Nancy owns a certified organic poultry farm, Kellner Back Acre Graden, LLC with her husband right outside of Denmark. The couple currently raises about 2,000 laying hens, a little over 300 meat birds, 300 ducks, and right now they’re raising turkeys for Thanksgiving.
Looking back, Nancy grew up on a dairy farm in DePere where she helped milk for many years. Once she got married 40 years ago, she moved out to Denmark where they used to milk cows on-site, but about 12 years ago Nancy was diagnosed with cancer and they decided to sell the herd.
“When I was diagnosed with cancer, we sold the cows and we waited a couple of years and then we went into the poultry,” Nancy said. “It’s in your blood. We wanted to do something. Milking cows was a commitment seven days, but chickens are a seven-day commitment too because we sell to a lot to the grocery stores now.” The farm has grown to sell at stores like Piggly Wiggly and Austin’s in DePere, Sal’s, B-Alive, Outpost in Milwaukee, and also in Sheboygan.
She explained that in order to get their product in various grocery stores, she had to go meet with each one, bring their product, show them the organic certificate, and share her story about how they create the end product and all of the hard work that goes into raising the birds.
Nancy talked about how raising poultry isn’t easy, but there’s one side to it that’s the toughest and that’d be the weather. “You’re fighting, when it’s really really hot the chickens drop in production, and when it’s really really cold they drop in production. You’re always fighting the elements,” she said. Especially with the unpredictable weather we have here in Wisconsin, you never know how hot it’s going to get each summer. For example, look at last month’s temperatures! Lucky for her poultry, they have a free-stall barn with good airflow that they can keep cool in when it’s really hot.
As with most businesses at the moment, help is tough to come by, but she found it in an interesting place. Nancy explained how the local VFW post has volunteers that go to her farm and help clean eggs. The majority of those eggs will then be donated to local food pantries and veteran’s homes.
Nancy dove into the logistics of what makes their farm an organic poultry farm, besides the fact that after working towards it for three years, they were finally certified organic. For example, their birds have to have access to the outside, not be individually caged, and they’re also on rotation in organically certified pastures.
Their pathway to becoming certified organic lead them to a mentorship program through Sunny Sky Farms in Stevens Point. She suggests that young farmers join a similar program to see what it’s like on an organic farm before completely jumping in. Her advice for beginners is to be on the farm for a few days in the winter and in the summer so you get a feel for what to expect in both seasons.
At the end of the day, Nancy would love if more farms joined the organic side of the industry. “I would prefer everybody go organic. It is a lot of work, but no more work than if you were a big commercial farm.” She adds that the only huge difference in her experience is that the organic farms have more paperwork to go through than conventional producers do.
Organic or conventional, we thank all of our Wisconsin farmers for helping support the industry!
You can hear Nancy’s full story on our podcast page!
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