About Fossil Ridge Farms
Our story began 6000 kilometres away across the Atlantic. My father, born and raised in Switzerland on a family farm, had his own dream to move to Canada and start farming here. In 1994 my parents finally made the venture overseas. They first started with a small dairy in St-Albert (yes, same town as the cheese) and eventually found their way to this farm in 1998, where we had more room to grow as a family and farm.
In 2003 my parents sold the dairy herd to focus on crop production. However the farm just didn’t feel like a farm without the cattle, so they started raising Charolais. This is when my love for livestock bloomed.
Nonetheless over the years the herd started to decrease in size as the grain operation grew. Time and working hands were falling short especially when us kids were at the end of our high school years and then left for college. In the end we were left with one cow with a heifer calf at side and an unborn heifer calf she was still carrying.
When I returned from college I decided I wanted to focus on local meat production, and as such I was going to bring back the beef. This is when Fossil Ridge Farms was born. A separate farm business from that of my parents (although sharing the same location) I made the focus to be entirely around livestock - specifically pasture raised. My goal is to provide locally raised meat in a sustainable and eco-friendly manner using marginal land that cannot be used for any other purpose.
I started with the those 3 girls we had left from the original Charolais herd. Now I run a herd of 25 (+/-) cow & calf pairs, focusing on Fullblood Limousin cattle (truly an outstanding yet under appreciated breed of cattle). I then began raising turkeys, followed by pigs and as of 2020 have also started raising meat goats. Every single one of these animals is raised right here on our farm, on pasture, eating from land that is otherwise uncultivable. Since adding the livestock to these lands not only have we seen a decrease in the number of invasive plant species (wild/poison parsnip, garlic mustard, etc.) but we have also seen an increased in the general health of the land, more plant biodiversity, as well as an increase in wildlife populations. Our livestock are not only important and valuable tools in sustainable farming and wildlife conservation - they also provide us with a healthy, sustainable protein. All of which is available locally from our family to your family.
