Unbuttoned Farms

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Unbuttoned Farms A multigenerational farm in Holland, MI, raising Dexter Cattle while offering our community opportunities for food, connection, play and healing.

It’s full swing on projects-although I don’t know if we really ever ‘swing partially’-it seems to always be busy.Ray is ...
10/13/2026

It’s full swing on projects-although I don’t know if we really ever ‘swing partially’-it seems to always be busy.

Ray is working almost all day on any reasonably nice weather days on the fence. This area becomes our bull and cow/calf area in the winters, but this was a massive project that involved building a bud box working area, designing and building a chute, a new manger, cleaning out several major areas of the barn and pastures, moving a big metal structure, changing the rotations of the cattle, fence and gate and wood purchases, putting in millings for a driveway, hauling dirt and stones and rocks.

Hadleigh has been wanting the round pen for horseback riding and her and dad finished that up last week. Both of us want to make her a sign for in the round pen, but otherwise it’s done and she did her first solo ride on Petey in there this week.

Grandpa ran Hay-wagon rides this weekend at Ruthann and Paul’s incredible harvest party-so grateful to have gone to this with our family, it was the best. Thinking about asking if I can use the hay wagon for upcoming family photo sessions.

Anyways! I’m so so excited to see this become a functional working space for our cattle. We’re growing! We need this space to make everyone’s life happier and easier.

That’s a short update for now, more later. 🙂

10/13/2026

So often people ask what they can do to help and we don’t have a lot to offer right now for hands on oppportunities. Truth is, most tasks where we add an extra person make more work for us!

However, when Phil offered to put in the culvert for us so that we could stay focused on the fencing project for the winter pasture, it wasn’t hard to take him up on it! We are so grateful to have this project completed for now before the permit expired from the township/city or whoever. Thank you again to John for the culvert-it helped us out big time and we are so grateful for the deal we all worked out.

10/13/2026

Lilly said “no thanks”. Another day of moving the cows from the horse pasture into the summer pasture-better forage is over there-clover and such. We let them fill up in the morning with regular pasture and hay before we rotate and we pick them up again at sundown to bring them back. They seem to know the routine, although there are always stragglers-this time Lilly who couldn’t be bribed with any treatos.

10/12/2026

Moving cattle at Unbuttoned Farms in holland Michigan tonight. They’re moving from the summer pasture to their evening pasture. Suddenly they all want to try and eat the sorghum.

Are you selling beef or not?The answer is yes. And no. 😂Amanda here and this one is a long read with a survey at the end...
10/10/2026

Are you selling beef or not?

The answer is yes. And no. 😂

Amanda here and this one is a long read with a survey at the end.

If you are local family or friends who ask us about beef-I hope this is easier to read than have me try to explain, I think?

The Longhorns were really our introduction into beef. We had 3 families get a 1/2 cow from us, all processed through Earl's Meats.

(WE are SO SO GRATEFUL TO THEM!)

Then we had a whole bunch of people start asking about beef after they heard from those families or tried it themselves.
And wow. We did not expect the interest.

But this is probably where our social media gets a little confusing, so let me explain what we're actually doing.

We didn't stick with Longhorns.

We loved them.

I would happily have Longhorns forever. I loved the personalities of Skittles and Snickers SO much.

The horns are beautiful, they serve a purpose, and they help with temperature regulation. But... they're a bigger cow, they're leaner, and the horns are honestly a pain for OUR specific working area, chutes and barn setup.

So we realized that a smaller breed is a better fit for how we work.

Instead of continuing to buy steers to raise out for beef, we decided to build a herd last April.

We bought our starter cows (Uno, Izzy and Irma) from Tracy and then added Josie from Matt.

now we're really figuring out what our herd is going to look like and being intentional about which animals are breeding stock and which animals are food.

That also means we're trying to be intentional about herd health.

Our plan is to appropriately vaccinate our breeding bull and breeding cows, while avoiding vaccination of animals that are already designated for the freezer and aren't going to be retained as breeding stock.

Different animals have different jobs here, and we're trying to make decisions accordingly.

So where does that leave us with beef?

Ray and I have some pretty specific things we want when it comes to our own food. We don't really want to be buying steers born on other farms to finish. BUTTTT we did this year because we wanted to make sure our family has beef in 2027.

That is Nicholas (also from Matt-Josie’s son, born last winter) and you can see him at our corner pasture.

One Dexter is smaller than a Longhorn, so basically all of Nicholas will be our family's beef.

Which means we aren't currently raising a steer for someone else.

Now, that could change pretty quickly depending on what happens with the calves.

If Josie has a boy, we'll see what he looks like, including whether he has chondrodysplasia. If she has a he is, he's probably food. If she has a “she”, then that's a whole other story. 😀
In spring 2027, Irma and Izzy may have babies. If either has a boy, we'll let him grow a bit and figure out if he's a bull prospect or food.

Any steers born here will go first to the 3 families who originally bought our Longhorn beef. If they don't need one, we'd likely sell the steer to another family who wants to raise their own beef on their own farm.

So no, we are very clearly NOT a big meat operation.
And we really don't want friends and neighbors depending on us for their beef. We don't want someone thinking, "Oh, we'll just get our beef from Unbuttoned Farms next year" and then we don't have any.

BUT...

Wow at the demand.

The interest in beef from Unbuttoned Farms has honestly made us think a lot more about what we want to raise, how we want to raise it, and what makes sense for our farm.

So if you've been asking about beef, we'd love for you to fill out this form.

It does NOT reserve beef. It does not mean you're guaranteed beef. We're not taking deposits. We just want to get a better idea of how many people are actually interested in a 1/2 Dexter beef share from us.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe4cyIcNZZbQhL4tc0bRdVH1M-y8HTR8vylvdmSc81pVoeDeQ/viewform?usp=header

We will only sell Dexter beef in 1/2 cow shares and, at least for the foreseeable future, we'll continue using Earl's Meats for processing.

Pricing is TBD. It'll depend on market rates, feed costs, processing fees, etc.

Mostly, we just wanted to explain what we're doing because I realize we've probably made it a little confusing. 😂

There may be beef from Unbuttoned Farms in the future, but it is going to be limited. Please don't wait on us for your family's beef.
For now, we're building a herd, figuring this whole thing out, and feeling pretty dang grateful that so many people are interested in what we're doing here.

The support has been amazing.

Irma, I think we can say she’s on the mend, out of the woods, whatever you say on the farm that doesn’t jinx something.A...
10/09/2026

Irma, I think we can say she’s on the mend, out of the woods, whatever you say on the farm that doesn’t jinx something.

A lot of people have asked about her, and we really appreciate that.

A few weeks ago, Ray was doing his nightly check on the cows and found Irma down, unable to stand, with some loose diarrhea and mucus in her p**p. We called Pickle Street Veterinary Services, who came out for emergency fluids and some other medications to see if they could get her feeling better. We kept a camera on her overnight, with hay and water nearby.

Her eyes weren’t always responding to the vet’s field tests, she wasn’t showing all the signs of bloat, and there was just a general sense of uncertainty about what would happen.

The next morning, she was up on her own, so we reunited her with the herd. A few hours later, she went back down in the grass. Once she was up again, we decided it was best to bring her to the barn for quarantine, rest and monitoring.

We brought her and her calf, Lilly, in together. Lilly is about six months old, so we had assumed she was probably weaned. We also hadn’t seen her nursing, and thought Irma had dried up.

We did several days of Vitamin B and some other medications, and little by little Irma started spending more time up and about, cleaning her calf, and getting much more feisty about taking her medications.

Eventually, we returned her to the herd. Her appetite stayed low for a couple of days, but she has seemingly returned to normal. Her udder is filling again and, much to our surprise, she is nursing Lilly twice a day.

We’re still not sure what caused the whole episode. Something in the feed, corn, pasture, metal, spores, etc. There’s really no way to know at this point. The vet was thrilled with how well she bounced back, and we’re hopeful there won’t be another episode.

We’re grateful, but also cautious and curious. We are definitely a lot more confident with injections now, which is one thing we learned through all of this.

We really appreciated Pickle Street’s education, support and check-ins along the way. We’re just happy to have Irma back to herself and doing well with Lilly.

There is still one thing we don’t know. We’re hoping Irma did not lose her second calf in utero during all of this, but we just don’t know yet. So for now, we’re watching, waiting and hoping for the best.

Why Dexters?We wanted a breed that made sense for where we are and what we’re trying to do.Dexters seemed like a really ...
10/09/2026

Why Dexters?

We wanted a breed that made sense for where we are and what we’re trying to do.

Dexters seemed like a really good fit for us. They’re smaller and easier to manage, which is appealing when you’re learning as you go. They’re also known for being docile, and we like that they can do well on a variety of forage rather than needing everything to be perfect.

Another big draw for us was the A2/A2 genetics.

The Dexters we’ve brought into the herd carry those genetics, which was something we specifically wanted to incorporate.

Basically, we were looking for a breed that would be practical for beginners, manageable on our place, good-natured, and able to thrive without us making things more complicated than they need to be.

So far, we’re pretty happy with our choice. We’re learning a lot, and the Dexters have been a fun addition to the little herd we’re building.

This is Uno Beeves and his daughter, Unbuttoned Farms Lilly.

When my grandma and I used to go through her old photos, there were always photos of her land and house. When I was youn...
10/08/2026

When my grandma and I used to go through her old photos, there were always photos of her land and house. When I was younger, it always seemed like a lot of photos of the same thing, the same fence covered in thick snow year after year. But now that I’m older, it makes a bit more sense.

I’ve been creating these stick fence structures all over the property, and this winter will be my 3rd year. I can see things in each version of the photos that no one else can. Each photo of the fence and its progress brings me back to that day, moment, or season of working on it.

Excited for winter to continue this project. I no longer work on it in the warmer months because of my poison ivy experiences in 2025.

Winter 2027, I plan to measure how much distance I’ve laid in stick fencing. It’s a lot!

Grateful for Granda Phil, this space he has tended, rescued, loved and worked all these years... that he shares it with us...and that we hopefully ALWAYS leave it better than we found it.

I'm behind on photos and updates-but this is the Bull Pasture down on 143rd and 54th. Ray got a permit to put in a culve...
10/08/2026

I'm behind on photos and updates-but this is the Bull Pasture down on 143rd and 54th. Ray got a permit to put in a culvert so we have another access point into this pasture-through a recent conversation with Phil (his grandpa), he ended up wanting to help with the project. Ray is racing time and cooler temps with a fence project that needs to get done before the weather gets cold while still doing a daily cow rotation and other 'to-do's. These photos are from 2 nights ago. I have to go down and take photos, but the culvert is now in and I think the tractor is at the repair shop. Excited to have this project done, even if we don't use it right away :D

Kayla, Thank you for coming out and working on Petey today. He lingered in the barn a while with us after his trim and I...
10/08/2026

Kayla, Thank you for coming out and working on Petey today. He lingered in the barn a while with us after his trim and I'd describe the experience as uneventful and easy. That's exactly what we wanted for today.

Thanks again to Painted Pony Farrier Services - she services all types of animals with hooves in Southwest Michigan.

We'll be sharing more photos of businesses and vendors that are helping us grow at Unbuttoned Farms as the colder months get closer-I finally have more time to get photos uploaded and captions written, etc.

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4222 54th Street
Holland, MI
49423

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