Meet the Farm
Welcome to Ararat Farm! We are so glad to have you visit.
Ararat Farm is a family farm, owned and operated by Mike and Ginger Watson and managed by their son and his wife Matt and Lauren. We are located in the mountains of Lee Co Va and are dedicated to raising the healthiest, best tasting grass-fed beef, pastured pork and other meats that you can find! We practice holistic management so that we can better steward all life on our farm, from the microbes under the soil to the animals eating the grass.
All of our meat is raised without any hormones or antibiotics. This is due to the management that we use which prevents the animals from getting ill in the first place. That way they don’t require the crutch of medications in order to thrive.
We welcome our customers to come visit the farm and see how their food is raised! It is our desire to connect hungry people with healthy animals. Please contact us to get more information about ordering or about our farm!
Matt Watson: 276-708-6913
This is Mike as a little boy and his Dad on the farm in a field of tobacco
History of Ararat Farm
Ararat Farm has been in the Watson family for about 100 years. It was not originally called Ararat Farm until Mike and Ginger became owners and their son Matt became manager. The way in which the farm had been managed kept the fields from producing at their optimum performance. Through the use of intensive mob grazing the fields have recovered beautifully and continue to improve each season.
Management Improvements
Over the years the farm management exhausted the growth through conventional methods of growing cattle, corn and tobacco. Our management improvements began with a multi-species layered rotational grazing model taught by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm. As our focus became more strictly cattle and pigs we began moving towards mob stocked intensive grazing as taught by Greg Judy and Jim Gerrish. Most recently we have intensified our management and broadened our gaze by implementing some of the holistic management practices as taught by Ian Mitchell-innes. This has brought us tremendous growth and excitement and we are looking forward to tweaking our management and learning more to improve the land.
Thriving Farm
Because of the tremendous blessing of learning and applying so many management techniques, Ararat Farm is truly thriving. This year’s grass growth (2018) has been better then even when Mike was growing up. In the spring the grass stood almost 5ft tall is some areas. Due to the rotational grazing and rapid regrowth the fields replenish quickly and continue to provide enough grass for multiple grazing throughout one year. Through proper management and using the animals to work with the land the farm continues to improve which makes the animals thrive.