If you’ve followed our farm for a while, you’ve probably noticed that we no longer maintain an in-person farm store. It used to be located on the premises of our farm. Where did it go?
It’s a bit of a long story. We first closed the farm store down during COVID, and it never really got back up to speed after. The final nail in its coffin was when we joined the Secure Sheep and Wool Supply Plan (SSWS).
The safety and security of our sheep is the most important thing on our farm. The SSWS sets guidelines for participating farms to limit the spread of infectious ovine diseases. Under their guidelines, we must log all people who come inside our premises, and their shoes must be disinfected. Keeping a physical location active under those rules was untenable for us.
That doesn’t mean we’ve stopped selling our products, though. Instead, we now sell our meat, wool, and other goods through our GrazeCart store. You can pick up our goods on designated days, or we can ship our non-perishable items to you.
Our mission, first and foremost, is to provide our animals with the best lives possible. Our secondary objective is to offer good, clean, healthy food and fiber to our customers. We can’t do that if our animals are at risk of getting sick.
Disease Concerns
The SSWS is specifically concerned with limiting the spread of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), an incredibly contagious livestock virus. It affects not only sheep, but also goats, pigs, cattle, and other cloven-hooved animals. Some can also be asymptomatic carriers. Fortunately, FMD is considered eradicated in the USA, so the goal of the SSWS is to help limit the spread if or when it appears in the future.
FMD isn’t the only disease we worry about. The Bird Flu (HPAI) was recently confirmed in cattle in the USA, and Screwworms have been expanding north from Mexico as well. While Screwworms are a parasite, not a disease, the method for keeping a flock safe from them is largely the same.
The best way to fight these diseases is by preventing them from ever spreading in the first place. That’s what we’re doing here at our farm, and it’s a large part of why we no longer have a physical farm store.