Gunthorp Farms is a 3rd generation pork and poultry operation in northern Indiana with on-farm USDA-inspected processing. This tour covers the full farm from farrowing paddocks to kill floor, smokehouse, and wastewater treatment. Watch alongside the full podcast episode for the full story.

Key Topics

• Adaptive multi-paddock grazing in practice
• 50-paddock farrowing system and piglet management
• Building and running a USDA-inspected on-farm processing facility
• USDA enforcement: how small and large plants are treated differently
• Constructed wetland wastewater treatment

What You'll Learn

• How paddock size and recovery time shift by season
• What to ask when you visit a pig farm
• What it costs to build on-farm processing and where permitting breaks down
• How HACCP regulation actually gives small plants flexibility if you understand it
• Why scale changes food safety risk in ways inspection policy doesn't reflect

Connect w Greg & Gunthorp Farms

Website
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Full podcast interview
Follow the tour on YouTube

Timestamps

00:00:00 Adaptive multi-paddock grazing explained
00:03:00 Pig health, thermoregulation, and antibiotic-free management
00:05:00 What consumers should ask when visiting a pig farm
00:15:00 Energy-free waterers and farrowing paddock design
00:27:00 Kill floor overview and processing plant history
00:36:00 Permitting, wastewater, and navigating USDA regulation
00:45:00 Food safety: small vs large plant accountability
00:51:00 USDA enforcement disparities and advocacy
01:02:00 Packaging equipment walkthrough
01:13:00 Smokehouse construction and constructed wetland wastewater system

Charles and Heather Maude are 5th generation ranchers in South Dakota running a direct-to-consumer beef and pork operation built on land their family has worked for over 115 years.

This tour covers the full operation - cattle, hogs, grain storage, equipment, and the irrigated river bottom at the center of a federal land dispute that drew national attention.

Watch this alongside the full-length podcast episode for the complete story behind what you're seeing on the ground.

Key Topics

• Direct-to-consumer beef and pork - how it actually works
• Cattle finishing and feeder calf production
• Farrowing crates - the honest case for and against
• Why feed quality determines meat quality in hogs
• Grain storage, forage systems, and matching stocking rate to grass
• The disputed river bottom and the federal land dispute

What You'll Learn

• How a small ranch runs multiple livestock enterprises on limited acres
• Why weaning date is a range management decision, not just an animal one
• What farrowing crates are actually for and why a skeptic changed her mind
• How monogastric and ruminant digestion produce fundamentally different meat
• What 115 years of private land management looks like - and what happens when it's challenged
• Why boundary disputes in the rural West are common, and criminal indictments are not

Connect with Charles & Heather

Website
Instagram
Facebook

Timestamps

00:00:00 — Introduction and context
00:02:00 — Cattle paddock: finished beef and this year's steer calves
00:04:00 — Weaning early — a drought and range management decision
00:06:00 — Grain bins: what they store and how they work
00:08:00 — Farrowing facility: why the crates exist
00:13:00 — Hog nutrition: simple stomach vs. ruminant digestion
00:15:00 — Pasture-raised pork: why quality and finish time differ
00:18:00 — Legacy equipment: grandfather's tractors and the 1948 truck
00:24:00 — The fence line: terrain, flooding, and where fences actually go
00:25:00 — The Forest Service dispute begins
00:27:00 — No written violation, no due process, criminal charges
00:28:00 — Working toward resolution: the Small Tracks Act
00:30:00 — Secretary Rollins, the temporary use agreement, and what changed
00:33:00 — The survey stakes, the crop damage, and the escalation
00:37:00 — What the land trade proposal was and why it was rejected
00:39:00 — What this case means for ranchers and private landowners
00:41:00 — Final reflections

Joel Hollingsowrth has spent years doing something most people wouldn't dare try - building a regenerative cattle ranch from scratch, with no money, no inherited land, and no roadmap. And yet, it has become one of the pioneering regenerative farms in the nation.

Joel is joined by David, who left an Ivy League PhD program to ranch in rural Mexico before landing here, and Daniel, the herd manager responsible for translating Joel's system into daily practice.

Together they walk us through mob grazing at extreme stocking densities, a heritage genetics breeding program built for a world without antibiotics, virtual fencing technology, and a community ownership model designed to solve the financing problem that stops most regenerative farmers before they start.

This is a conversation about what it really takes (the stubbornness, the financial creativity, the ecological thinking, and the human community) to build something lasting and that works.

KEY TOPICS

• Ultra-high-density mob grazing and how it mimics bison impact to restore soil and seed banks
• Heritage breed genetics (Piney Woods, composite bulls) and building "zombie apocalypse" cattle
• Virtual fencing technology and its potential to transform daily ranch labour
• The herd share financial model and how community capital makes regenerative ranching viable
• Reviving rural community through food sovereignty, nutrient density, and local economic energy

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

1. Why stocking density, not just rotation, is the key lever in regenerative grazing
2. How cows' hooves act as seed planters and why "weeds" like thistles are actually healing the soil
3. What rumen fill and manure consistency tell a herd manager about animal health and forage quality
4. Why cattle genetics matter as much as grazing method, and what "adapting to the system" looks like
5. How Joel financed his ranch with no money down, and why the herd share model is a blueprint others could follow

CONNECT WITH JOEL

Smoke River Ranch Website
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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Welcome to Oklahoma: Joel, David & the Smoke River story

08:00 – What's broken in rural America and what Smoke River is rebuilding

12:00 – Fresh Rx Oklahoma: food as medicine and local supply chains

15:00 – How Joel got started: a $1/year lease, no capital, and a Twitter DM

19:00 – Virtual fencing: digital paddocks and 60 hours of saved labour per week

21:00 – Heritage breeds: Piney Woods cows, composite bulls, and the genetics program

25:00 – Mob grazing explained: why five moves a day and what stocking density actually means

31:00 – Herd management with Daniel: rumen fill, manure scoring, and daily cattle metrics

36:00 – Sick cow protocols and building a self-selecting genetics program

45:00 – Weeds as healers: thistles, pioneer species, and soil succession