I am so glad to be finally getting back to these Farm Post. After a full and wonderful SELL OUT 2024 season, paired with the holidays and lots of long and consistent 'out in the elements' hay feeding days from December on, I knew my time had come to finally welcome everyone into the New '25-'26 farming year. We have been at it every day, feeding large round bales of hay to our 4 divided herds. Most often feeding anywhere from 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 round bales of hay a day. All herds are looking great and feeling exceptional coming out of what I call a descent real winter. They have enjoyed their movement from paddock to paddock in our larger, longer stay winter paddock rotations, which keeps them happy and the soil happy, as they spread out their lovely fertility over our farm pastures and hay fields in the form of manure, urine, and spent hay. Our spring calving season is about a month away and hopefully so will be the start of all our herds rotational grazing on fresh and lush new growth!
CUSTOM BEEF WAITING LIST AND BEEF SHOP ANNOUNCEMENTS
Most importantly, I want to prioritize here at the beginning all items related to our '25-'26 Beef Farming Season.
To begin with, I know so many of you, our 'custom beef share waiting list customers' have been chomping at the bit to be informed of when you could actually place your OFFICIAL PREORDER for the '25-26' custom beef season. I think I have gotten concerns and inquiries about this at least once a week and more, for the last couple of months. So thanks for your patience and the time has finally come!
We have updated our BEEF SHOP and if you had your name on our 2025-2026 custom beef waiting list you will be able to OFFICIALLY PLACE YOUR PREORDER starting this weekend.
We will be opening our SUPERB 2 YEAR OLD CUSTOM BEEF SHARE LINE UP, starting at 12 pm midday on Sunday March 2nd.
So if you know you signed up for our on line 2025 waiting list or did so verbally in person, because you are one of our regular pre-existing custom beef shareholder customers, you will be able to go to our Online Beef Shop on our website and place your OFFICIAL PreOrder.
On our end we have the over 3 page list, listed in a first come first serve order, that we will be able to use for reference in the tracking of these OFFICIAL PREORDERS.
Please take time to visit our Beef SHOP prior, so you and your family can discuss final decisions on the size share you would like and the month you would like to pick up on farm.
All of the share sizes of the SUPERB 2 YEAR OLD CUSTOM BEEF category will say OUT OF STOCK, until opened on SUNDAY March 2nd at 12 noon, but one can still click on the Product Share and read all about that particular offering.
Also there are all kinds of informative things about our 2025-2026 custom beef season that you will be able to learn and read about on our website. I would encourage everyone to take a quick browse around. There are great Additional Info topics, when you click on one of our Superb 2 Year Old Custom Beefs, by scrolling down to the bottom where the Additional INFO sections are located.
We also are offering 1 Beef this year as a Winter Pop Up and interested customers that are not on any sort of waiting list can PreOrder from this Pop Up Offering on our Online Beef Shop. Anyone can PreOrder, so Please do!
You might even be an existing shareholder customer that knows you might need some of our delicious beef to hold you over till your custom beef is harvested later this season.
This Pop Up will be from a Beautiful Beefy Young Cow named "Crazy" G21.
Please take this opportunity to place your PreOrder as I am sure this Pop Up will sell out fairly quick.
Here below are a few of her offered cuts, and once you click on one of these you will be able to view all of the Young Cow "Crazy's" G21 Cut Options.
There is current available inventory so get to it!!
We are now calling our current farming seasons by encompassing 2 years in date. For example, this up and coming custom beef harvesting season will run from July of 2025 through March of 2026, hence our '25-'26 current custom beef season. This will allow our 2 year olds that we start harvesting first in the season to have a little more time on the new season pasture rotations and will allow all the beef animals to continue to finish out and enjoy their rotations and foraging to the fullest. In this, all our live animal SUPERB 2 Year Old Custom Beefs should be able obtain their ideal harvest weight in between 925-1000+ pounds, which will translate into approximately 400 lbs of edible beef product for you our custom beef shareholder per WHOLE share.
In comparison, our 2024 custom beef season harvest went from the end of April till End of December and we advertised our custom beef WHOLE shares to provide approx. 345 pounds of edible product. As we take very good inventory of your harvested beef animals, the edible product average from last year ended up being 396 lbs of edible product per WHOLE beef. Therefore, Custom Beef Shareholders from the 2024 season received more beef than expected and since we PreSell our Custom Beefs by a Live Animal Flat Fee all shareholders benefitted from their beefs generosity (HAHA) of providing an extra 50 lbs of beef per WHOLE Beef!
In attempt to make our harvesting/transportation/loading/unloading more efficient we were awarded through the TAEP (TN Agriculture Enhancement Program) a 50% Cost Share for investing in a freezer trailer that will allow us to harvest 6 beefs at a time, per month, instead of 3 beefs bimonthly. This translates into having 8 harvest dates per season, instead of 16. Either way we harvest 48 beefs, but our new method will lessen both our driving time/mileage in trips to Russell Meat and our loading/unloading/share separation/organization time in working with the butchered packaged custom beef shares. Because, not only do we make the over 2 hour drive time, to take our shareholders beefs, which of course does not include setting up for custom harvest time, custom harvesting, unloading time, communication time, and dissembling corral time. We also make the 2 hour round trip to pick up shareholders butchered, packaged frozen beef, which does not include loading, unloading, communication, inventory time, or share separation/organization time.
Lastly, we have decided to communicate a very significant method in our selection of beef harvest dates. All our beefs are Moon Sign Harvested and we have always followed this Method which we think contributes to the overall quality of ones custom beef share.
Farm Economy, Fiscal Analysis...Serious Business
Now that we have gotten our annual management rhythm, herd divisions, cattle numbers, and head count of our offered custom beefs figured out way more than we did 5 years ago, we were able to sit down and do a really important and interestingly revealing breakeven cost of operation analysis over the winter by looking at our model 2024 farming season. We were encouraged to do this from our TN agriculture extension Farm Business Master Management Course we took over the winter. After four years (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023) of enduringly determined commitment to our cause of transitioning our family farm into a completely LOCAL, REGENERATIVE, SINGLE SOURCED-Birth to Beef, 100% GRASSFED, ORGANICALLY RAISED Operation that has generational viability, and to have finally and successfully hit our farming goals we had set out to achieve in our 2024 farming year. Our farm economy, fiscal analysis made it clear, that despite all our management and supply/demand successes, we were still not charging enough for our Premium Beef Products. In order for our multigenerational families to actually get paid anywhere near a fair wage and to be a viable farm business that can be passed down through the generations, the farm not only has to float itself financially but it also has to be able to pay the family farmers. We are not only farmers, but also managers, marketers, operators, and owners. Successful family farms have to have family members that are able to thrive within the 'one hat fits all' business management method because even with our current increased prices our operational budget does not afford for employed staff.
When we set out at the end of 2019 to achieve our farms goals in making it to that 'golden stared' 2024 season, we knew we all would have to make many self-resignations to successfully make it to our goal season of 2024. We knew that our next four years would consist of breathing, eating, and living farming around the clock. Matthew always jokes that our micro world is like turning on a farm central radio station all the time and anytime. We also knew that all family parties involved had to be willing and able to not directly get payed for labor out of the farm in that 4 year period, as our committed goal was to not take out any loans and to keep our farm account in the black. We knew living expenses would have to come from, on my parents side, Retirement funds and Social Security, and on my side, my husband Matthew's prior and current businesses. Our main priority in this endeavor was to offer the Best Quality-Regenerative-100% Grassfed-Organically Raised-Humanely and Lovingly Raised Custom Beefs at a seemingly affordable price.
Bear in mind that a lot has changed in the Cattle industry within these past 5 years in which we were endlessly working on our mission to create a family farm that is economically viable, along with offering a Custom BEEF Product touting 11 PREMIUMS. As what we do on our farm has no comparison to the conventional beef industry, it is still very interesting to understand what unfolded within this five year period. The conventional beef industry went from an all time low in 2020-2022 to an absolute all time high here in 2025. I can still remember the very last group of calves we sold back in 2021, to the normal conventional market, which was the last amount of deposited money that went into the farm account before we transitioned to 100% local sells of custom beefs directly to customers, and that group went for practically pennies....we sold a group of 27, 500-600 live weight calves, for approx. $17,500 dollars total. If we did that transaction currently within the conventional cattle market industry here in 2025, that same group of calves would sell for approx. $48,000.
The industrial market does not even merit for 100% grassfed, organically raised calves, as that industries goal seeks the exact opposite. Buyers in the conventional cattle market industry seek out grain feed, chemically treated with dewormers, delousers, and fly controls, vaccinated, antibiotic bound beef calves.
To achieve what we do with our custom beef product line, we hold and take care of our custom beefs for 2 1/2 years before they are harvested, just so we can offer a local beef 100% grassfed-finished premium product. Alternatively, if we were operating as a normal conventional cow/calf operation, we would move out and sell our current season's calves before they even get a year old and those would sell for, on average, $1,800 per head. So in two years a farmer could bring in $3,600 by selling 2 cycles of calves per Breeding Cow Head Count. In this picture, the farmer does not have to winter them and feed hay to them during the winter seasons, not does a farmer have to market their beefs, not does a farmer have to have a real working communication with customers directly. Plus, these calves that are sold into the industries' system will still have to be able to put on at least 500-600 lbs, which continues to raise the value of the final beef.
So overall, the point is, this is why PREMIUM, LOCAL, GRASSFED, ORGANICALLY RAISED Beef is going for an all time high because just regular, run of the mill, conventional beef is going for an all time high and that farming style and industry has no where near the resilient qualities, health benefits, or ecosystem environmental sustainability features as that of Regenerative LOCAL Farming. Plus cost of labor and operations are higher on a Regenerative farm like ours because we put so much time in labor for the alternative high need management practices that go into keeping our cattle herds rotating and truly healthy to the core, because we do not rely on chemical based quick fixes. We also spend high dollars on our certified organic Thorvin Kelp that is harvested from the cleanest Icelandic waters and geothermally dried and the Redmond Real Salt that we mix together 50/50, so every animal in our herds have free choice access to this mix all the time. All thriving cattle need salts and minerals daily to supplement their grazing and our herds receive the absolute best!! We spend countless hours figuring the proper rotational dance our 4 cattle herds have to perform on an annual basis for the land and animals to work synergistically. Lastly, none of this mentioned above accounts for the reality of working with our current extreme weather patterns, which can quickly put all efforts in perspective out of our direct control. Farming out of any occupation will always have the highest risk of loss in extreme weather as all we do is directly effected by weather patterns. We just cannot build a factory building to regulate, protect, and compartmentalize from the weather, all the working parts of a healthy synergistic farm!
Really everything we do is absolutely opposite in a 180 degree direction from the opposed conventional method that quickly grain feed fattens in an unnatural way, supplements with all kinds of synthetic & chemically raised by products, all along the while having to administer countless medications, chemicals, and vaccines to the beef animals in order to crutch the broken, non-holistic chopped up system. There is no beaming beautiful rainbow over the conventional cattle industry other than industry itself and its economics. Farms like ours can win out every time as we support all parties of an ecosystems economy.
Like I always say... Best ethical/common sense decision for all four participating parties!
WIN WIN WIN WIN--CATTLE--FARMER--CONSUMER--ENVIRONMENT/NATURE
SIT DOWN TO YOUR PLATE and FEEL GOOD ABOUT KNOWING EXACTLY WHERE YOUR BEEF COMES FROM.
So back to our farms economics, and what we thought to be as our seemingly affordable Live Beef Animal Flat Product Cost prior to 2025. Come to find out, our product cost was no where near high enough, based on all factors in our cost of operation break even analysis. Yes, in 2024 our farm account had its highest deposit year ever, but also with our 2024 model year's goals met with our numbers of cattle, land managements, and hayings, our operational cost was also at an all time high.
We also know that our farm's operational cost are considerably lower than most other farms for many reasons. For one, my family has a long history of frugalness. All our tractors and equipment are going on 30 years old and my grandparents and parents never had to take on any outstanding loans to continue operation or to obtain extra land or to buy out sibling shares. We reuse and use things until they are beyond function generally. Unbelievable so, we might be the last farm in the country, to have not chose to add to our cost of operation a side by side ATV, as we like to pride ourselves in staying mobile, not following trends, and using what we have like our old '94 Chevy 250, a tractor, or our '04 Toyota Tacoma to mobilize. We also have been so very gracious to Robert Helvey, a dear family generational farm friend, that reached out to me years back so he could act as somewhat as a farm mentor and to bring about an exchange of his farm lands to us so we could run higher cattle herd numbers and so we could have more access to hay fields. He has also generously let us use equipment so we do not have to transport equipment from one farm to another. We are also very thankful to operate off of many, in kind, hay fields that we get to hay cut without any exchange of lease money. These though are starting to drop like flies as fields we have gotten to use for hay cuttings are getting developed. From last year to this year we have already lost two 30 acre hay fields, which is somewhat concerning. All these things mentioned bring our operational cost down and this feeds directly to our customers through our product cost.
In conclusion, we now know, to be a successful generational farm, our premium products have to bring in enough revenue to not only pay for operational cost, but actual pay our two families' labor hours. Albeit, even after our increases, our determined and deemed salaries still are considered lower wage based on current cost of living and poverty incomes; especially in comparison to any other occupation with qualifications as high as Owning and Operating a functional family farm or furthermore, for anyone like myself that graduated Summa Cum Laude from University could expect to obtain.
Otherwise if we did not raise our product cost, then we as a family farm really would never have actually achieved our goal, like we thought we might have in 2024, that we set out to achieve in 2019. We at best would only have been a nonprofit operational farm and this will just not cut the mustard for current or future generations cost of living, as incomes are not endowed. To be able to operate a successful and functional farm business, cost of living wages have to be met! Successful farms cannot fool themselves into success by operating off of non farm related income, or thinking it works to operate as a nonprofit without having granted endowments.
Here in TN we are loosing farm land every day because younger generations are not able to even compete with the land value real estate, short term financial gain of selling. And a very interesting point we learned for advocacy when taking our TN Farm Business Master Management Course is that current family farms have to absolutely strive to create an accountable farm business or there will be no hope for local, viable, and functional real working family farms in the state of TN. So in essence, it is up to us all to work together to keep this beautiful TN landscape! Most Locals that grew up here, like my family, take such pride in the true beauty and the deep farming heritage of our region and we know this is the charm of why so many folks are moving here. In fact, so many of you, our shareholder customers, have moved here from elsewhere and we are so pleased and gracious and thankful that you have taken a priority in seeking Foothill Frolic Farm out in order to support our efforts in what we do as a whole. I do hope this very transparent and revealing writing helps everyone understand the increase in our custom beef share cost and everyone at the least will understand the why and will continue to prioritize all the benefits that come for all in the choice to feed you family with Foothill Frolic Farm's Custom Beef!
Farm Photos and Captions
Spanning from late Fall into early Winter to Current
Late Fall Grazing of our Heifer Herd, Main Herd, and Steer Herd
Beautiful Mamma Cow "Spring" G2019H taking such good care of her 2024 calf, "Saler of Spring" 49H
A glance at some of our 2024 Cow/Calf Pairs enjoying their time together
Winter hay feeding fun
2024 calves during barnyard weaning period and them moving to our cousins farm, Gammondelle, for a regenerative cattle restoration project and winter fun.
Eastenn Dutch on Groundhogs Day/Candlemas and our First Farm Friday Enrichment Homeschool Winter Block Session
Until Next Time, Eat Well and Be Well and Please Pass Along through your favorite media!,
(even though we have held off on having a social media presence, we are perfectly fine for our readers to share.)
Allison Mills Neal of Foothill Frolic Farm
Outstanding write-up! Y’all run a truly amazing operation. Hard working farmers like you and your family are Salt-of-the-Earth. It is an honor to be a small clog in the wheel of your impressive operation. I believe your best years are yet to come. May God bless you richly. Stan Cornelius