Who We Are

The Windy Willow Farm name came from the Willow trees on the property from Dale's grandfather's farm that were planted by Dale's father. The farm is now in its 3rd generation and with luck, our children will continue the tradition.

Dale was on a mission to find something to raise on the farm other than Red Angus cattle. He was surfing the net and came across the Tennesse Fainting goats and just had to have one! Luckily we found James and Cindy at Moonlight Farms and that started us off back in 2002 with Romeo. The goats were like potato chips - can't have just one! We were up to 50 at one time and that was way too much work! They are all so cute and have such personalities! We have a few goats left on the farm - Debbie's favorite is Sparkles, she's an Alpine goat that has wonderful milk. Sparkles is famous - she's been to 6 schools in the county for Farm 2 School day. Our buck is Mason, we received him when some friends had to move to Alaska.

In addition to the goats and angus cattle in the pasture, we have a llama, Linus. We lost Pierre in 2006 to old age and Red Hot in 2010. The llamas were orginially purchased to 'guard' the goats - they Linus is part of the scenery.

Next, Debbie felt the need to purchase some chickens - there's nothing like a farm fresh egg in the morning! Then came the broiler chickens too - alot of work but with the food scares these days I believe they are well worth the work! We have chickens to sell in the June timeframe and eggs year round.

We then dabbled in Guinea Fowl - these birds a so interesting to watch and make GREAT watch dogs not to meantion they love eating the bugs! And turkeys - in 2011 we were able to hatch out 6 turkeys. Hopefully we'll have turkey's to sell in 2012.

We added lambs to the mix - our first lambs came from a 4h'er. We are up to 10 ewes and a ram from University of Maryland. The meat is wonderful! Our son has a Jacob sheep which is a wool breed - her wool is so soft, looking forward to learning to use her wool!

Of course we came full circle back to the cattle. Our herd consists of female Red Angus and a Limosin bull. The cows are in the pasture year round and are fed hay during the winter. Depending on the winter weather conditions, they may get some grain to help boost milk production but that is truly limited - we find hay, the ability to roam and graze the pasture is far superior to grain.

In 2011 we were awarded the Calvert County Sustainable Meat Producer of the Year award. What an honor it was!