Frequently Asked Questions

Regenerative agriculture is an approach to farming that aims to mimic nature and leave the land in better condition than how we found it. At Shirttail Creek Farm we employ many systems that collectively help us to always be moving in that direction. Specifically we:

1. Always keep living roots in the soil. We double crop all of our land meaning that we plant seasonal cover crops and grasses across our farm to ensure that we're always building structure in our soils and providing forage for our animals. This also means that we sequester more Carbon per acre from the atmosphere than most 'conventional' farms and ranches!
2. Practice Managed Intensive Grazing (MIG) - we graze cattle in small paddocks and move them as many as three times per day. This allows them to graze in high stock density  for short period of time after which the cattle are moved and the ground is able to rest and regrow for 4-6 weeks between grazings. 
3. Rotate multiple species across our farm. It's not normal in nature to have just one species of animal or plant grazing/growing in one place. Diversity is critical to healthy ecosystems. So...in nature's image we rotate our laying hens, broiler chickens, pigs and cattle across the farm constantly. This ensures an even distribution of grazing pressure as well as manure and urine across the farm to further enrich the soils!

Although we don't offer regular farm tours, customers can drive to the farm to pickup orders and can see most of the operation from the road. A public road runs through the middle of our farm offering a view of our laying hens, cattle, and sometimes our pigs and broiler chickens from the road!

We do offer farm tours for guests who book the Bunkhouse airbnb on the farm. We plan to offer more farm tour options in the future once we get our ducks in a row....right now we just have chickens, and they're all over the place :)

When the cattle are young, they are all vaccinated with the Covexin vaccine which protects against a series of bacterial infections such as Clostridial Myositis (Black Leg), Tetanus, and others that we can't very well pronounce. We also vaccinate them with Virashield 6 which protects against a series of common respiratory viruses, etc. We do not use any mRNA vaccine on the farm.

Our Laying Hens and Broiler Chickens are vaccinated for Marek's Disease when they hatch at the hatchery. Marek's is a cancer causing form of Herpes that infects poultry. Something we'd like to avoid.

So far we haven't vaccinated our pigs.

No and we have no intention of doing so. Although some ranchers may be required to use mRNA vaccine in order to market and sell their cattle through certain beef programs, it is certainly not something that is required in general. Since we direct market our beef directly to our customers we are not beholden to the requirements of the commodity beef market or special marketing programs within it.

Generally no. Let me explain: 

We do NOT use sub therapeutic antibiotics on our farm. Sub Therapeutic antibiotics are used in most confinement farming operations and are the main reason why antibiotic use in animal agriculture has become a problem. In these programs, animals are often ALL treated with antibiotics (generally mixed into their feed or water) without necessarily being sick. This practice is meant to mitigate the very real risk of lots of animals getting sick in feedlots, confinement poultry houses, etc....because animals weren't meant to live like that. This practice has been linked to antibiotic resistance and other problems.

On our farm, it's quite rare that animals get sick enough to need antibiotics. In the event that an animal gets a severe respiratory infection or other illness that requires antibiotics, we will medicate the animal and remove them from our program.

The only scenario in which we might use antibiotics on the farm and still keep the animal in our program would be if we used a topical antibiotic ointment or isolated subcutaneous injection at the site of the injury to treat an acute issue like an infected wound, bad case of pink eye, etc. Transparency is important to us so feel free to contact us if you have further questions about our practices.

Hard NO.

Our cattle eat a forage based diet. This means that they are living on grasses and other plants. We plant a variety of grasses, legumes, and even root vegetables on our farm. In the winter or dry season in summer, we feed stored hay and baleage (fermented hay) and we may opt to mix in alfalfa or beet pulp into their ration at times to supplement protein or carbohydrates depending on how our hay tests. During times of extreme heat we may also mix a small amount of cane molasses into the cattle's hay as a supplement to help them with heat stress. We sometimes add Apple Cider Vinegar into their drinking water for the same reason. Otherwise the cattle have access to a free choice mineral mixture all the time.

We primarily grow Red Angus cattle with some Brangus, Black Angus, and a very limited number of Wagyu cattle mixed in. We feel that the Red Angus cattle handle the heat/sun better than Black Cattle.

Our pigs eat a custom milled Non GMO ration that contains NO Soy.

Our pork program is not specific to one breed. We generally raise a mixture of Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, and Duroc pigs.

Our Broiler Chickens forage off the pasture and depending on the time of year this can account for 30-40% of their feed intake. We do, however, supplement them with a custom milled, NON GMO feed ration that CONTAINS Corn and Soy. Many customers who have Soy allergies or who like to avoid Soy in general have asked why we don't offer a Soy free option for chicken. We have tried this many times but have seen that the birds don't grow well without Soy and our cost to produce is just too high if we don't use Soy. Soy contains an almost perfect balance of the 5 key amino acids that chickens need in order to grow well.

We typically raise Freedom Rangers or Freedom Ranger Color Yields as our meat chickens. At times we will supplement with Cornish Cross chickens if inventory is limited on those breeds.

Our laying hens spend a LOT of time hunting grasshoppers, field mice, and other bugs, and of course foraging for seeds and other plants. While this can represent up to 30-40% of their total feed intake at some times of the year, we do supplement them with a custom milled, NON GMO feed ration which contains NO Soy.

COMPLETE LAYER FEED INGREDIENT LIST: Sorghum, Wheat, Calcium, Alfalfa, Canola Meal, Sunflower Meal, Mineral Mix, Sunflower Oil, Marigold, Paprika, Lactobacillus (Probiotics), L-Lysine (essential amino acid), L-Threonine (essential amino acid)

Our laying hens are mostly Hyline Brown. Sometimes we have Novogens. They are a cross between Rhode Island Red and White Leghorn.

The color of the egg yolk is a direct function of the hens diet. Specifically, the amount of carotenoids in the hens diet. While we do plant lots of carotenoid rich cover crops for our hens (inlcuding Turnip greens, clover, and other green stuff that, counter intuitively are actually rich in carotenoids) we also feed our hens a custom ration that contains Alfalfa, Paprika and Marigold. Alfalfa, Paprika and Marigold contain high levels of the class of carotenoids called Xanthophylls which are responsible for reddish/orange color in the yolks. Yolk color aside, we are really proud of our eggs and the overall quality and freshness that we deliver to our customers each week! We attribute this to the fact that our birds have access to so much pasture and are on a really well balanced nutritional program.

No! We use a few Boutique USDA or State Inspected processing facilities to butcher our Chickens, Pigs, and Cattle! Generally our animals never have to travel more than 1.5 hours to get to the butcher.

Simply put, it's much more expensive and inefficient to produce food like we do than it is to run cattle through a feedlot, raise laying hens in a big barn, or grow pigs and broilers in confinement houses. The trade off, however, is that we produce a product that has been raised in a way that allows the animals to express their natural instinctive behaviors in mother nature without the unhealthy stress of living in a confinement setting and being fed low quality, high calorie feed inputs.

For example, we typically finish our calves at 20-24 months old at about 1000 lbs live weight....whereas a feedlot often strives to have calves ready to butcher at 14-16 months old with weights often in excess of 1400 lbs. Growing cattle on grass just takes longer and yields less! Same thing with eggs. In our pasture raised operation, we have to hand collect and wash/pack eggs, and move our flocks weekly on the pasture. This all requires a tremendous amount of labor per dozen eggs compared to a confinement laying operation....not to mention the increased predation and other  environmental factors our hens may experience that make our production model less efficient than other 'conventional' models. The trade off is a superior food product hands down!

Yep! We ship to all of the 48 contiguous United States!

Shipping costs vary depending on how far away you are.

For TEXAS - there is a FLAT RATE of $39.99 for shipping.

For those of your within our 2 day ground network states (see below) then we charge a FLAT RATE of $49.99 to ship.

CO, NM, KS, OK, AR, MO, LA, MS, AL, GA, TN, IL, Northern FL, NE, KY

If you're outside of our 2 day ground network, we have to ship your order 2 day air to make sure that it arrives in good condition! This cost will vary based on how far away you are and how much weight is in your order. You will be able to calculate shipping during checkout but BEFORE you are asked to pay.

We ship orders received on Tuesdays. If you order on a Tuesday there is a chance your order will go out same day but it may get bumped to the following week. Most orders will arrive within 2 days of being shipped. You'll receive a shipping notification once your order has been shipped! If you need to ensure that your order arrives by a certain time or if you need to delay shipment of your order, you can specify that in your order notes!

Yes! You can pre-order on the site and in the checkout process you'll be prompted to select your fulfillment option where you'll be able to select either shipping or pickup at one of our three weekly farmers market locations in Austin or on our farm in Brenham 7 days per week.

YES! We accept bitcoin payments on the Lightning Network! This is an option that comes up in the checkout.