We were overjoyed but scared to sign the papers that made Lightning Rock Land & Cattle come alive. We were also overwhelmed with the amount of work ahead of us. The access road was barely navigable, even in a 4x4 truck! The overgrown forest was mysterious and we cautiously enjoyed exploring in the tracks left behind from a hardwood herbicide application in preparation for burning. We bought a tractor and spent many hours mowing, discing, and planting the main pasture.

After a few weeks testing our marriage while building our first fence together, we finally enclosed 10 acres. For the first time in a year, we started to believe we could be a real farm. Not wanting to stray too far from Trey’s heritage and raising black Angus, we decided to purchase our first herd of six black Aberdeen cattle- a smaller but similar breed to Angus. They quickly assumed the roles of lawnmowers and we looked forward to family weekends on the farm with the cattle.

Bringing power to the farm was a huge milestone. We enjoyed peaceful nights camping under the stars without the noise of the generator and improved our cattle rotation by using stronger chargers for our electric cross fences. The improved grazing pattern allowed us to decrease paddock size and increase regrowth time between grazing. The cattle and the grasses responded well to this change and the herd could barely keep up with the grass’ rapid growth.

Did you know female cattle can have horns? It’s true! In fact, in most cattle breeds both the males and females have the potential to grow horns but are often selectively bred to avoid them. Not the case with Pineywoods! We brought home our first Pinewoods cows and we were excited to let them lose in what would become our first silvopasture. A couple months later, we had quite the surprise and welcomed the first two calves born on the farm, Chris and Martin! We also welcomed a herd of goats to help clear brush in the silvopasture.

They say there’s two types of jobs in farming- working ON the farm and working AT the farm. With everything AT the farm running smoothly, we focused our attention to working ON the farm to earn grants that covered much needed infrastructure. We installed a corral and chute system to safely work with the cattle, monitor growth with a scale, and doctor cattle if they fell ill or became injured. We purchased more fencing supplies and continued the never ending job of fencing in the farm. But most importantly, we sold our first beef!

After nearly a year of hauling water on a homemade water trailer from a generous neighbor, we finally got our very own well. The well greatly decreased the time we spent hauling water. Since we rotated the cattle twice per week, we emptied, moved, and refilled the 300-gallon troughs twice per week, taking two trips per cattle rotation to fill the troughs. A few months later, we retired the water trailer and upgraded to a network of garden hoses that snaked through the woods to reach the troughs. Eventually we’ll build an underground pipeline.

With the farm growing rapidly, we realized we needed to make a change. We rented our house in the city, downsized significantly, and moved into a fifth wheel camper full-time! The move allowed us to spend more time together as a family while managing the dynamic daily operations. In early 2023, we built a pole barn (our first permanent structure!) for hay and equipment storage. We’ve also held classes and field days under the barn, sharing our love of regenerative agriculture and journey of establishing silvopasture with farmers and industry professionals.

We finished fencing another 15 acres of silvopasture, following a prescribed burn in January by the S.C. Forestry Commission. We needed this additional grazing area to welcome our first registered, pregnant South Poll cows, doubling our herd size with a count down to tripling! We quickly fell in love with the Southern Mama Cow Breed for their ability to thrive and finish on pasture, mothering instincts, and docile behavior. Over the spring and summer, we welcomed 15 calves, purchased a fullblood bull for breed back, and refocused on building our pasture health and forage quality.

Change is the only constant on the farm! We finished fencing another 20 acres, bringing our total fenced acres to 51. We harvested honey for the first time from our bees. We sold the goats, who completed their job of clearing the understory of the silvopasture and destroying all the chicken tractors. Over the spring and summer, Corrine raised and finished 200 Freedom Rangers and Cornish Cross chickens and 80 Pekin Ducks, and over 50 laying chickens and ducks!