Daily Life of the Seven Brothers

It was quite the year here at our Roanoke, Indiana Farm. Enjoy the footage and the discussion with Blake and Blaine when you watch this episode.

In today's episode, Blake and Blaine Hitzfield provide some REAL talk about the food system, the opportunity for farmers and consumers to impact the food system, and begin to unpack the question "Can We Feed the World with Regenerative Farming?"

We're not waiting on the government to do anything. We're taking action in our community, where we can deliver in the USA and providing education to other farms.

Eat with confidence while you enjoy pasture-raised meats delivered to your door direct from our Indiana farm. https://sevensons.net/ 🚚

Welcome to the Seven Sons Farm Life Show. In this episode we sit down with Blaine and Blake Hitzfield for an on-farm update including pictures and video of these items:
- A recap of our annual Farm Fest to welcomed 2,200 people to our farm
- Launching Fresh Egg Co, a new Egg Delivery Service
- 13 New Puppies are here
- Our Winter Hen house is Repaired
- Another Successful Farm Tour Season has concluded!

Eat with confidence while you enjoy pasture-raised meats delivered to your door direct from our Indiana farm. https://sevensons.net/ 🚚

Whether you are trying to create a positive culture within a community, business, family, etc., we can all agree that it takes consistent and intentional effort to establish and maintain. At Seven Sons, we believe creating a positive culture starts with clear core values that all staff and our family believe in and incorporate into their daily lives. In return, our customers will have positive experiences and also build trust with our company, their farmer, and the people working to make our mission come to life.

Stay tuned to learn more about what Seven Sons has done to help maintain a positive environment and how we make our core values a top priority within our buildings.

In late August we were fortunate to host Army Captain Gil De Leon for a week-long visit to our farm.

Capt. De Leon is a 17-year Army Veteran, husband, father to 6 kids....and an aspiring regenerative farmer.

In this video, we share how he's transitioning from wearing combat gear to a cowboy hat and boots...

Blake and Blaine sat down to interview him for a soon-to-be-released podcast where he outlined a new Army Certified transitional program called Battle Fields to Fertile Fields. ​

Hitzfield Brothers: Seven Sons

Eat with confidence while you enjoy pasture-raised meats delivered to your door direct from our Indiana farm. https://sevensons.net/ 🚚

In this episode we will take an inside look into the lives of all seven brothers (yes, there really are 7 brothers) and their roles on the farm! The Hitzfield brothers have adopted Michael Hyatt’s (Founder of Michael Hyatt & Co / leadership speaker and book author) philosophy on how to identify one’s unique strengths, weaknesses, passions, and drudgery zones, and how to incorporate those characteristics into a fulfilling career to match each individual’s position here at the farm.

Summary:
- Blake (1^st son): Oversees livestock operations, production, and soil health.
- Blaine (2^nd son): Leads our marketing ventures and creating a way to get product to your home.
- Brice (3^rd son): Creator of Hengear (poultry equipment) and supports our poultry operations.
- Brock (4^th son): Design & branding lead (boxes, labels, pamphlets, podcast videos, etc).
- Brooks (5^th son): Co-founder / C.O.O. of E-commerce software system (GrazeCart).
- Bruce (6^th son): Lead poultry operations / laying hen management (1400+ hens on our farm).
- Brandt (7^th son): Supply chain manager.

Farm Update:

Eat with confidence while you enjoy pasture-raised meats delivered to your door direct from our Indiana farm. https://sevensons.net/ 🚚

After a busy few months on the farm, we are back into the office and have created a 2022 Summer update on what we have been doing and where we plan to go in the upcoming months!

Summary:

• Added 1,300 sheep on our farm!
• Public summer farm tours!
• Bison harvest
• Storm / wind damage on hoop houses (98mph winds)
• New baby! (Blaine and his wife welcomed their 6^th in Feb)

Coming Soon:

• New pond
• New fencing
• Farm Fest (Sept 24^th)

Laying Hens:

At Seven Sons, we believe in creating healthy environments for our animals so that they can live happy, healthy, and fulfilling lives. In today’s episode, Bruce (the 6^th son) will share his experience with raising laying hens during the harsh Indiana winters and what the transition from season to season looks like.

Tips:

#1 Make their environment as familiar as possible to avoid stress.

#2 Allow at least 3sq ft. per bird in a winterized greenhouse to encourage a higher lay rate during the colder months (75-80%).

#3 Incorporate a circulating water system using a geothermal pump to avoid freezing pipelines.

#4 Add wood chips every day to keep bedding as dry as possible.

#5 Use exhaust fans & rollup walls to avoid high humidity within the greenhouse to keep it warm and dry, as well as allow birds access to fresh pastures year round.

#7 Solar greenhouses typically keep the environment warm enough to keep eggs from freezing.