Our Mission and Principles
Autumn's Harvest Farm offers humanely raised grass-fed beef, pasture pork, pasture raised chicken and eggs. Our mission is to farm in a way that has a positive impact on the environment while raising our animals with the highest animal welfare standards. We want to provide our consumers with a healthy product, raised in a way they can feel good about. —TIM AND SARAH HAWS, OWNERS
Certified Grass-fed Beef and Animal Welfare Approved Beef, Pork and Eggs
Every year we are inspected by Animal Welfare and we are given their stamp of approval. We take this extra step to assure our customers that we truly are raising our animals in the way nature intended. This extra step also gives our customers confidence in knowing that they are getting the best quality products from us.
Murray Grey Cattle
In 2003, we decided to add beef cattle to our pork, broiler chicken, and egg laying chicken programs. Our land, prior to us purchasing it had been over farmed, over grazed, had major erosions issues and desertification issues. Following the work of Joel Salatin and Allan Savory, we began implementing a high density, multi-species, rotational grazing system and the land immediately began healing. We also began searching out cattle that were proven on grass and had verified records to prove it. This search ultimately led us to Murray Greys.
Since beginning with the Murray Greys, we have worked diligently on improving the breed and improving grass-fed genetics in general. All of our Murray Grey cattle are entered in the Breed plan with the American Murray Grey Association. We purchase and utilize semen from some of the top Grass-fed Murray Grey bulls in Australia, many of which are top performers on the Australian Grass-fed index. We only keep the best performing animals out of our herd as breeding stock. Our breeding animals must be feed efficient, thrive on pasture, be easy keepers, have good feet, exhibit excellent maternal instincts and most importantly grow fat on grass. We are trying to breed animals that consistently grade choice on a grass-fed diet.
Berkshire Pigs
Our Berkshire pigs have outdoor access year-round and our supplemented with non-GMO grains sourced locally using several rations that were developed on the farm, all of which are free from antibiotics. Years of careful breeding and allowing our pigs to live outdoors in ways that mimic nature has allowed us to create an exquisite pork that is moist and flavorful. Whether dining out or eating in, Berkshire pork will create a fine dining experience.
Our pig breeding program started in 2001, with a sow we received from a certified organic pig farm we had been working on. From the beginning, we put an emphasis on choosing our stock by their ability to thrive on pasture and in woodlots. In addition, we only chose sows that exhibit exemplary maternal instinct and displayed the ability to farrow naturally outdoors.
We currently raise 100 percent purebred Berkshire pigs. Berkshire Pigs are a Heritage breed that originated in England and our prized for their meat quality. The pork is pink-hued and heavily marbled with a high fat content that makes it suitable for long cooking as well as high-temperature cooking.
Poultry
At Autumn’s Harvest Farm we raise a variety of different chickens ranging from broilers and domestic egg layers to rare egg layers. At any time if you visit you will see everything from Araucana, Americanas, Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds and anything else my children pick out. We feel too often farmers focus solely on production which doesn’t always fit into our family friendly model. We want the kids to be invested and have fun on the farm, allowing them to have an opinion on what type of chickens we raise, allows them to really feel invested.
Our egg laying chickens are raised in a portable chicken houses on wheels. Each house is equipped with solar lights which allows them longer access to water throughout the winter when its dark earlier. In addition, each house has gutters that run to a barrel and then is fed to the automatic waterers. This along with our other solar water system assures a constant flow of fresh water. They have access to shelter 24 hours a day, but can also go outside as they wish. We follow the chickens behind the beef cattle allowing them to pick through the manure, eat all the bugs and spread manure for us. Allowing the chickens to follow nature's natural cycle has assisted us in making some of the world's best eggs and pastures.
Our meat chickens are raised seasonally in portable chicken coops which are rotated over fresh pasture twice daily. Through this intensive rotational grazing system, we provide an abundance of fresh grass, herbs, legumes and bugs for our chickens. All poultry is processed under Article 5A of the NY State Department of Agriculture and Markets.
All of our poultry are given free choice access to local Non-GMO grains. ( Grain is roughly 10% soy)