Welcome ......... At Wallace Springs our goal is to be a Canadian Centre of Excellence in Ethical & Sustainable Agriculture demonstrating that a family farm can be profitable, practice environmental stewardship and produce a stable food supply, in perpetuity without degrading the natural resources that support our production processes..........cont'd in About us.

"Own Your Food Program"

Simply put our "Own Your Food Program"  is offering our food partners the opportunity to Own Your Food.  For those consumers who want to own their food producing animals but do not have the facilities, or the time to care for them we established what may best be called "a new old idea" were you have the option of owning the animals that will provide you with the very best food.

  • Grass Fed Beef  -- As a food partner in our Own Your Beef Program  you will purchase the stocker calf from us, we will feed and board your animal to "finish" - a period of 12 to 16 months.  The care and feeding of your animal will be to the same standards  as our animals.  Your purchase price for the stocker calf will be approx. $1200 - $1500.00 depending on the weight of the calf, and current market prices, etc.  We will charge a per diem of $3.25 (approx. $100.00 per month) "all inclusive" for feed, board, and care of your animal.  As a food partner the total cost of your meat will be slightly less than buying the same amount of meat from us, although you should remember that these are live animals and occasionally losses do occur. .................We currently have stocker calves available for food partnering

OR

Board Your Bovine at Wallace Springs for a per diem of only $3.25/day and get our best "all inclusive" feed and care for your animal.

  • Heritage Pork -- As a food partner in our Own Your Pork Program  you will purchase the weaner pig from us, we will feed and board your animal to "finish" - a period of 4 to 5 months.  The care and feeding of your animal will be to the same standards  as our animals.  Your purchase price for the weaner pig will be approx. $125.00 - $150.00 depending on the pig's weight, current market prices, etc.  We will charge a per diem of $2.25 (approx. $68.00 per month) "all inclusive" for feed, board, and care of your animal.  As a food partner the total cost of your meat will be less than buying the same amount of meat from us, although you should remember that these are live animals and occasionally losses do occur.  ................ We have a limited number of weaners available for purchase - Book now.

  • Eggs -- As a food partner in our Own Your Hens Program  we offer you the opportunity once a year to purchase Heritage breed chicks to be raised for hens in "our backyard is your backyard" egg laying co-op.  Chicks are normally purchased mid June and will begin laying late fall.  Our charge is $10.00/laying hen (payable when we order the chicks) and $4.00/dozen for the eggs, "all inclusive" for feed, board, and care of your hens.

  • Heritage Poultry   As a food partner in our Own Your Poultry Program  we offer you the opportunity once a year to purchase Heritage breed day old chicks, and ducks to be raised for meat in "our backyard is your backyard" meat bird co-op.  Day olds are normally purchased mid June and will be ready for processing mid October.  The purchase price of day olds will be $2.00/bird for chicks, and $3.75 for ducks.  We will charge a per diem of $0.15 for chickens, $0.22 for ducks  "all inclusive" for feed, board, and care of your bird.  As a food partner the total cost of your meat will be less than buying the same amount of meat from us, although you should remember that these are live animals and occasionally losses do occur.
Muscovy duck

Details on the Heritage Dual Purpose meat chickens, and the Peking Duck are available at Frey's Hatchery under the Dayold Poultry link

Important Info.
As a food partner you are responsible for all transporting and processing costs for your beef, pork, and poultry - we will make arrangements for the processing and transportation.  Sorry we can not deliver eggs or meat.

Finally, farm visits are encouraged, questions are welcomed, and feedback is appreciatedContact us

8 comments:

  1. Hi. I must be missing something. I think this is a great idea but the coats seem extremely inflated so I want to confirm. I pay you $10 for 1 chicken which say lays 1 egg a day. So I can only get 1 dozen eggs every 12 days plus I pay $4.00 per dozen. Most farm gates sell their eggs for $2.50-$3.00 and I can get as many as I want, without investing $10 in 1 chicken. Am I missing something? The beef cost would be astronomical as well. After buying the cow at $1000 then paying you $100 for 6 months and then the price to cut and wrap.. That would be in excess of $6.00lb I believe. Or I can get it at farm gate certified organic for $4.75lb. Can you please explain if I am wrong or missing something.

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    1. Hi Lorrie

      You do understand how our "Own Your Food" program works, thanx for investing the time. What you are missing is that our "Own Your Food" program accurately reflects the cost of ethically producing clean food. Are we making huge profits on sales in this program? Absolutely not. We can offer this program only because we do not need to profit from the sales, but at the same time we refuse to produce and sell at a price below the cost of production - is that wrong? We do not believe it is.

      I will not argue with the prices you state that you can buy product for, I know you can, but under what conditions was it produced? and is the producer being fairly compensated for their cost of production? These are questions that you have to answer for yourself, and I trust that you will ask.

      Thanx for you input

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    2. Hi Lorrie

      Some numbers on the cost to raise grass fed beef. These are Ontario based, not sure where you live but the facts are that $4.75/lb for Ontario produced beef is NOT sustainable.

      It takes 12,500 pounds of grass to support a cow for one year and raise a 450-pound calf. It takes another 4,000 pounds of grass to raise the calf to 850 pounds. If the calf is retained another 10 months, it will take another 9,450 pounds of grass to get it to weigh 1,250 pounds. The total for grass is 25,950 pounds.

      At $0.10/lb for grass (hay) = $2595.00 feed costs for the beeve

      Slaughter and butchering costs at $0.50/lb = $390.50 (Dressed weight out 62.5% of live weight (1250 lbs) = 781 lbs)

      Total of grass, hay and butchering $2985.50

      Cut out as per http://beefresearch.org/CMDocs/BeefResearch/Beef%20Cutout%20Calculator.pdf gives you 508 lbs saleable beef at $5.00/lb = $2540.00

      For a loss of $445.50 per head before vet costs, mineral, any straw for bedding, electricity, taxes, R & M, cow depreciation, breeding costs, losses, ROI, wages, ..............the list goes on.

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  2. Funny how people have truly forgotten the true cost of living off the land in the most sustainable way. Good for your organization and amazing work.

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  3. I will and totally invest in this and I think everyone should. We cannot sustain the way we are living.

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  4. How much meat does one get out of a pig usually? I do understand the cost to raise them in ethical and sustainable wa. I just need to estimate if we can afford the premiums. Thanks.

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  5. Hi Rex

    That is kind of a loaded question, it depends a lot on how you have it cut. All boneless will be less lbs. take home than bone in. First we guarantee a min. of 78% dress out so a 275 lb. hog will dress out at 215lbs. From there it depends on cutting, deboning etc. but figure take home to be 65 to 80% of the dressed weight. A good article outlining the details at Penn State http://animalscience.psu.edu/extension/meat/pdf/The%20Butcher%20Stole%20My%20Meat.pdf

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  6. Rex

    A few more details on our prices of pork (The best deal is to buy the pig or half and pay the processing) at http://wallacesprings.blogspot.ca/2012/02/heritage-pork-for-sale.html

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