Today we’d like to introduce you to Marshall Bartlett
Hi Marshall, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started Home Place Pastures in 2014 on my generational family farm. We have farmed the same land east of Como, MS for over 150 years. I moved home to convert this farm from row crop production (corn, cotton, soybeans) to a regenerative grazing operation producing grass fed beef, pasture raised pork, and pasture raised eggs. To do this, we designed our own USDA inspected slaughter and processing facility in the middle of the farm (one of the only of its kind in the country). We harvest, process, pack and ship all of our products from right here on the farm. We also have a Farm Store where we serve lunch wednesday through sunday, a steak dinner every friday, and have a wide selection of our fresh meat products available.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has been extremely challenging. Building our own meat processing facility has proved to be a capital intensive endeavor and requires a lot of skill and knowledge to operate. Raising meat the way we do is also expensive and we have to find markets and customers who understand the value of what we do and are willing to pay a higher price for our products.
Being vertically integrated has a lot of advantages, but it also means you have to be effective at managing the different stacked enterprises. Managing all of our enterprises effectively and at a scale that is profitable has proved to be a real challenge. The farm production (raising pigs, chickens, and cattle), the USDA harvest and processing facility, the marketing, sales, and distribution, and the Farm Store and agri-tourism each require a time, capital, skill, and good management to execute. We are working everyday to put it all together to grow our mission, support more local farmers, and make our products more accessible to our customers.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We produce grass fed beef and pastured pork on a 5th generation family farm in Como Ms. We sell to institutions and restaurants around the southeast and also ship directly to households. Please check out our website for more information:
www.homeplacepastures.com
What are your plans for the future?
We want to continue to connect directly with households around the southeast. Our product is higher quality, better for our animals, better for our land, and better for our community than the commodity, industrialized meat that dominates our food system. With our customers’ support, we hope to continue growing a better regional food system!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.homeplacepastures.com
- Instagram: homeplacepastures
- Facebook: homeplacepastures
