Our story

H&W Pastures is a small-scale pasture based livestock operation located in the Eastern panhandle of Wild and Wonderful West Virginia. On our farm, spanning just over 150-acres, Cody is a third generation farmer and our daughters, of whom the business was named after, are fourth generation. Unfortunately, after purchasing the property, Cody's grandfather did not have much time to develop the farm before his passing. The staggering beauty and practical layout of our farm is thanks to the decades of hard work by Cody's father, Vincent. He worked tirelessly turning the farm from raw, overgrown and mismanaged land into what it is today. It has been a labor of love for him, and even now that he is in his 80's, you will still see him out every day mowing a fencerow or cleaning up fallen tree branches from the silvopastures. We would be a lifetime of work away from running a successful livestock operation on this land if it were not for him.

Historically, we've been a break-even grass-fed cattle operation; it really was not a business, but a hobby or perhaps simply just a way of life. We ran cow-calf pairs and sold 5-weight calves at the local sale barn. This worked well for us, but when Cody took over management of the farm we decided it was time to commit to an all-in, no holds barred, farm business. We reevaluated the farm as a whole by observing the various terrains, the bio-diversity of the local flora and grazing material, the water sources, and the resources we had on hand to work with. We worked to design an integrated livestock program that will help us achieve our financial goals while improving the soil health on our farm for future generations. We spent years researching online, visiting other successful farms, and going to specialty shows and taking classes to lean about the different management practices and livestock breeds that might work for us. We learned as much as we could about the various species and the breed-specific grazing habits, infrastructure and nutritional requirements, all the way down to the soil-building nutritional characteristics of their manure. Compiling all of this information we formulated a full-scale plan that would maximize the production capacity of our farm.

The top level view of the design is a fully integrated, multi-species, livestock system which operates in an intensive rotational-grazing system. We maximize the production capacity of each area by tuning the system to match the natural resources available. For instance, roughly a third of our acreage consists of steep and very rocky terrain with thick timber and overgrowth. The stocking capacity of cattle in this area is dismal, but it is nearly ideal for goats; the grazing/foraging characteristics of goats match the abundance of available flora while the large boulders and rocky soil is great for hoof health. Additionally, the steep terrain matches their natural defensive instincts. The other 2/3 of our property is fairly flat with rolling hills. There is a mixture of open fields and silvopasture. The abundance of pasture grasses, clover, and various other native "weeds" are ideal for the grazing habits of cattle or sheep.

Our completed design, taking all variables into account, has us raising Kiko meat goats and Katahdin hair sheep as our two centerpieces. Our "stacks" on top of the centerpieces include Angus cattle, American Bresse chickens, and Duroc pigs. The Angus cattle herd was scaled down, but is still maintained to complement the grazing habits of the sheep and balance our product portfolio. The American Bresse chickens are managed on the same pastures as the cows and sheep, but within breeding tractors that move on grass daily. The Duroc pigs are used to assist with clearing overgrown areas of the property while in rotation with other livestock. It may seem that we have many things going on separately, but in fact they are all integrated together like gears in a drivetrain. Our diverse livestock works together in our system to closely mimic large-scale natural processes within our small controlled environment to promote healthy soil and sustainable growth.