She had beef ready to send to butcher, but had to send the cattle to a a conventional market and received much less for them. When COVID began this spring, Amber faced a big challenge. People have been responding well her clients have a desire for better quality meat with no hormones. She enjoys being open with people about what goes on at the farm. Amber stressed that it’s to have a relationship with her clients. In addition to the heifers, the duo began raising grass-fed red and black Angus in their pastures in 2013. This service was started in 2001 by Amber’s parents when their kids were in high school, with the kids a homegrown workforce. On average, the farm has 400 heifers at any time. Some dairies take the heifers back to breed them while others leave them until almost delivery of the new calves. ![]() The heifers are returned to the dairies at different times as well. Some dairies bring newborn calves to them some wait until the heifers are 300 to 400 pounds. The primary operation is raising dairy heifers. (Amber’s grandpa had always done the combining.)Īmber and Jordan farm the home farm of 400 acres – 270 tillable and the rest pasture – and also rent another 100 acres of crop land. Amber and Jordan researched and did it on their own. When it was time to combine their grain the first time. Jordan as a young man had made it a point to learn how to fix things, a skill he felt essential in life. During the 2016 recession, he returned to HVAC in 2019 he rejoined Amber on the farm full-time. Jordan, who always helped with the farm, also worked for HVAC until 2007 when he joined Amber full-time on the farm. Her mom Marcie had helped in the “dairy nursery” before, but now Amber needed to also take care of that. ![]() When her grandfather and her dad passed away recently and her brother became seriously ill, Amber and her husband Jordan took on the work of what had been previously done by five people. He always respected her and her opinion and was a positive mentor. Her dad Glenn Feine was supportive of her joining him in his work and gradually taking on more of the operation. She had figured out there was a “direct correlation between time spent outside and her physical and mental health.” Amber had been attending UWSP (University of Stevens Point) she’d made the dean’s list and enjoyed her soils and water classes, but was tired of “sitting in a concrete box” and hated having to take tests. Amber Feine-Rasmussen has been farming full-time since 2003 when she asked her father if she could join him in the family operation.
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