Meet the Farmers Behind Permaculture Pastures: Our Journey to Raising Grass-Fed Beef in DFW
Hey, y’all! Welcome to Permaculture Pastures—our little slice of Texas where we’re raising grass-fed beef and working hard to restore the land we call home. We figured it was about time to introduce ourselves, so pull up a chair (or a hay bale), and let’s chat about who we are, what we do, and how we got here.
Meet the Smith Family
I’m Addison, the main rancher here at Permaculture Pastures. While we run our farm as a family, the day-to-day work mostly falls on me, since my husband, Ryan, juggles two other full-time businesses. He works from home, which is a blessing when I need backup, but most of the time, it’s just me and the kids keeping things rolling.
Now, when I tell folks that my top ranch hand is my six-year-old son, they usually chuckle—but I’m dead serious! He’s absolutely invaluable around here, and our four-year-old daughter isn’t far behind. You can’t walk out the door without them begging to help, whether it’s feeding cows, fixing fences, or hauling hay.
How Our Farm Has Evolved
If you’ve followed us for a while, you know Permaculture Pastures has been through some changes. At one point, we had an entire rotational grazing system with 600 pasture-raised chickens helping to regenerate our soil. We built a massive 30-foot chicken coop trailer and transformed our land from barren dirt to lush, thriving pastures. But let’s be real—600 chickens is a lot, and now that their job is done, we’ve put our egg subscription service on pause.
We also ran a pastured pork operation, breeding and raising pigs for several years. At our peak, we had around 40 pigs during farrowing season, but if I’m being honest… we’re just not pig people. Some farmers love working with them, and that’s great, but we decided to step away from pigs and focus on what truly fits our family and farm.
Sheep? Now, that’s a different story. We used to have about 100 sheep, and I genuinely enjoyed raising them. They’re a passion project for my dad, too, so once my parents move in next door, we’ll likely bring them back. They’ll play a key role in rotational grazing alongside our grass-fed cattle to keep our pastures healthy.
We’ve also dabbled in raising turkeys, guineas, meat chickens, and even tried making salsa and bone broth for local storefronts. But when it came down to it, we had to ask ourselves: What do we love the most? The answer was clear: Cattle.
Why We Chose Grass-Fed Beef
There’s just something about raising grass-fed cattle that we absolutely love. We’ve been doing it for a few years now, and recently, we expanded into breeding miniature High Park cattle—because who wouldn’t want fluffy, pint-sized cows that follow you around like puppies?
A Day in the Life at Permaculture Pastures
These days, with just our cows to manage, the daily routine looks a little different. The kids and I load up into the side-by-side to:
• Check fences, water sources, and grass levels to see if the cows need rotating
• Monitor herd health and halter train our mini cows
• Feed alfalfa pellets to keep our cattle trained to follow us (makes life easier when it’s time to move them or load them in the trailer!)
On weekends, when Ryan has time off, we tackle bigger projects like:
• Building new pastures and pens
• Ear tagging and working the cows
• Rotating cattle between our home pastures and leased land
We’ve also started seeding cover crops and cutting our own hay, something that wasn’t even possible until recently. When we first bought this land, the soil was completely depleted. We had to buy hay just to keep our cattle fed. But after years of regenerative agriculture—rotational grazing, pasture management, and soil-building practices—we’re finally seeing the rewards.
Looking Ahead
Farming is a long road, filled with learning curves, heartbreaks, and hard-earned victories. But we’ve finally settled into a rhythm, focusing on what we love most: raising high-quality, grass-fed beef for the DFW area. And now, for the first time, we’re able to grow enough hay to feed our own herd—a huge milestone for us.
We hope you’ll stick around as we keep improving the land, expanding our herd, and maybe even adding a few new critters along the way. If you’re looking for grass-fed beef near Dallas-Fort Worth, we’d love to be your farmers!
Thanks for following along, and we’ll see y’all out on the pasture!