Welcome to Sweet Briar farm
Owned and operated by Mike and Kelsey Pressler, we are a small family-owned first generation farm with a passion for clean produce, well-treated animals, and our home-harvested honey. Mike having the green thumb, has been gardening since he was about 12 years old. He leased his first property from a neighbor and cattle farmer in Kawkawlin, MI and grew pumpkins, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers among other produce. His fee for leasing the land was to help out on the farm baling hay and helping with the livestock farm chores during the summer.
Kelsey and Mike are both biologists and College Professors. Kelsey has a Master’s Degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Michigan and Mike has a Master’s Degree in Biology (Microbiology) from Central Michigan University. Kelsey worked at Dow as a Microbiology Lab Technician and Food Scientist before staying at home to raise their 4 soon to be 5 children. She recently returned to teach biology at the local high school before joining Mike at Delta College as a Microbiology and Environmental Biology professor. Mike is an Associate Professor and has been teaching Microbiology for 13 years plus, he is a textbook author, and co-authored numerous scientific research papers on herbicide degradation and bone tissue regeneration.
We began homesteading in 2009 after purchasing our first home in Pinckney, MI while Kelsey was in Graduate school and Mike was working in the Department of Biologic and Materials Science at U of M. Gardening and raising hundreds of chickens in our spare time set the foundation for our present-day farmstead. We pride ourselves on the natural quality and variety of our veggies, fruits, honey, heritage pork, and Dexter beef. Upon moving to West Branch, we quickly escalated from hobby homestead to small farm business. Farmsteading and Homesteading are similar but we focus on producing food for others as well as producing 60-70% of our own food for our family.
Our livestock have quickly become the heart of our tiny farm. All of our animals are raised with love and care, fresh air, and the highest quality feed we can find. They’re almost as spoiled as our human kids. We do have waitlists for buyers interested in live animal sales including heritage piglets, registered dairy goats, and registered Dexter calves. We also offer a limited number half/whole pork or beef sales each year. Please contact us here to get on the lists for live animals or bulk pork and beef: sweetbriarfarmllc@gmail.com.
Environmental stewardship has always been important to us and we go the extra mile to manage our farm as a balanced ecosystem, rotating crops and grazing livestock, and even using our heritage pigs to till up our crop fields. We’ve been working with our local conservation district to get the farm environmentally verified. We are proud to showcase our Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program sign in the front yard demonstrating our commitment to ecologically responsible agriculture.
We began producing educational farm vlogs in 2021 sharing our experience as first generation farmers. You can find and Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join in the fun.
What we raise:
Dexter Cattle
Originating in Ireland Dexters are known as one of the smallest standard breeds of cattle in the world. We breed polled (no horns) cattle with largely A2/A2 milk protein genetics. Our goal is to sell quality Dexter calves that are halter and lead broke for the potential use as family milk cows.
Dairy Goats
Currently our dairy goat herd consists of Nubian and Nigerian dwarf goats. We will be selling off all of the Nigerian dwarf goats in 2024 to focus our production to our quality Nubian goats. One of our top producers Fawn will produce 1.5 gallons of milk a day with 2 milkings. This will rival some of our Dexter cattle.
Hereford Hogs
These American bred hogs are known for their docile temperament and quick growth rates. This makes them an excellent choice for 4-H projects and young swineherds. Their meat is lean but nicely marbled and has proven to be our personal overall favorite pork! The pork chops have just the right amount of fat to keep them juicy!
We are not offering Farm Tours at this time.