Welcome to our Home Page!
Carpenter Diversified Farms represents the interest in our family farm. Purchased in late 2007 it has been both a source of wonder and is shaping up to become our future home.
We currently have a small herd of Scottish Highland cattle, bees, a moderate size orchard, and 121 acres of wonderful land - all near Kirksville, Missouri.
It is our intention to raise all natural beef following a "never ever" approach: We will never-ever use antibiotics or growth hormones on any cow we directly sell for meat. Of course, we will do what is necessary to save an animals life - but we will not market any animal treated as a result of that. Beyond that, all our animals will be raised humanly, grazing naturally on open pastures consisting of both native and cool-season grasses. They will be grass fed, and grass finished, as nature intended.
It is our intention to directly sell our animals to consumers using local slaughtering houses that will come to our farm and drop the animals in our fields. Thus they will not suffer any shipping stress or damage, and will be happy from birth through the end. This approach requires you, the consumer, to purchase a portion of an animal (whole or half) in advance of slaughtering. You then own the animal, which allows you to use local, state inspected, slaughtering houses to process your animal, but likewise prevents you from selling any of the product. The only alternative is to pack the animals for long trips to USDA packaging plants where they would be slaughtered and processed - confused, stressed, away from home, and very scared. We feel this is not in the best interest of the animals, and results in an inferior product due to the resulting stress and related adrenaline levels in the meat.
There are a lot of good links on the web that talk about things like "How much meat will I get from a cow". As we find good ones, we will add them to the "More" section of this website. Please note that Scottish Highlands are considered "medium" size cows and raising them on grass alone will result in slower weight gain than those that "finish" with grain (typically corn). Every cow is different, but as we sell them, we will keep records and let everyone know what to expect. Currently, we are expecting to sell our steers when they reach 900-1000lbs, but time will tell. With a hormone fed Angus, one could reach that weight in about a year... we expect it to take 2-3 years for ours to reach slaughtering weight. Fortunately, it considered completely normal for slaughter highlands anywhere from 14 to 40 months of age (see http://www.highlandcattleusa.org/ and click on the Quality Highland Beef program on the left side for more details)
“I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we've got to do it right. We've got to give those animals a decent life and we've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.”- Temple Grandin
We are big fans of Ms. Grandin and strive to make her proud, even though she has no idea we exist. Our facilities are built based on her book "Humane Livestock Handling", which we feel should be required reading before anyone is allowed to work with livestock.
We currently have a small herd of Scottish Highland cattle, bees, a moderate size orchard, and 121 acres of wonderful land - all near Kirksville, Missouri.
It is our intention to raise all natural beef following a "never ever" approach: We will never-ever use antibiotics or growth hormones on any cow we directly sell for meat. Of course, we will do what is necessary to save an animals life - but we will not market any animal treated as a result of that. Beyond that, all our animals will be raised humanly, grazing naturally on open pastures consisting of both native and cool-season grasses. They will be grass fed, and grass finished, as nature intended.
It is our intention to directly sell our animals to consumers using local slaughtering houses that will come to our farm and drop the animals in our fields. Thus they will not suffer any shipping stress or damage, and will be happy from birth through the end. This approach requires you, the consumer, to purchase a portion of an animal (whole or half) in advance of slaughtering. You then own the animal, which allows you to use local, state inspected, slaughtering houses to process your animal, but likewise prevents you from selling any of the product. The only alternative is to pack the animals for long trips to USDA packaging plants where they would be slaughtered and processed - confused, stressed, away from home, and very scared. We feel this is not in the best interest of the animals, and results in an inferior product due to the resulting stress and related adrenaline levels in the meat.
There are a lot of good links on the web that talk about things like "How much meat will I get from a cow". As we find good ones, we will add them to the "More" section of this website. Please note that Scottish Highlands are considered "medium" size cows and raising them on grass alone will result in slower weight gain than those that "finish" with grain (typically corn). Every cow is different, but as we sell them, we will keep records and let everyone know what to expect. Currently, we are expecting to sell our steers when they reach 900-1000lbs, but time will tell. With a hormone fed Angus, one could reach that weight in about a year... we expect it to take 2-3 years for ours to reach slaughtering weight. Fortunately, it considered completely normal for slaughter highlands anywhere from 14 to 40 months of age (see http://www.highlandcattleusa.org/ and click on the Quality Highland Beef program on the left side for more details)
“I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we've got to do it right. We've got to give those animals a decent life and we've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect.”- Temple Grandin
We are big fans of Ms. Grandin and strive to make her proud, even though she has no idea we exist. Our facilities are built based on her book "Humane Livestock Handling", which we feel should be required reading before anyone is allowed to work with livestock.