We love all of our animals, they are the heart of Sweet Briar Farm. All our animals get plenty of sunshine, fresh green pasture, high-quality hay, and all the extra fruits and veggies we can get our hands-on. Our Dexter beef is 99% grass fed, we use grain as a reward to help us handle and manage our cattle.  

You’ll see our hogs turning up the soil in our gardens and pastures, we also offer them a ration made from local grain and molasses. Our four children are a huge help on the farm and do a lot of petting and loving on our animals, which helps a great deal to make the livestock happier and more manageable.  

Our goats are all registered, clean tested for Johnes, CL, CAE and vaccinated against CD/T. We’ve carefully chosen all our animals to be healthy, hardy, and friendly additions to our farm (and yours)!

If you’re interested in bringing home a Sweet Briar Farm animal to add to your own farm, contact us to get on our call-list and get your pick of the litter! sweetbriarfarmllc@gmail.com

Hereford Hogs

These rare American 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. 

We will have Hereford X Tamworth piglets born in Spring & Fall.  Our sow “Sally Jesse Raphael” is unbelievably calm and gentle and her piglets have remarkable growth rates.

Tamworth Hogs

Who doesn’t love bacon? Tamworths are the original “bacon breed” and have been selected for centuries for thriving outdoors in colder climates.

Their long and lean bodies produce lots of bacon and finely grained meat. Our Tamworth Boar “Boaris” has an incredible friendly and docile demeanor.  A trait which we value even more than the breed’s mouth-watering bacon.  We also have a couple Tamworth sows “Rikki Lake” and “Gladys” who will be farrowing full Tamworth piglets on a spring & fall schedule.

Registered Berkshire Hogs

Our Berkshires have personalities almost as big as their hams. This old English breed is known among pig raisers for their friendly and curious personalities and hardy constitutions.  Pork diners recognize the breed more by the deep rich flavors of their juicy meat.  We are really excited to have our first litter of registered Berks born on the farm in late spring of 2022.

PUMPKIN SCHITT

Pumpkin is a double wattled Jenny gilt from Indiana’s Irish Mudd L.L.C. She is always the first one to the fence for scratches and lovin’.  She has excellent conformation with a level topline and gorgeous coloring.  Checkout Pumpkin’s AKKPS Pedigree here.  We plan to breed for piglets at the end of 2022.

MOIRA ROSE

Mike’s sister’s family came to visit from New Mexico and fell in love with our little kune kunes.  They said “Moira is just so extra!” and they were so right.  She is extra sweet, extra cute, and extra special.  Moira is a Wilson’s Gina gilt and hails from Looney Kunes Farm in SE Michigan.  We are thrilled to have her here and looking forward to piglets in late 2022.  You can find Moira’s pedigree here.

ROLAND SCHITT

Roly has a personality as big as his chins!  He is our most talkative pig.  He knows which of our kids is responsible for his meals and always speaks up when he sees Maylee and Eivin in the backyard!  This big sweetheart is a double wattled Ru boar from Illinois’ Hinkle Homestead.  Checkout this herdsire’s pedigree here.

HAVEN CREEK FARM JOLLEEN

This little heifer has the genetics to match her incredible looks.  Jo comes from excellent breeding stock out of SGF lines from Haven Creek Farm.  She is homozygous polled and homozygous for A2/A2 milk proteins.  She is a chondrodisplasia and PHA non-carrier.  We have high hopes for this beauty as an excellent family milk cow and producing many more excellent calves just like her.  She has the genetics for a top quality dual purpose cow. Look at Jolleen’s ADCA pedigree here.  Jolleen will calve for the first time in the spring of 2023.

SHAMROCK GYPSY AKA “TEMPLE”

Temple is a hardy, excellent mother.  She calved for her first time in 2021 unassisted and nursed her steer calf until we separated them more than 8 months later.  She comes from the very well respected Shamrock Acres beef herd in West Michigan.  She is horned, and a non-carrier of chondrodisplasia and PHA.  Checkout Temple’s ADCA pedigree here.  Temple was bred to Killian and is expected to calve in April 2022.

CHANEY’S MR. PRESIDENT aka TEDDY

We are really excited to bring Teddy home to Sweet Briar Farm for the 2022 breeding season.  Teddy hails from the well known Chaney’s Dexter Cattle Farm in Tennessee.  In addition to bringing some fresh genetic diversity to Michigan Teddy’s incredibly calm and docile temperament are among his many remarkable attributes.  Like Jolleen, Teddy also comes from lines of Dexters threading the needle as excellent beef and dairy cattle.  Teddy is A2/A2 and homozygous polled.  No more disbudding calves with this bull behind our herd!  We are really excited to begin producing very high quality breeding stock calves from Teddy in 2023.  You can checkout Teddy’s pedigree here. We will not be offering Teddy’s services as a stud bull.

Killian

Killian is our first bull, and boy is he pretty to look at.  Killian is red but also carries dun.  He is A1/A2, horned, and a non-carrier of chondrodisplasia and PHA.  He is well muscled, friendly, and effective.  Killian bred both Temple and our Jersey heifer Greta.  We expect to welcome his calves in April of 2022.  You can view Killian’s ADCA pedigree here.  Killian is retiring to freezer camp this winter as we switch to using our new bull Teddy for the 2023 calf crop.  Watch Killian get super happy as we turn him onto a fresh paddock of pasture here.

Jersey Cows

Our Jersey heifer Greta will is our family milk cow. She’s our herd queen, gorgeous and incredibly curious. She’s likely to photobomb most of our YouTube videos (which you can watch here). When you stop by the farm stand she may bring the Dexters with her to watch you from the pasture fence.  You can enjoy Greta’s sweet creamy milk by purchasing a Herd Share from the farm and becoming a part time owner.  Want to learn why Jersey’s are so great?  Watch Greta here and I’ll tell you!

Greta is bred to our registered Dexter bull Killian.  We are really excited to see her first calf on his/her birthday in April.

We’ve worked hard to put together a farmstead of family-friendly livestock that will provide us with healthful and high-quality foods to feed our family and yours.

We want to be the place where people know they’re getting something that’s extra special and won’t break the bank.

If you’re going to spring for half a beef for the freezer or feeder pigs for your family, shouldn’t it be something better than you can find in a store?