Who We Are

Our family uses sustainable farming practices and offers a variety of homemade farm products in Brooklet, GA

what we do

Located in fertile land just outside Savannah, GA, three generations of the Ferguson Family operate a sustainable, award-winning family farm. At Hunter Cattle (est 2004), we’re dedicated to animal welfare and raise each animal responsibly and humanely in a beautiful, natural environment. The result of these practices is tender, mouth-watering meat with a better flavor and higher nutrition value. We:

• Along with our partners raise 100% start-to-finish grassfed beef, pasture- raised pork, and all natural poultry
• Never use antibiotics, hormones, nitrates/nitrites, artificial flavoring or preservatives, GMOs, or steroids, and we do not confine our animals or abuse the environment
• Make every effort to protect and raise food in a way that dos not negatively alter the land, or our bodies
• Always practice a grazing rotation, which allows us to create the finest and most nutritious farm products possible — especially for our health conscious-patrons

what we do

Located in fertile land just outside Savannah, GA, three generations of the Ferguson Family operate a sustainable, award-winning family farm. At Hunter Cattle (est 2004), we’re dedicated to animal welfare and raise each animal responsibly and humanely in a beautiful, natural environment. The result of these practices is tender, mouth-watering meat with a better flavor and higher nutrition value. We:

• Along with our partners raise 100% start-to-finish grassfed beef, pasture- raised pork, and all natural poultry
• Never use antibiotics, hormones, nitrates/nitrites, artificial flavoring or preservatives, GMOs, or steroids, and we do not confine our animals or abuse the environment
• Make every effort to protect and raise food in a way that dos not negatively alter the land, or our bodies
• Always practice a grazing rotation, which allows us to create the finest and most nutritious farm products possible — especially for our health conscious-patrons

sustainable

We utilize our natural environment and animals in order to protect and raise food in a way that does not negatively alter our land, neighbors, or bodies. We never have to use chemicals or confinement to protect our animals or grow our grasses because:

Donkeys protect our herds from predators allowing them to always be on pasture.
Martin Gourds, Bats, dragon flies, and Guineas help control pests.
Honey Bees help pollenate our grasses.
Chickens help spread manure as well as eat insect larvae.

here’s

OUR STORY

Let me introduce you to our Hunter Cattle family. In 2004, my Mom, (Debra), my Dad (Del), my older brother (Anthony), and me (Kristan, the oldest daughter), fell in love with a piece of property outside of Stilson, GA. It’s so small we don’t even have a post office, so our address is in Brooklet. We wanted a place to build our families, become as sustainable as possible, and raise/grow our own food.

We were becoming more and more aware of the industrialized food issues and wanted an alternative. The overuse of antibiotics in animals, their terrible living conditions, and the abuse to the environment that leads to abuse of our own bodies when consuming these products all become very real when you begin having children and raising grandchildren. To date we have 10 grandsons and 1 granddaughter. We are leaving them with a healthier legacy for their future.

.. To raise grassfed cows, you have to have a ton of fenced-off pastures for “rotational grazing.” So we started building fences and planting grass. We began raising our first herd of cattle and, boy, did we learn a lot REAL quick! The heifers had been bred to a high birthrate bull, so their babies were too big for these first-time mamas. We ended up having to pull almost every calf! During our first one, we had no clue what to do. We ended up reading from a type of “Cows for Dummies” book what to do step by step. It was CRAZY and awesome to say the least! And I would like to add that we constantly say that, if it weren’t for good books, good neighbors, and the good Lord, we would not be where we are today. We are thankful to all those who have helped us with this venture!

Soon after, family and friends began asking to purchase our grassfed beef, and the rest is history. We went to selling the beef by the cut, and by demand we began expanding like crazy. We started attending farmers’ markets and selling our beef out of the freezer in the back of the truck. As requests for more continued, we began raising pigs, chickens, turkeys, and eggs to sell to friends and restaurants as well. Soon we opened MooMa’s Farm Store, built a processing facility, and began producing our products right here on the farm.

Thankfully, our HC products have been well received in the culinary world. We have been featured in magazines, newspapers, and on TV programs.* With our “Hunter Cattle Co Pork Sausage”, Governor Nathan Deal presented us the “Flavor of Georgia Award” for winning in the 2015 and 2013 meat category. Our handcrafted artisanal link sausage took the top honor in the statewide competition. This comes off the heels of our first ground beef customer, “Green Truck Pub”, having received city, statewide, and national accolades for having the best burgers around.** We are so fortunate to supply our products to many great award winning chefs, who are dedicated to buying local and supporting our family and farm.***

Because our friends and customers love coming out to the farm so much, we are hosting agrotourism events and parties. In an effort to teach the next generation about agriculture and food, we also offer curriculum based educational tours for schools, scout troops, churches and any group that wants to experience the farm life.

We are amazed at how we have grown and are so thankful to be able to do something we love so much and are so passionate about. And we are very thankful for our customers and supporters of our endeavor, and couldn’t be prouder of what we do every day.

Why Wednesday’s

Pa and MSG

Pa used to always tell us, “Make sure it doesn’t have ANY MSG because I don’t want to get a headache.” We would tell him, “Dad, you are such a conspiracy theorist.”

This was 20 years ago. And honestly, no one was really questioning what was in our food. My dad sure was. Then he would eat something with MSG without knowing and BAM. A headache. He would talk about us needing to grow our own meats so we could know exactly what was added to it.

Monosodium glutamate is a common food additive used to enhance flavor. Although generally recognized as safe, some individuals report adverse reactions after consuming foods containing MSG, known as the MSG symptom complex. Symptoms may include headaches, sweating, flushing, chest pain, and nausea. These reactions typically occur within an hour of ingestion and are generally mild and temporary. The exact cause of the MSG symptom complex is not well understood, but it is thought to involve an individual’s sensitivity to the additive.

So, rest assure. Hunter Cattle will NEVER have MSG added to any of our products. Because, well. Pa.

Kristan and GMO corn

Growing up, I was never able to eat beef or pork. I would get SO SO sick. We were not sure why, but I just couldn’t eat it.

When we bought the farm, my dad said, “Kristan, I’m gonna grow meat that you will be able to eat.”

I didn’t get my hopes up. My dad was set on raising meats as natural and as healthy as he could. (Healthy for the animal, the farmer, and the earth)

Whelp. Sure enough, we had our first cow harvested.

I ate a roast: No issue. A burger: No issue.

I didn’t understand why, but I was enjoying finally being able to bask in the yumminess of red meat. We noticed that grassfed beef didn’t make me sick and was actually healing my gut and helping me to eat other things as well.

Later we learned, there was numerous reasons I wasn’t able to eat beef or pork from the store. One of the BIG kickers was it was evident I could not eat any meat that consumed genetically modified corn (round up ready corn). The corn is modified to where if a bug eats it, the bugs insides explode. Well clearly, so did my insides.

Anthony and Challenges

My big brother can do ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING. I’ve always said if the zombie apocalypse goes down, I want him on my team. He would engineer us electricity, make sure we efficiently grow food, AND kill the zombies.

I wouldn’t say Anthony has this huge passion for food or the environment, but I would say he does have a huge passion for getting things done, especially when it’s for his family. No task is too difficult that he can’t accomplish.

When we needed fencing up on the farm. He fenced.

When we needed cows harvested. He harvested.

When we needed our own processing facility. He built it.

When we needed to do all this legally. He researched all things USDA, regulations, HCAAP plans, and made it happen.

When I needed help with loading pigs without possibly dying in the process, he designed a slide door contraption that changed my life. (Ok. Maybe I’m a bit dramatic)

When his nephew Forrest is fencing and having issues, he not only shows up to assist, but sits in the shade with him afterwards and gives life advice.

If I had to sum it all up, Anthony’s why would simply be – he loves his family and enjoys a good challenge.

HC and Regenerative Family Farms

When we first started getting into growing our own food, we realized we didn’t really know what the heck we were doing. (More on our first cow birth later). I often talk about the neighbors in our community coming thru for us, good books that shared wisdom, and the Lord for giving us the vision, faith, and endurance to pursue a WILD dream.

We also learned from other pioneers in the clean food/ local farm movements as well. In 2014, we took a family field trip to meet Joel Salatin. Let me tell you, that day on Polyface Farm was so dense with wisdom and practical info. We went straight home and got to work. We built mobile chicken units and became passionate about becoming grass farmers.

We also were invited by the precious family at White Oak Pastures to come learn from them. We got to see the beauty of a sustainable family farm, using every square inch of the cow. No waste. Seeing the Harris family dividing and conquering was inspiring.

Both of these farms inspired us to welcome people onto our farm. We started renting our barn lofts and letting people be “farmers for the day” with us. Teaching what we were learning, our hopes were to bring more food security to our area and help empower and push families to tend the land and grow nutritious food.

The more we learned from these faithful farms, the more we were sold on why regenerative farming was for us. Building up the land in order to build up our bodies was exactly the kinda WHY we were shooting for.

Clemson University and Food Inc.

After harvesting our first few grass fed cattle, it’s as if word spread like WILDFIRE. People were coming out of the wood works wanting to buy grass fed beef from us. We were so intrigued with EVERY. SINGLE. STORY. So this WhyWednesday reflects the people that have inspired us to delve even more into understanding the benefits our beef can bring.

There is something about having health issues that will get you researching and learning everything you can, enabling you to get to the root causes of the issues and set you on a healing journey. These were the types of people finding us and driving hours in search of grass fed beef.

We had a lot of people refer to a study that was done by the USDA and researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina. They would tell us all about the health benefits of grass fed beef compared to grain fed.

1. Lower in total fat

2. Higher in beta-carotene

3. Higher in vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)

4. Higher in the B-vitamins thiamin and riboflavin

5. Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium, potassium

6. Higher in total omega-3s

7. A healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (1.65 vs 4.84)

8. Higher in CLA (cis-9 trans-11), a potential cancer-fighter

9. Higher in vaccenic acid (which can be transformed into CLA)

10. Lower in the saturated fats linked with heart disease

Source: S.K. Duckett et al, Journal of Animal Science, (published online: Full Text | Download PDF of full article ) June 2009. “Effects of winter stocker growth rate and finishing system on: Ill. Tissue proximate, fatty acid, vitamin and cholesterol content.”

In addition, people were excited about getting back to REAL FOOD. Straight out the ground type food. One or two ingredient type food. And boy did we have people reference the 2009 Documentary, Food INC. The film had people questioning what they were putting into their bodies and highlighted the rising concerns about the hidden costs of cheap food. It argues that mass-produced, “engineered” low-price foods come with health, social, and environmental costs.

We often say that Hunter Cattle is our “accident business”. This was never ever the plan for us, we just wanted to grow healthy food for our own family. But regular ol’ people asking, and our family wanting to meet that need has brought us such a long way.

Bear and Red Dye #40

“Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” -Hippocrates

Our bodies are incredible. They are designed to heal themselves and it’s a really beautiful thing.

When grandson number five was born, we had no clue the food journey it would lead us on. After Bear had his six month vaccinations, his whole immune system tanked. His older brother Forrest had done perfectly fine with the vaccinations so we had no concerns leading into the appointment.

Sadly, our vibrant, happy baby turned into a sickly and lethargic baby who was in and out of hospitals. We got him stable that next year, but something had definitely shifted. The more we stuck to unprocessed, wholesome foods, the better he seemed to become.

Fast forward to a baby shower, Bear is 2, and right in front of our eyes, Mooma and I witnessed Bear going from chill and playful to wild, fidgety and unable to make eye contact. What in the world had changed in the last few minutes.

It was the red cupcake.

Red Dye 40 plus sugar equalled de-stabilizing ingredients for this little boys body.

That day, we started treating food as fuel. We rebuilt his immune system and healed his gut. It’s wild to see him now. Went from being skin and bones and frail to big and tall and so strong.

So, our WHY for this week would be our desire to produce those foods that will nourish these grandsons bodies and build immune systems.

Who We Are

what we do

what we do

sustainable

here’s

OUR STORY