Category: Farm Profile

FARMER: Jody & Crystal Manuel LOCATION: Hill County, MT SIZE: 7,500 acres JOINED OUR PORTFOLIO: 2021 Jody and Crystal Manuel are third-generation farmers and homesteaders in Havre, Montana. Together with their six children, they operate Prairie Grass Ranch, Gruff Grains heritage grits, and the legacy brand Cream of the West. Motivated by a personal health crisis over two decades ago, the Manuels transitioned their land to organic and became...

FARMER: Adam Roberts LOCATION: Ford & Livingston, IL SIZE: 350 Acres JOINED OUR PORTFOLIO: 2017 Adam Roberts of Roberts Family Organics may be a first-generation farm owner, but his agricultural roots run deep. His mother comes from a legacy farming family, but farmland rarely passes from mother to son in traditional Midwestern communities. As a result, Adam didn’t grow up on a farm—but he found his way into agriculture through his maternal...

FARMER: Josh & Sara Smith LOCATION: Wells County, IN SIZE: 77 Acres JOINED OUR PORTFOLIO: 2024 Josh and Sara Smith are first-generation farmers raising their three kids—Isaac, Sadie, and Cora—on Wholesome Meadows Farm in northeastern Indiana. What began in 2014 as a small farmstead has since grown into a diversified organic operation spread across 157 acres. The Smiths own 80 acres dedicated to produce, berries, pumpkins, and pasture-raised...

RANCHER: Cindy Tolle LOCATION: Cochise County, AZ SIZE: 22,000 Acres JOINED OUR PORTFOLIO: 2024 Cindy Tolle is a biologist, an environmental chemist, and a mother with decades of ranching experience across the West. At the Diamond E. Ranch in Cochise County, Arizona, Cindy, along with her family and her team, Steven and Angie Terrell, approach their work first and foremost as land stewards. Their multi-generational endeavor has US ranch hubs in the...

FARMER: The Hatleys LOCATION: Oakboro, NC SIZE: 110 Acres JOINED OUR PORTFOLIO: 2022 FARM STORY Shawn and Jennifer Hatley are fourth-generation farmers in Stanly County who raise sheep, pigs, cows, ducks, and chickens with their sons, Blake and Eli. The Hatleys apply sustainable and regenerative farming principles and work within a perennial pasture and forest-based farming system (also known as silvopasture) in Oakboro, a suburb of Charlotte. We...

FARMERS: Rick & Corey Johnson LOCATION: Will County, IL SIZE: 1,430 Acres JOINED OUR PORTFOLIO: 2018 FARM STORYRick and his son Corey are fourth and fifth-generation farmers in the heart of Illinois corn and soybean country, just south of the expansive Chicago suburbs. Together, they manage 1,430 acres of row crops, with 940 of those acres financed in partnership with Iroquois Valley. Of that, 420 acres are organic, while 520 are transitioning to...

FARMERS: The Wepkings LOCATION: Ridgeway, WI SIZE: 700 Acres JOINED OUR PORTFOLIO: 2018 FARM STORYJohn and Halee Wepking of Meadowlark Organics are young farmers committed to cultivating a regenerative ecosystem by growing real food. Mentored by the late Paul Bickford, John and Halee focus on specialty grains like spelt, rye, and milling wheat, and are building a mill to process grains in-house.  Paul Bickford farmed with John...

FARMER: Jacqueline Smith LOCATION: Lawrence, KS SIZE: 80 Breeding Sheep JOINED OUR PORTFOLIO: 2022 FARM STORYJacqueline Smith founded Central Grazing Company in 2015 on the premise that all livestock deserve a good, peaceful, humane life. After working for many years co-running a sustainable sheep dairy, Jacqueline pinpointed gaps in restorative land management supply chains. While the ewes raised for milking and breeding were treated humanely, there was...