thrifts. We build a fairy door to cover the hole the cats won't keep from.

Head down, to the car, we're having fun now, sure. But anticipating too, the fun the woken pastures and warmth bring to the farm.

Welcome to spring on The Wildroost, where nothing is safe from Winter's dreams.

Address

3481 Kennedy Avenue
Boyden, IA
51234

Telephone

+17124415507

Website

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