4L Farms

05/28/2026

Baby chicks arrived yesterday! They are happy and healthy, staying toasty in their brooder. In a few short weeks the first batch of birds will head to the processor and these ones will be headed to the pasture tractors. We are on faster growing this year. More birds with less time between batches will hopefully help our stock up.

On a side note, peonies are finally blooming, I anxiously wait every year for these beauties and they do not disappoint!

05/23/2026

The warm weather is pretty nice!! The newly planted alfalfa is up and looking great! This is planted where the corn was this past year. Hard to believe the transformation.

We have officially started first cutting of hay. We start in the grass hay then move on to alfalfa. I didn’t get a great picture because of the angle, I wasn’t in the right vehicle but there are some nice sized rows of grass hay out there.

The meat birds are just a few weeks away from processing. It all goes so fast. Our next batch of chicks come on Wednesday. I can’t believe it’s already the end of May.

Butcher steers are coming along nice. These big boys will be processed in the fall.

Have a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend!

05/12/2026

Some of our butcher steers are happy to assist in cleaning up the excess grass in the mule pasture. The mules are unimpressed but they all segregate and it works out. 95* today, I think they’re also loving the sprinklers. LOL

05/12/2026

Chickens are four weeks old tomorrow! This morning they moved from the crowded brooders in the barn to spacious chicken tractors in the pasture. The tractors are moved daily so the birds have fresh clean grass. They’ll remain on pasture until mid June when they’ll be processed and ready to sell. Sunshine, fresh grass,
bugs and space will give them a jump in growth as we move forward. Our next group of day old chicks will arrive May 27th and the process will start over!

The chickens are at a very awkward stage in growth. Meat birds grow at an extremely fast pace and their feathers struggle to keep up at this age. They will begin to look better within a few days. They look like older chickens but are still very much chicks, making a funny chirping sound.

We are excited to get this batch processed, we are out of chicken even in our own freezer. Fresh pasture raised chicken is a sign that summer is upon us.

05/10/2026

Happy Mother’s Day!

05/05/2026

Yesterday was a big day for us and we’re feeling relieved and accomplished this morning. For the first time ever we worked cattle with just Nick and I and our two employees.

Usually cattle working is an orchestration of a whole crew of people, working around schedules and always on a Saturday or Sunday due to family and friends having town jobs. Due to the mild, warm winter and sunny spring our pastures are ready NOW. We decided we would try to work calves one day and cows the next. If it didn’t work we would wait for this coming Saturday when our oldest son and a few others could come help. Calves went so well yesterday morning we worked cows in the afternoon and are done. It was surreal last night as we wrapped our minds around what we did. Could be a one time fluke but we did it with a crew of four and can take a deep breath. For reference, we sorted and handled a little over 100 head of cattle. It’s not that it couldn’t have been done this way in the past, it’s just always been a huge family and friend affair with lots of people, food and well, yelling. LOL If you know, you know.

Our herd is VERY anxious to eat the yummy green grass on the other side of the fence. Today we will start pushing them through our pastures to the Big Wood River pasture. Once they are at the river it will take approximately 4-6 weeks to move them through our pasture system and get them back up to the corrals, then the grazing cycle will start over.

Thank you everyone who has helped through the years, offered to be here this year and as always, Jerry and Susan for your continued dedication to provide help even in retirement. Susan and Jerry had hot lunch and ice cream ready for us when we broke for lunch. We are blessed and thankful! God is good.

04/28/2026

04/15/2026

THEY’RE HERE!! This one’s for all our chicken lovers. The first batch of meat birds arrived today, just in time for freezing tempuratures! I’m sure they’ll be fine but it’s does add a layer of prep.

After lambing we thoroughly clean the barn, put down lime to dry things up and begin to prep for chicks. Pens get set up, heat lamps get situated, a tarp to help retain heat gets put into place, line shaving for bedding, feeders then chicks!

Our first batch will be processed mid June! We can’t wait, there’s no better chicken than fresh pasture raised birds.

04/13/2026

This weekend was busy and our first major annual event was completed today. The sheep are sheared and ready for pasture.

A huge thanks goes out to Lusk Family Shearing, our incredible employee Carlos, and last but not least my sister in law Sam Westendorf!

What’s different this year? Sam and I skirted the wool fleeces as the sheep were shorn. The end result is fleeces free of p**p, mud and other foreign debris. Our goal, cleaner fleece to start the process of washing and processing so we can make something from it. We’ll see what we manage to do and keep you all informed! ❤️🐑❤️

04/10/2026

Who loves pears!!! We sure do and it’s looking like we’ll have another bumper crop this year. This tree thrives on the edge of our shop and an alfalfa field. We enjoy the pears on the shop side and the cows enjoy them on the field side. We usually graze the cattle in this field when the pears are ripe and the girls leave no pear within reach uneaten or on the ground. It’s a win win.