Our Story
Justin and Whitney Trammell help families eat high quality protein so that they benefit in their health, peace of mind, and reassurance they are sourcing the best for their families.
Have you ever had meat that was less than satisfactory from the store? Where was this meat raised and processed? How long has it sat on the self or the freezer? Meat sourced from Tir Bluen Farm will always be high quality protein that is raised in the Texas Panhandle, sourced from one single animal. Our on-farm processing facility is operated by us so we can follow our product from birth to plate, knowing exactly who raises it, how it is raised, who cuts it, packages it and labels it. Our meat is never shelved in a freezer for months or years before getting to your plate.Â
Our family struggled with food security and always dreamed of a future where we produced high quality protein in a self-sufficient way to provide for our family and friends. We built our farm on the premise of food security and family. Despite many hardships including weather, health, infrastructure, and lack of small producer support we have persevered. We created a farm that is well on the way to providing high quality, locally sourced protein to our friends, family and community.
Here in the Texas Panhandle we face an environment that is incredibly hostile most of the year from drought to floods to extreme temperatures and more. It has taken some years to find breeds of animals that could overcome these adversities and work collectively to help improve soil health. This involved lots of attention to animal genetics, cover crops and holistic grazing. There are still a whole lot of improvements to be made however soil health is a generational issue and will only be fixed with generations of work.Â
Through the various trials our farm has been through we have found solutions in genetic diversity, animal and soil health, and hard work. It has taken years to get our herds and flocks to the point that they thrive in our harsh Texas Panhandle climate. When we were faced with the bottleneck of getting our animals processed and the lack of quality and traceability we did the work to open our own state inspected processing plant. This benefits not only our operation and customers but the community at large. We strive to keep providing high quality protein to our customers as we also provide a leg up for other producers like ourselves.Â
When Justin’s family farmed in the early 1900’s it was simply a matter of producing the product and getting it to the nearest ”big town”. Things are very different now with governmental regulations existing in most categories, especially meat, limiting a small farm's access to market. Justin and Whitney along with Justin’s family have done the hard work to bridge this gap and fix the modern divide.
Tir Bluen Farm seeks to provide high quality protein sourced from our farm and those like it to combat food security and provide strength, security, and well being to our local community along with any other who encounter our product. We do this by focusing on soil health which provides animal health and quality protein. We cap this off by being able to control our processing at our facility on the farm by only processing low volumes of animals and focusing on quality and food safety. All of these things combined culminates in a high quality protein you can trust and feel good about feeding to your family.Â
Meat sourced from big box stores, even “organically certified” is not always the best quality. Do the research for yourself, know your farmer, know their practices, and if possible visit their farm. There is no certification around that is better than visiting a farm, seeing their practices at work and getting a real hand shake.
The first thing I would recommend to anyone wanting to source high quality protein is to investigate their farmer, visit their farm or at the very least call them. Ask them any and all questions you can think of as an on the ground farmer will be proud to answer your questions, especially if they are detailed. Then if the farm is legitimate and can answer your questions, buy some product and test it out. I guarantee if you have any issues the farmer will be very concerned and will ask many questions to try and help you out, or refund if need be. There is no substitute to buying from a real farm that supports the family and employees the way farms used to. Â
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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.