Bow Creek Farm - Red Angus Beef & Cattle

09/02/2026

Wildlife Wednesday 🦅

Amy took these photos in one of our fields at the home farm on October 3, 2016. At the time, we were amazed.

We have both lived here our entire lives, and neither of us remembers seeing a bald eagle around Bow Creek when we were growing up. Even in 2016, having two of them land in one of our fields was something worth grabbing the camera for.

Today, things are very different. We probably see bald eagles around the farm nearly every week.

Our experience actually follows one of Pennsylvania's great wildlife recovery stories. As recently as 1980, Pennsylvania had only three known nesting pairs of bald eagles. In the 1980s, the Pennsylvania Game Commission began a restoration program that included releasing young eagles at Haldeman Island on the Susquehanna River, right here in Dauphin County.

The recovery since then has been remarkable.

Something that was virtually absent from our landscape when we were kids has become a regular sight on the farm today.

That's a pretty remarkable change to witness in one lifetime.

09/01/2026

Sometimes the most economical way to harvest a field is to let the cows do it.

We took around two tons/acre of first-cutting hay off this field in June. After receiving some much-needed rain, it has grown back with plenty of high-quality grass. Saturday evening, we turned the cows onto it for the first time this year.

At this point in the season, allowing the cows to harvest the regrowth themselves makes more economic sense than taking another cutting. Now we’re hoping for a little more rain to keep the grass growing—and some good haymaking weather, because we still have quite a bit of hay to bale at other locations.

08/26/2026

Wildlife Wednesday — Meet Hoot 🦉

Back in May 2023, my mom was cutting grass when she spotted this little screech owl just before she could have run over him! He was about the size of a 12 oz can.

We watched him for several hours, hoping a parent would return. As evening approached, he was cold, so we eventually brought him inside and warmed him up.

We searched the area for a tree or nest he might have fallen from but couldn't find anything obvious. For the next two days, we took him back to the exact spot where he was found, hoping his mother would come looking for him. We played screech owl calls. No luck.

So for a few days, until we found Red Creek Wildlife Center(donations welcomed), “Hoot” became part of the Bow Creek Farm family. We even made a trip to the pet store for frozen mice. 😳

We never learned exactly what happened after that, but we'd like to think Hoot eventually made his way back into the wild.

Just another unexpected encounter with the wildlife that shares the farm with us.

08/24/2026

Sunday morning, we spent some time freeze-branding a group of yearling bulls and heifers.

We might not worry too much about rustlers or brand inspections here in Pennsylvania, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want our Red Angus cattle carrying our identity.

Freeze branding is a little different from the traditional hot-iron branding many people picture. We use dry ice and alcohol to super-cool the branding irons. Instead of burning the hide, the extreme cold affects the pigment-producing cells in the hair follicles, causing the hair to eventually grow back white and leave a permanent, highly visible identification.

Since 2020, we’ve spent a tremendous amount of time and energy building and servicing the beef side of our business. Along the way, we never stopped breeding cattle or artificially inseminating our cows, but our focus was pulled in a lot of different directions.

Now, with our daughter back home from college, we’re excited to put some additional focus back on the breeding side of the operation.

We’ve continued using AI over the past several years, and this year we’re getting back into flushing embryos and putting even more emphasis on the genetics behind our herd.

For us, the goal is pretty simple: keep raising the bar on the Red Angus cattle we produce.

And make sure they’re easy to recognize when we do.

08/19/2026

🐻 Wildlife Wednesday — From the Archives

I was cutting hay when I looked across the field and thought somebody’s steer had gotten loose.

Then I realized…it was a black bear.

This video is from September 2016 at our Grantville farm, and it was the first bear I had ever seen in the wild. Of all the places I thought I might see my first bear, I certainly never expected it to be while cutting hay on one of our own farms.

What struck me then—and still does watching the video today—was how effortlessly this animal moved. For perspective, the driveway you see it cross is 13 feet wide. Watch how quickly it covers that distance.

And toward the end, it stops and looks back at me. I think we were both trying to figure out exactly what the other one was doing there!

Ten years later, it’s still one of the most memorable wildlife encounters we’ve had at Bow Creek.

08/17/2026

We wish we didn’t have firsthand experience with this one.

This week, Lancaster Farming featured Bow Creek Farm in an article about the growing threat of the Asian Longhorned tick and Theileria to Pennsylvania cattle producers.

Last year, we experienced the worst pregnancy rates we’ve ever seen in our herd. Rather than simply accepting it as a bad year, we worked with our veterinarian, Penn State Extension, and other animal-health professionals to investigate what happened. Testing ultimately confirmed Theileria orientalis in our cattle.

There are still a lot of questions about this emerging disease, its long-term effects and how best to manage it. That’s why we believe it’s important to be involved—working with veterinarians, researchers and the broader cattle industry, while openly sharing what we learn.

For Amy and me, that’s part of responsible cattle production. We want to understand the science behind the challenges affecting our animals and our industry—and use that knowledge to continually make better decisions here at Bow Creek.

We appreciate Lancaster Farming taking the time to visit our farm and bring attention to an issue that could have significant implications for cattle producers across Pennsylvania and the East.

If sharing our experience helps another producer ask the right question a little sooner, it’s worth talking about.

Ranchers across Pennsylvania and beyond face a new tick-borne illness researchers say will be an eventuality for U.S. cattle.

08/16/2026

After a Saturday morning of selling beef at the farm store, Saturday evening was spent moving cows and calves to greener pastures.

They haven’t been in this particular field for a little over a month. We try to give our pastures plenty of time to rest and regrow between grazing, but the lack of rain is starting to slow down new grass growth.

For now, there’s still some pretty nice grass waiting for them.

Hopefully Mother Nature sends us a little rain and we can keep rotating pastures without having to start feeding hay just yet. Fingers crossed! 🤞🌧️🐂

08/14/2026

Would you eat this?

We’re introducing something new at Bow Creek Farm this weekend — Vital Blend Ground Beef.

It’s 90% ground beef and 10% organ meat — beef heart and beef liver.

The idea is pretty simple: incorporate a small amount of organ meat into something familiar and easy to use. Cook it much like you would regular ground beef — burgers, tacos, meatballs, meatloaf, chili and more.

We’re curious what you think: Would you give it a try? And if you already cook with heart or liver, tell us how you use it.

Vital Blend Ground Beef — $9.00/lb.
Available for the first time this weekend at Bow Creek Farm.

📍 Hershey, PA
🕘 Saturday 9 AM–1 PM

Have a great weekend,
Rob & Amy Hess

08/12/2026

Wildlife Wednesday — From Bow Creek to the Chesapeake Bay 🦀

This week's Wildlife Wednesday comes from St. Michaels, Maryland, where we spotted this awesome blue crab — along with plenty of little fish — right along the shoreline of the Chesapeake Bay.

Seeing them was also a great reminder that what we do on our farm in Pennsylvania ultimately matters downstream.

Over the past three years, through USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service EQIP and CSP and Pennsylvania's ACAP program, we've voluntarily implemented a number of conservation practices at Bow Creek Farm — including riparian buffers, streambank fencing, a grazing plan, an animal heavy-use area, a voluntary nutrient management plan, manure storage, and keeping areas adjoining Bow Creek and Swatara Creek in permanent grassland.

All of these practices help keep soil and nutrients on the farm and out of our waterways.

It's easy to think about conservation in terms of the acres immediately around us. But we're all connected by the same watershed, and eventually much of that water makes its way to the Chesapeake Bay.

Seeing the Bay up close — and some of the wildlife that calls it home — was a pretty neat reminder of why that work matters.

Wildlife Wednesday from St. Michaels, Maryland. 🦀