Your Contribution Matters
We sincerely appreciate every single contribution and it all goes towards goat and farm well-being. Thank you in advance for all contributions!
The Scalawag Farm contributor appreciation perk!
we celebrate contributions by giving you Access to secret goat profiles.
More about farm contributions
We greatly appreciate the donations that individuals and groups make to Scalawag Farm. These donations help us soften the blow of the financial impact from some of our humane rearing decisions. In large commercial livestock operations, it is a common practice to “cull” any animals that are no longer productive. Although we don’t think of our animals as pets, we do not see them only as “stock,” either – we have close relationships with all of them, and believe that they are all unique personalities that are deserving of comfort and safety for the duration of their lives. As such, in the case of does that are no longer productive, we simply let them “retire” here, and continue caring for them normally; they will just spend time in different groups so that they don’t get milked or bred.
Your donations help us avoid making the difficult decisions that de-personalize the experience of the small farm. We strongly believe, and hope you do, too, that having more small farms dotting the landscape throughout the nation is a great idea. Certainly, this was the case before industrialization, but we also want to approach an old concept with modern ideas – seeking to raise animals in stress-free environments so that farms and farmers can produce the highest quality products to better serve their communities, while working in concert with one another rather than competition to see who can get the biggest, fastest.
what’s next for Scalawag Farm?
In 2023 and beyond, we expect to be growing by leaps and bounds. We are extremely excited about working with the town to get a farm stand built and made accessible to the public. This space will feature, obviously, our raw goat’s milk and related products, but also a handful of products from the local community. We are proud to be able to share this space with other producers in the area so that they have a public setting to sell their goods.
Also foremost on our list this year is the completion and installation of our dedicated milking facility – an outfitted 45’ shipping container. This container will be a central hub of our by-then fully licensed raw milk dairy and creamery, and will be where we milk, bottle, and make cheese year-round.
We also plan on building a new, dedicated goat barn/shelter, so that we can better use the space in our 120+ year old shed barn, a space that we love for its history, but that we are quickly growing out of. We expect the shed barn to be transitioned into more of a multi-use space in the future, rather than being our exclusive goat residence from November to May.
Another new addition to the farm will be the presence of barn cameras! Truly, the cameras are out of necessity – they are an ideal solution to the problem of having to constantly be running out to the barn to check in on soon-to-deliver does, and just to keep an eye on the animals during the colder months. Since we will have them running, we are happy to be able to share the stream with all the fans of Scalawag Farm, so, even from afar, they can enjoy the joy of a herd of 2-week old goat kids skipping, hopping, and bounding all over their barn.
We also are going to have a changing schedule of different events on the farm that will allow folks to get up-close with our goats, both the adults and babies. Farm tours, goat dates, walks with the goats, and more, are some of the things that people will be able to schedule from anywhere via this website, and all they have to do is show up at Scalawag and enjoy the atmosphere!
