Refinancing Family's On-Farm USDA Processing Facility

The Bartlett family has been farming the Home Place east of Como, Mississippi for over 150 years, a legacy that has been passed down through generations. In recent years, the farm has evolved under the leadership of the 5th generation, who transitioned the farm from traditional row crops to a regenerative grazing operation. With this approach, the Bartletts are healing the land, resulting in healthier soils and the production of high-quality, award-winning grass-fed beef and pastured pork.

In 2014, Marshall Bartlett, a member of the 5th generation, returned to the family farm and founded Home Place Pastures (HPP). He knew that to truly connect consumers with regenerative agriculture, he needed to have control over the entire process, from farm to table. After two years of construction and juggling off-the-farm processing, the team at HPP finally completed an on-farm processing facility. In 2018, they completed federal certification and began on-site slaughter and processing under USDA inspection, making them one of the few farms in the country to run their own USDA-inspected slaughter and processing operations.

Through their on-farm USDA processing facility, Home Place Pastures is able to: ensure animals in their supply chain are treated well throughout their whole lives; produce and maintain top-quality meat; provide local farmers with access to vital agricultural infrastructure; and create jobs within their community. This processing facility is the vital core of all the economic and ecological regeneration work going on at Home Place Pastures.

Use of Funds

Regenerative & Sustainable Practices

Home Place Pastures uses nature as their guide as they create a thriving, diverse ecosystem through the careful management of multiple species of plants and animals. Their grass-fed beef, pastured pork, and eggs are raised outdoors, without the use of antibiotics. In addition to using their own beef and pork to supply the brand with meat, Home Place also works with a network of like-minded regional farmers. They process their livestock by hand in their own USDA-inspected on-farm processing facility, using butchering techniques honed for the region’s top chefs. By filling and shipping orders directly from their farm, they offer nourishing food while sustaining regenerative farming practices, creating local jobs, and keeping resources within their community.

They employ the following contextually-effective management practices in their operation to ensure proper stewardship of their community and resources:

• HPP employs managed grazing on their property and promotes no-till pastures.

• HPP has a network of 12-15 producers from which they source pork and beef.

• HPP manages their sourcing standards through on-farm visits and personal relationships, through signed affidavits for each load of animals where the producer acknowledges that they followed all of the animal husbandry requirements, and by assisting with certifications for their producer network on an as-needed basis.

• Sourcing standards for beef include no hormones or antibiotics used in any stage of production, constant access to vegetative forage, and minimal supplementation with forage (not grain-based) feed.

• Sourcing standards for pork include no hormones or antibiotics used in any stage of production and prohibiting animal by-products in feed.

• HPP is engaged in their local community by placing an emphasis on hiring locally and regularly donating to local food banks.

• HPP is focused not only on employing workers from the local community, but also on providing a good workplace environment and benefits, including health insurance, a 401k match program, PTO, and discounts on meat products.