ABOUT US
Twelve Stones Farm
GET TO KNOW US
Welcome to the Twelve Stones Farm family! We believe it is essential for the success of any small farm in today’s world to be authentic.
We have been homesteading and hobby farming for 10+ years, raising chickens, goats, donkeys, and horses, as well as growing our own vegetables. Our desire has always been to live off the land to support a healthy and fulfilling lifestyle—we’ve made mistakes along the way, but that’s just part of the learning process. With each passing year, we’re trying to make this our reality.
Why do we do what we do? Like many other people around the world, we woke up to the scam of Big Agriculture. We have been taught wrongly how to raise livestock and grow food. We’re done participating and will not be complicit in perpetuating this lie.
We want to provide our own family with natural food that is complete in nutrition and help other families do the same. That is why we raise sheep that are resistant to diseases and parasites with organic and regenerative methods for breeding stock so that we can help other homesteads and farms do what we do. It is not enough to just provide the means to do it (i.e. the animals) but it is essential to deconstruct and reconstruct our understanding of soil, how to grow food, and what food is. What we eat really does define who we are (or will be). Nutrition deprivation is the cause of all of the major health crises—we will talk about this in future blogs posts.
We want this farm to be successful not only for our own benefit, but for our friends, family, and community. We want it to be successful for the sake of our grandkids and great-grandkids—to teach them the heritage and beauty of living off the land and to provide them with the means to take care of their own families by passing on a fulfilling lifestyle with generational wealth in land and livestock, along with wisdom and knowledge that is acquired from a lifetime of experience—especially in these times of uncertainty, instability, and ever increasing dependence on government support and subsidies. We want the ability to generously provide for the needs in our communities—financially, but also with food, clothes, shelter, utilities, and transportation. We want to fulfill the biblical obligation of taking care of the needy among us to help them get on their feet and live a life without worrying about how they will make it. We pray that the Almighty God will bless the work of our hands if not for that reason alone.
My Life at a Glance
MEET THE FARM MANAGER
Hi, my name is Ryan. I am so excited that you are interested not only in what we have to offer, but who we are. I manage the day-to-day operations along with my father. We are starting up a few different businesses (farm enterprise, handyman services, and life/marriage/family/discipleship coaching) to support our family. I am responsible for the content, website, social media, emails, and marketing that you see with the feedback from my family.
I am 22 years old, the 4th oldest out of 9 kids—5 biological and 4 adopted. I was homeschooled along with my other siblings and fortunate to be raised in an incredible home with two amazing, wise, godly parents.
Being the son of an evangelical preacher, we did a lot of moving from house to house back and forth across the Tennessee-Kentucky line, trying to follow wherever the Lord was calling us—often moving within 2-3 years. I was “saved” and baptized at fairly young age (8 years old). I didn’t fully understand what that meant at the time, I just knew that I loved God and wanted to give him my life. I wish I could tell you everything was bliss and perfect after that point, but we have battles to fight in this world, but thank God He has delivered me through every time, even when I didn’t deserve it.
After many months of desperation, in 2023 the Father finally answered my prayer. I was begging and crying out to Him night after night, trying to understand what it actually meant to follow Christ. The clichés that I had heard my whole life didn’t satisfy me anymore, they didn’t actually answer anything—they just shrugged it off to the side. Then one morning, I came across a video…that changed my life forever. The light bulbs came on. God revealed to me (what is already plainly written) His will and His ways of life. In church, I was always told to “stay in God’s will” but never taught how or what His will is. He has a “general” will, which is the expectation for all believers, and He has a “specific” will, which is how He wishes to use us to advance His kingdom. I will stop myself there, but there is nothing I love more than talking about what God has been teaching me these last few years, so send me an email at any time at ryan@twelvestones.farm and I would be more than happy to have a cordial discussion.
Coming from a family with musical background, I picked up the piano at a fairly young age and began helping lead worship at our church a short couple years later. I have played for different churches, events, and camps—it is still one of my favorite things to do. After high school, I didn’t pursue further education school due to indecisiveness. So I worked part-time jobs between graduation and 2023, along with helping on the homestead—like building barns, shelters, and fences. It didn’t take me long to discover working retail or a corporate job was something I didn’t want to do for the rest of my life. I’ve dabbled in photography, logo and graphic design, computer programming, and a couple of music gigs along the way, and although I love and enjoy each of those greatly, I could never envision myself making it a fulfilling, lifelong career—though, perhaps with music I could.
Finally, in 2023, 3 years after graduating high school, I discovered what I love—regenerative agriculture and raising livestock with rotational grazing (we’ll discuss this in the next section). Growing up on a humble homestead (our family moving every 2-3 years following the Lord made it difficult to really establish anything), I’ve been around animals and small livestock my whole life. Though having a love for our four-legged friends, I didn’t have the passion to raise, care, and nurture them—not in the system we knew. Feeding grain twice a day, mucking around in the muddied up overgrazed pasture after a rain, enduring the unpleasant aroma of a barn, and what feels like a never-ending cycle of treating health issues just didn’t entice me. This is not the life that animals live in the wild. They don’t have the need for vaccines, antibiotics, or grain. Yet, they suffer with high mortality unless we intervene with treatment? Something’s not right with that. That lifestyle just wasn’t for me.
Though none of them ended up not being a career, the skills I had taught myself through high school (photography, website design, graphic and logo design, and programming) have been very beneficial in my pursuit in building a business. If I had went off to college, I would’ve missed my passion and doing it with the combination of all my skill sets. So I am grateful for the wisdom I have inherited from my parents and my Father in heaven and not making a hasty decision in vain. If the Lord wills, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. As I continue to learn more and more all the time, I hope to share with others the joy and knowledge I have obtained in my limited yet increasing experience and to build a community of people that want the same thing.
If it wasn’t for this system of rotational grazing, there is a snowball’s chance in Death Valley, CA in the middle of summer that I would be doing this.
So that leaves us where we are today. A sheep farmer passionate for the truth and wanting others to experience it too, determined to create a fulfilling and self-sustaining life. I hope one day, should the Lord will and tarry, that I will have generation wealth (land and livestock) and a successful business to pass down to my children and their children that will give them comfort and security so they have no need to build up from the bottom nor worry or stress about how bills or groceries will be paid, but I know the Father is in control of it all and He will take care of His children regardless.
| “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” – Matthew 6:33
OUR JOURNEY INTO REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE
We’ve been exploring regenerative practices for a decade, but over late 2022 through 2023, our understanding was drastically changed. We knew we didn’t agree with locking animals into a small confined space only to run out of pasture and forced to feed grain and hay, while leaving a muddy, mucky mess, but we didn’t know what else to do.
After over a year of study and practice, we were convinced that you not only don’t need grain, dewormers, antibiotics, and barns, but it can actually be detrimental to animal health, welfare, and genetics.
So what initiated this radicalization? In late 2022, we discovered Greg Judy’s YouTube channel. Not long after that in January 2023, we were offered the opportunity to start a self-sufficient regenerative farm in Middle Tennessee. This not only allowed us to start implementing the regenerative practices we had been learning, but also provided us with the opportunity to attend Greg Judy’s advanced grazing schools, the latest with the brilliant Ian Mitchell Innes as the guest speaker, to truly grasp the core concepts of sustainable and profitable regenerative agriculture. Only to solidify and strengthen our understanding, we were also able to study under the brilliant Dr. Elaine Ingham’s through her Soil Food Web foundation courses. This has supplied us with a well-rounded understanding of the interaction between soil microbiology, plants, and grazing.
Unfortunately, after over a year’s worth of hard labor, raising and successfully wintering South Pole cattle and St. Croix sheep (neither of which we had ever raised) on grass with rotational grazing, supplemented with hay as necessary, on top of building 8+ miles of high-quality, state-of-the-art steel fence, our vision for the farm just didn’t align with the landowner. Though grieved by the loss of the cattle we had so tenderly cared for, we had to go our separate ways and was ultimately for the betterment of our mental health. We moved back to West Tennessee from where we came and have lived for the majority of our lives to reset and refocus. Putting all of that behind us and digging into what we have learned and practiced, we are now leasing land in our area, looking for more all the time, and have bought our own flocks of sheep, including the one we managed that came from Greg Judy’s farm, with the hopes of one day getting back into South Pole cattle as a secondary operation.
The Significance of a Name
WHY "TWELVE STONES" FARM?
Why “twelve stones?”, one might ask. We believe that there is a purpose in a name—it is a descriptor of an individual and their character. We chose Twelve Stones Farm because we believe we are called, just as every believer is, to build onto the foundational work of God through His son, Jesus Christ (whom we affectionately prefer to use the closer transliteration of his name, Yeshua), and his disciples. The motivation behind what we do and how we live our everyday lives comes from the love and devotion we have for our God. We are not forceful or aggressive with our beliefs nor do we condemn or look down upon anyone who doesn’t agree with us, but we stand firm and are convinced in what we believe and we’re not ashamed to testify to it.
The scriptural reference for our name comes from Revelation 21:19 and Ephesians 2:19-20, highlighting the significance of the faith and work of the twelve disciples, the city of God that is to come is said to have been built on twelve foundations (which are often stones, especially in ancient architecture) bearing the names of the disciples. They were monumental because of their belief and faithfulness to the Messiah, spreading the good news that he had come.
| “The wall of the city had twelve foundations bearing the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” – Revelation 21:19
| “19 So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” – Ephesians 2:19-20
Though we fall short of it, we strive our best to model our lives after the example that Yeshua and his disciples, who truly grasped living for the kingdom of heaven, have given us. We hold Yeshua not only as our savior, but also as our lord. As an obligation to the authority over you, you must obey what you are commanded. These things are not difficult, arbitrary, crazy, or illogical, but they are contrary to how we live our lives. His ways are for the benefit, protection, and provision of everyone—they establish property rights, justice, and the systems to provide for the needy.
Our Practice
HOW WE MANAGE OUR SHEEP
When you buy sheep from an auction, sure you might have paid a “good” price, but if that animal doesn’t make it or adapt to your management and you end up having to nurse it to health with trips to the vet, how much did it really cost you to buy that animal? Time and money on a worthless animal (I mean in the monetary sense). You will never get your money back out of her if she doesn’t make it or if you paid for several vet visits (this is the difference between it being a hobby and a way to sustain yourself financially). You also have no idea if you agree with the ethics and practices of the breeder you bought the animal from.
Stay away from auctions unless you know what you are looking for. Don’t let sick animals discourage you from farming. Buy a quality animal from a reputable breeder, especially if you are just starting out. And buy an animal that matches your management style—you will save yourself tons of headaches, frustration, and even heartaches. You would rather have 5 quality animals that are thriving than a flock of 20 riddled with disease that are dropping like flies or not getting well. Start your farm off right. Raising livestock is fun and rewarding if you have the right animals and you manage them well. I talk a little bit about this in our free e-book with 11 questions to ask the seller. Sign up here and get your copy!
Similarly, the products you buy from a store, especially big box retailers, you have no guarantee about the quality of life that the animal had nor the ethics and practices of the producer or processing plant. Management, finish time, and processing techniques determine the quality of the meat you purchase—the flavor and tenderness.
The greatest grazing system: intensive, high-density, rotational grazing.
Our sheep are raised fully on pasture without grain, vaccinations, antibiotics, barns, or GMO products. There is a time and place for antibiotics and (non-chemical) dewormers, but you need consider everything holistically. It should be the exception, not the norm. We provide with fresh grass and well water daily, along with a quality mineral salt. This, along with their genetics, is what produces a lamb that is parasite-free and doesn’t need any medication, hoof trimming, or assistance with lambing. It produces a delicious, mild-tasting meat.
We layout paddocks every day using step-in posts and polybraid wire using solar-powered energizers, enabling us to graze any and everywhere on the farm. We currently run on our sheep on 100% leased land. Though a little inconvenient not being able to establish the infrastructure we want, we couldn’t raise sheep without the leases. We are looking for more all the time, so if you’re in the Henry County, TN area, reach out to us. We transform rundown pastures and hay fields into beautiful landscapes without seed or fertilizer, we can also install improvements like water and fence.
With our management practice, we take land that a cow would starve to death on and produce a beautiful, healthy, and thriving flock of sheep. We prove every day that you don’t need grain, barns, or antibiotics to raise livestock. You must select for the animals that are adapted to your climate, forage, and rainfall. Although we have been learning about regenerative farming techniques for years, we missed the piece that makes it all work—moving the animals. Something so simple, yet we missed for so long. We were blessed over this last year with the opportunities to speak with and learn under some of the greatest minds in this industry. Under Greg Judy and Ian Mitchell Innes, we learned about high-density rotational grazing and its incredible benefits and transformations. Under Dr. Elaine Ingham, we learned about the processes that are happening within the soil that are a result of our management—a key piece missing in conventional agriculture, the Soil Food Web.
Problematic and illness-prone animals should be culled, not passing down bad genetics and behavior. As we progress further down the line and begin recuperating our investment, we will be much stricter with our culling—ensuring that only the toughest, strongest, and highest quality of animals with good genetics are grown on our farm—keeping our flocks free from the deadly jaws of diseases and parasites.
Get in touch
PASTURE-RAISED SHEEP
PHONE
(731)-200-5260
LOCATION
Henry County, TN
office@twelvestones.farm