Our daughter Emma watching over the new baby meat chicks.

Our philosophy and practice

Phone: 417-833-3842 or cell 417-839-0847

E-mail: farm@millsapfarms.com

Our farming is guided by two basic principles:

1.God does it best.

2. We are stewards of his gifts.

As a result, we attempt to follow the blueprints laid out for us in nature in all our practices. For example, if we watch birds in nature, we see that they tend to flock together and intensively scratch one area at a time, looking for bugs and other tasty edibles. When they are done, they move on to greener pastures, leaving behind a nicely fertilized and aerated patch of grassland.  We mimic this with our pasture pens, moving them each time the chickens have scratched and fertilized the area under them. By moving these pens at least daily we supply the chickens with fresh salad and bugs, and receive in return excellent pasture rejuvenation.  In confinement systems, the birds are contained in the same place their entire life, building up pathogens and manure underneath them, while receiving no fresh green food or bugs.  Our system produces healthier birds and pastures in a sustainable way, and creates some of the healthiest and best tasting chicken you will find anywhere. 

Similarly, we use minimal outside inputs, including pesticides and herbicides, to produce our plants and vegetables.  Instead we look to nature to supply sustainable solutions, such as crop rotations, mulching, off-season planting, and composting.

Being stewards of the earth means that we have been entrusted with its care, and that we should do everything we can to maintain and improve its diversity, fertility, beauty, and function.  As a result we encourage diversity in our pastures, maintain ponds and woods on our farm, raise a variety of livestock and plants, avoid erosion, and conserve water and energy.

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