OUR FARM
Whitcomb Regenerative Livestock Farm is being developed as a diversified Massachusetts livestock farm built around intensively managed grazing, thoughtful land stewardship, local food production, and staged growth.
The commercial farm is not operating yet. We are currently searching for suitable farmland while developing the production, infrastructure, market, conservation, and operating systems needed to establish it responsibly.
Our aim is not simply to put animals on acreage. It is to build a farm in which land capacity, livestock, forage, infrastructure, markets, and finances work together as one durable agricultural system.
LAND
The right acres matter more than a parcel number.
Our mature planning model currently centers on approximately 25 usable grazing acres and approximately 30 usable hay acres — roughly 55 productive agricultural acres.
That does not mean we are searching only for a single 55-acre parcel.
Barns, handling areas, lanes, winter and heavy-use areas, storage, buffers, wetlands, woods, apiary sites, and other non-grazing uses all affect how much land a working livestock farm actually requires. Hay or additional grazing acreage may also be provided through durable nearby satellite fields rather than one contiguous property.
Smaller opportunities can still be viable. A property with approximately 5–10 usable agricultural acres may deserve serious consideration when additional acreage can be restored, responsibly converted, expanded into, or secured nearby under durable arrangements.
Woodland can offer future silvopasture or pasture-recovery potential, but we do not count forest, wetlands, or theoretical future acreage as productive grazing land before it actually becomes usable.
The property we choose must fit the farm system — not simply reach an acreage target.
DEVELOPMENT
Grow the farm when the previous step can support the next one.
RLF is intentionally being developed in stages.
Early development emphasizes secure land access, fencing and water, portable infrastructure, recordkeeping, poultry, apiary development, market validation, and the operating reserve needed to manage inevitable farm problems without putting animals or the business at unnecessary risk.
Larger livestock are not added simply because they appear on a five-year plan.
Before an enterprise expands, we want the previous stage to demonstrate the fundamentals it depends on: adequate forage, pasture recovery, winter-feed security, reliable containment and water, appropriate animal-handling systems, processing access where required, customer demand, labor capacity, and sufficient working capital.
A timeline is useful for planning. It is not permission to outrun the farm.
PRODUCTION
Different animals, different roles.
The long-term farm plan combines several livestock enterprises rather than relying on a single species.
Our principal grazing concept uses cattle, followed by sheep and then poultry where pasture conditions and animal needs make that sequence appropriate. Each species interacts with forage, manure, parasites, and pasture differently, creating opportunities to manage the land as a more complete system.
Pigs require a different approach and are planned for their own controlled rotations rather than simply following the grazing sequence.
Poultry plays an important early role. Current broiler planning is based on approximately 300-bird batches divided among four human-movable pasture shelters designed for approximately 75 birds each. Laying hens are also part of the early production plan.
Rabbit, turkey, apiary, and other complementary enterprises are being developed separately because their housing, processing, regulation, markets, labor, and economics differ from the grazing system.
Not every planned enterprise is guaranteed to launch. Each must prove that it belongs on the farm.
ADAPTIVE BY DESIGN
The final farm plan will be written by the land itself.
We can design systems before securing property. We cannot responsibly pretend to know every detail before we know the farm.
Soil type, field layout, water, slope, drainage, existing forage, winter access, infrastructure, surrounding land uses, wildlife pressure, hay yields, and decades of previous management will all influence what RLF ultimately becomes.
That is why our planning uses assumptions, scenarios, and growth gates rather than treating stocking numbers or grazing schedules as permanent promises.
Once land is secured, those assumptions will be replaced with observations and records from the actual property: soil and forage testing, measured pasture production, animal performance, grazing records, weather, winter-feed use, costs, and customer demand.
The plan provides direction. The farm provides the evidence.
THE LONG VIEW
A productive farm that becomes stronger over time.
Success for RLF is not measured only by herd size, acreage, or the number of products we can sell.
We are working toward a farm that can produce good local food, care well for its animals, maintain healthy and productive ground, support its own operating costs, withstand difficult seasons, and make expansion decisions from real records rather than optimism.
Over time, that may include intensively managed grazing livestock, pasture poultry, direct breeding-stock and live-animal sales, complementary enterprises, and food reaching households and commercial customers through Cricket Hill Farmstand.
We also intend to maintain the records and management systems necessary to pursue organic certification where it is practical and worthwhile. Until certification is actually obtained for applicable land and products, RLF will not represent itself as Certified Organic.
The long-term goal is a working agricultural system that can endure — economically, ecologically, and across generations.