Earl Farm Foundation

03/02/2026

This chart on ground beef retail prices keeps going up with no sign yet in plateauing. We are incredibly grateful for all of your support. Our local neighbors in need require protein in their diet. We'll continue to do what we can to support them.

12/26/2025

Video: Merry Christmas from the Earl Farm Foundation. Thank you for everything this year. www.EarlFarm.com

12/02/2025

If you would be so kind to contribute to our local cause of providing healthy beef protein to our local food pantries. We recently donated our 100th cow equalling approximately 47,000 pounds of hamburger to our local families in need. With beef prices being at their highest point ever, there continues to be difficulties for families to include healthy protein in their diet. Please go to: www.EarlFarm.com to support our efforts today. Thank you, The Earl Farm Foundation

11/04/2025

Beef prices are something we are very sensitive to.

$2.98 per pound for ground beef in 2019 and $5.89 today. It has doubled in price in 6 years. The reason is a combination of factors; inflation, drought, feed cost, and overall market forces. Regardless of how we got here, when will it get better? The short answer: a couple years.

The beef cow herd was 31.64 million head at its peak in 2019. However, the beef cow herd today is the smallest since 1961 at less than 28 million. The other statistic is the 2025 calf herd, that is projected to be 33.1 million head after declining for seven consecutive years and the smallest since 1941. With cow and calf inventory both at record lows, this is the reason the prices are so high. Not only does it hurt our purchase power for our own families, it hurts stocking the freezers at our local food pantries.

When deciding which causes to donate to this holiday season, consider donating to your local food pantry or the Earl Farm Foundation to supply healthy beef protein to our families in need.
www.EarlFarm.com

Below is a great article explaining how we got here.

https://www.beefmagazine.com/market-news/the-source-of-high-cattle-and-beef-prices

Seven years of drought-driven herd liquidation created today's record-high cattle prices, with tighter supplies inevitable over the next four years.

09/15/2025

The green line are today's average beef prices at $6.32 per pound up 13% year over year. This is a very painful trend; however we will keep doing what is needed to help those that need a hand up. Always accepting donations throughout the year at www.EarlFarm.com Thank you.

08/11/2025

Our focus is providing healthy beef protein. To do that we have to purchase "Live Cattle". See the chart below and notice the cost increase in this area. Oil, corn, and milk have all gone down over the last year, however beef prices have gone up. The demand is outweighing the supply. The surge in protein in our diet is causing stress on this part of the market as well as other factors. Just thought I'd highlight what is happening in the market and how it affects our food pantries providing for our families in need.

08/09/2025

VIDEO Recap:

We are excited to announce we raised approximately $85,000 over a 10 day period with over 1,000 people immersing themselves in the sunflower fields at the 2025 Sunflower Festival at the Earl Farm.

We are grateful to our volunteers, the attendees, our donors, and very importantly our sponsors. We could not have done this event to the scale we invisioned without them. Mugg&Bopps, Ted and Jane Von Voigtlander Foundation, First Impression Print & Marketing, The Livingston Key Group at Morgan Stanley, Leppek Landscapes, Nursery & Greenhouses, bank of ann arbor, MacAllister Rentals, All Star Trading, and The Iron Victorian for our auction items. And for our yoga and fitness classes under the hickory tree, MI Fitness Community was incredibly gracious for putting on those morning and evening classes. Thank you to all.

A special thank you to S Pominville Art. Susan Pominville’s comprehensive paintings called the “Gathering Place”, contributed over $23,000 to our total. All the 100 pieces have been sold. Thank you to everyone who purchased.

Thank you as well to all of the performers: Tim Wise, Olivia Dear, Jason Harper, Fox & The Fiddle, and the Austin Scott Band. And speciel thanks to Aaron Aeschliman for doing all the audio the entire weekend.

Why did we do this? We are going to provide thousands of one pound packages of healthy beef protein consistently to our local food pantries over the next 12 months. We have approximately 20,000 people in our community that experience food insecurtity. They are our neighbors that need a hand up.

We are still taking donations at: https://www.earlfarm.com/earl-farm-foundation.html

And our Sunflower Festival T-shirt store has been re-opened: https://sunflowerfest2025.itemorder.com/shop/home

Thank you to everyone who contributed.

The Earl Farm Foundation

Earl Farm Foundation announcement that $85,000 was raised at the 10 day Sunflower Festival with over 1,000 participating.

07/30/2025

Local Artist Susan Pominville’s latest work, Gathering Place, is composed of 100 individually hand-painted canvases. Each one is a signed original, created to stand alone - and as part of something bigger.