The History of the Farm:

As told by the "farm wife" who married into the family.

Pezewski Cattle & Grain is a small, family-owned beef and grain farm in central Wisconsin. My husband, Harry, is the 4th generation (or 3rd depending on which side of his family you look at) to farm this land, but the first to run it as a cow-calf beef operation.

When Harry was born, this was still a dairy farm with a barn full of Holsteins, but the milk cows were sold off in 1992. After that, it became what most people would consider to be a hobby farm with only a steer or two and the occasional pig in the barn. But then my husband decided that he wanted to be a farmer.

So the farm was brought back to life, this time as a backgrounder beef operation with my husband buying mostly Holstein steers to raise and sell at auction once they reached butcher weight. Over time, he started bringing in more beef breeds including Angus, Simmental, Hereford, and even a crazy Highlander cow who went on to give us an even crazier grand-calf (but I digress). At some point after I came into his life, Harry decided to transition from backgrounding to having a cow-calf beef farm.

It took a handful of years, but eventually we no longer needed to buy random calves at auctions because all our calves were being born on the farm. Less than a year after we celebrated the fact that every calf AND cow on the farm was born here, my husband decided to make another pivot from having mixed breed cattle to more pure blooded lines.

The Future of the Farm:

As I type this, we still have a hodgepodge mix of breeds out in our pasture (including my Holstein, Socks, who is obviously here to stay). BUT we’ve also started growing our herd of registered British White Park cattle, including my pride and joy-our bull, Zeus.

Our plan for the future is to raise and sell registered British White Park calves and hopefully even do some traveling to show a few animals. Also, as I read this aloud to Harry (to make sure I’m getting everything right), he informed me that he wouldn’t mind keeping a few of our more Hereford-looking cows around too.

So, as with everything in farming, we have a plan…but that doesn’t mean it won’t change along the way.

If you’d like to follow our journey, get updates on our British White Park calves, or just hear more about life on the farm, sign up for our email list!