Our Breeds
ANGUS CROSS CATTLE
Our cattle are grown in partnership with my dad Donnie Trammell. The majority of them are grown over in San Jon New Mexico, about an hour West of Amarillo. We have been transitioning from a traditional ranch to a rotational model over the past few years and have seen some wonderful results in both the grass and cattle health. A large part of this is culling the herd and finding animals that can thrive in the harsh climate of Eastern New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle. We have grass-finished and grain-finished cattle to provide options for our customers preferences and nutritional needs. Beef was added in 2018.
KUNE KUNE HOGS
Kune Kune hogs originated down in the New Zealand chain of islands. These hogs are actually a grazing hog and need either pasture or high quality hay like alfalfa to thrive. They still need some gains which we supply through millet or sorghum. Kune's meat is a much denser meat akin to red meat more than the traditional white meat of most pork. They also have a dense fat that does not shrink like fat that is produced from corn and soy. Kune hogs are friendly and overall very sweet animals, they were added to Tir Bluen in 2018.
NEW MEXICO DAHL SHEEP
New Mexico Dahl sheep can trace their lineage back to the Spanish sheep brought over by the Spanish settlers in the 1500's. These hair sheep escaped into the wilds of Easter New Mexico when the Pueblos revolted and thrived in the plains and canyons until the 1980's when these sheep were noticed and people began keeping them as livestock again. These sheep are extremely well adapted to our area and thrive on very minimal pastures with the ability to consume many plants most sheep would find deadly. These Dahl sheep are also hair sheep which means they shed their wool on their own and do not require their tails to be docked and have an extremely high resistance to parasites. Their meat is lean and has a good lamb flavor that is not overpowering like their wool sheep cousins. They were added in 2014.
HERITAGE BREED CHICKENS
The breed of chicken we have used has changed several times over the years here at Tir Bluen. We have tried several production type breeds but always had too many health issues. This has lead us to rely completely on the heritage breed chickens. These chickens take almost twice as long to reach maturity as their production breed cousins however these heritage breeds are also much heartier and can forage for themselves. Heritage breed chickens make for a bird that has a flavor unlike anything you can get in the store. They also have a much higher concentration of dark meat and a much smaller breast than production breeds. That being said if you give these birds a try you will never want to go back to store bought chicken again.
Our breeds include Jersey Giants, Speckled Sussex, Buff Orpington, Silver Laced Wyandotte, and Barred Rocks to name a few. Chickens were our first animals and started with us in 2013.