Tierra Verde Farms in Deerfield was last year sold to new owners who are committed to maintaining the holistic approach to farming the original founders established, while also making some changes to expand production and reach a broader customer base.
The farm has been producing pastured-raised meat for over 15 years using regenerative agricultural techniques that are focused on cultivating soil health, boosting biodiversity and improving nutrient content by farming in harmony with nature.
“To nourish, heal, connect and inspire are the foundation of what we want to do here at Tierra Verde, and it’s the focus of our work,” co-owner Steve Montgomery said during his speech at the farm’s public field day on July 18. “We want to nourish the animals. We want to nourish the land with animals that produce unbelievable fertility. We want to heal that land. We want to heal the people we’re producing food for, but we also want to invite people to connect. That’s why this day is important for us, and it’s important that we do this kind of thing on a regular basis, because agriculture is culture, and it’s a way that God created the world for people to actually be in relationship with one another. That is so exciting to me, and it’s why we do what we do.”
Tierra Verde farms was originally started by founders Mike and Connie Jones, who last year decided to retire and permanently close the business. But before doing so, Mike Jones contacted his friend Montgomery, who was then the owner of Lamppost Farm in Columbiana. Mike Jones wanted to sell his farm’s poultry guard dogs to Montgomery after the farm was sold.
But Lamppost Farm’s lease was coming to an end. Montgomery ultimately joined forces with Justin and Shirley McElhattan, who had already been involved with promoting small farms, to become the new owners of Tierra Verde Farms through their organization, Fireberry Provisions.
Mike and Connie Jones were pleased to pass their business on to a group that is passionate about preserving the integrity of the farm.
“After 15 years of working every day to build Tierra Verde Farms to a successful regenerative business, where we had the opportunity to serve the community and the environment, it is really satisfying to turn it over to Fireberry,” Mike Jones said. “We now know that our farm and our hard work will continue to serve our very loyal customers. Healing the land as we heal each other has been Connie’s and my greatest calling, and we are really pleased it will go on.”
The farm uses regenerative farming techniques that closely align with the natural needs of animals, as well as the needs of the soil and plants that the animals rely on. Tierra Verde raises Red Devon cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens and turkeys. Already, the new owners have expanded the herd and are looking to triple the number of calves born each year to reach more consumers, and they’re putting in new freezers as part of the expansion.
Montgomery said operating a successful regenerative farm includes rotational grazing, a technique that requires pastured animals to be rotated between different sub-divided pastures, called paddocks, each day. This gives the grasses time to regrow.
“We have cattle that will eat, and then we move them to different pastures,” Montgomery said. “That rest period, when they’re not being re-eaten, allows that plant to rebound and really come back strong and healthy. The roots that get deposited become organic matter in our soil, so along with the manure, along with the urine, along with soil disturbance and all that stuff becomes more food for the ground. The whole system works together to produce fertility for the next generation of plants.”
The pastures are divided into paddocks with electric fences to contain the animals. Rotational grazing boosts soil health by increasing plant root depth, organic matter and carbon capture, as well as helps spread animal manure evenly. It also lowers internal parasite exposure, because animals are moved to a different paddock before parasite eggs in the manure reach the infective larval stage.
The process of giving the plants and grasses time to regrow between grazing encourages their roots to grow longer, which helps bring minerals from deeper layers of soil to the surface, as well as helps aerate and hydrate the soil, thereby increasing fertility for future vegetation.
A typical day for livestock manager Zoe McElrath and the other farmhands and interns at Tierra Verde begins by moving each of the farm’s six chicken tractors a length ahead, which gives the chickens new grass, weeds and bugs to eat, and prevents an over-concentration of manure in one area, which allows the vegetation and soil to regenerate. Once the chicken tractors are moved, the chickens are fed and their watering system is checked to make sure it’s functioning properly. Next, the heat hoods in the brooders are checked, their bedding is topped off and grit is sprinkled; the grit gets eaten by the chickens and helps them digest their food.
As livestock manager, McElrath is also tasked with rotating the farm’s ruminants to a different pasture each day, which includes cattle, sheep and two donkeys named Daisy and Lily, which are tasked with protecting the ruminants against coyote attacks: donkeys are territorial and possess a natural dislike for canines and will attack them on sight.
“Once we deal with all of the chickens, then we move to the ruminants. The ruminants are fed after the sun has heated up the grasses, which brings sugars up from the roots, making the grasses more palatable for the cattle and the sheep, because it’s sweeter; it encourages them to move more and eat more,” McElrath said. “We have a lot of intention about how and when we move them.”
McElrath started working at Tierra Verde as an intern 3 years ago. After she graduated from the Ohio State Agricultural Technical Institute in Wooster in 2025, she was hired full-time as the farm’s livestock manager.
Mongomery said the attention to detail is what makes for great tasting livestock that exceeds the nutrient content of commercial feedlot livestock. To determine the exact nutrient density of their beef, the farm sent a sample to nutrition scientist and metabolomics expert Stephan Van Vliet at Utah State University.
Van Vliet’s research lab studies the links between the nutrient density of food, agricultural production methods and human health and has profiled much of the U.S. supply chains feed-lot beef and grass-fed beef. What he found was, while the content of protein and certain vitamins between the two groups was not huge, grass-fed beef does contain up to 20% higher levels of selenium, iron and zinc and much higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids.
Van Vliet’s studies also found that plants that are in regenerative farming pastures easily contain two to three times more phytonutrients, which, when eaten by cattle, promotes antioxidant activity and gut health, as well as reduces inflammation. And they’re higher in fat soluble vitamins, too.
Grain-fed beef supply chains can have considerable nutrient variations, which Van Vliet said he finds interesting; his research finds that the healthiest grass-fed beef comes from diverse pastures that aren’t overgrazed.
Justin McElhattan said the challenge in regenerative farming is scaling up the farm to meet financial needs and customer demand without sacrificing quality and without ending up like many commercial farms that use pesticides and unnatural practices that harm the soil, as well as possibly the animals and the people that eat them.
“I always say you have to be great before you can be big, and we’re still going through that transition,” Justin McElhattan said. “I think it’s been a very successful transition from the Joneses to us owning it. We’ve been able to produce at the same quality, we have preserved and are ever improving the quality and improving the availability of the product. I feel like, let's make sure we’re nailing that, and then we’ll find ways to get this to more people. We’re trying to do it the right way and earn the right to serve more customers.”