Regenerative Capital

VAPG Grant Reimbursement Loan

by Casad Family Farms
VAPG Grant Reimbursement Loan

This short term bridge loan will be used to execute on the remaining VAPG budget to help Casad Family Farms with their efforts to ramp up their meat sales.

Project Summary
  • Location: Madras, OR
  • Products: Fruit & Vegetable Grain Livestock
  • Loan Amount: $58,062.37
  • Loan Term: 3 months
  • Net Interest Rate: 8.00% APR
  • Repayments Begin: 1 month after disbursement
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Overview

Casad Family Farms uses Organic, Biodynamic, and Permaculture principles to sustainably steward 400+ acres of land in Madras, Oregon. The Farm is co-owned by husband and wife, Chris & Cate Casad. Both Chris and Cate are first generation farmers. Chris has been farming since he studied permaculture design as a young man, and Cate began volunteering on Chris' first farm in 2014. In 2017 they moved to their current acreage in Madras, Oregon. Chris and Cate believe in healthy soils, healthy food, and healthy communities. 



Use of Funds

This short term bridge loan will be used to execute on the remaining Value Added Producer Grant (VAPG) budget to help Casad Family Farms with their efforts to ramp up their meat sales. Over the past couple of years Casad Family Farms has pivoted away from vegetable crop sales into primarily meat sales for the long term resilience of the business. They have seen tremendous success in this pivot and have grown their direct to consumer meat program by over 200% in the past year. 



Regenerative & Sustainable Practices

Casad Family Farms has worked for many years to create a closed loop farm system that is influenced by biodynamic principles in which the farm ecosystem can rely on the soil, plants, animals and earthly influences for health, productivity, and holism. Nothing needs to be brought in, and there is no “waste” to remove. Specific regenerative and sustainable practices include:

  • Holistic grazing and land management is used create a resilient closed loop cycle;

  • Highly diverse cover crops are planted in the fall after summer harvest to maximize the winter precipitation;

  • Seed is saved from year to year to ensure that they are growing regional/climate adapted seeds that are resilient to drought, weather and climatic extremes, and resilient to pest pressure; 

  • They grow all of their own feed on the farm to ensure that the land is managed in a closed loop farming model; 

  • They plant pollinator plots, establish wildlife corridors, and work to re-establish a grove of oak trees to support the biodiversity of their land;

  • They have shifted to focusing on meat production, which is less water-intensive and better suited for their bioregion with the increased heat and drought that Central Oregon has seen in recent years; 

  • Chris and Cate are trained in holistic management through the Savory institute and all meat and honey products are Land to Market Verified by the Savory Institute. 

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