About
Drawbars Farm
Our farm truly began years before we bought it. By the time my wife and I became high school sweethearts in Winston Salem, NC, our love for the land was well entrenched. Those desires had to remain in check through college and medical school but once we moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, for my residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at UVA, they bloomed into full flower. During our many drives back and forth to home over those five years we promised ourselves that we would try to find land in the area if we ever could. By that time, however, we already had four children in tow and so figured that we would assume the standard protocol of deferring dreams. Then the great recession hit and a Sunday morning sometime afterward we learned of a farm in foreclosure. We ran up that day after church and in the waning moments of light we saw this beautiful property, severely overgrown, with a house that needed new everything--roof, well, HVAC, floors, electrical, and on and on. That night we prayed
over it, calculated how much we would offer, and then determined an "absolute maximum DO NOT PASS number" that we shared with no other living soul. You can guess what the sale price came to, and I mean to the dollar. It was worth it! The story has since unfolded, chapter by chapter, as we have repaired fences, reclaimed pastures, protected the ponds and creeks, installed watering systems, and established paddocks to allow for rotational grazing. At first, we were exclusively a cow calf operation, but as friends and work colleagues increasingly expressed interest in our beef, we started direct beef sales, which has grown to be a substantial portion of the business. We are blessed to be able to work---frequently alongside our children--on this beautiful place. From our front row seat on this corner of creation, we gain a strong sense of God's marvelous design, watching the cows nourish the pastures and the pastures nourish the cows so that they can nourish us.
Our Story
Raising Cattle Responsibly Since 2012
