Here at Wagon Wheel Ranch, located in Mount Airy, Maryland, we believe there is a right and wrong way to do everything. Whether it means waking up at 5:30 in the morning to feed or staying up into the later hours to make sure a birthing animal receives the attention it needs, we are 100% dedicated to our animals and our customers.

Unlike the companies that provide meat to your local grocery store, we are not a “factory farm” but a family farm dedicated to raising livestock the way nature intended - free range and naturally fed. Factory farms cause health problems for their neighbors by polluting the water and killing local wildlife with such pollution. The animals are treated like unfeeling commodities and subject them to intolerable and inhumane abuse.

We believe that you, as a consumer, deserve the best, and in order to help provide you with that, our website is here to give you all the information you will need! We believe that consumers need to be aware of how their food is raised and send a message to the corporate farms by not buying any meat or eggs if the animals were raised by cruel and inhumane methods.

 

Animals like cattle, sheep and goats are called “Ruminants” and are vegetarians by design with the ability to easily digest plant fibers. This ability is due to their four compartment stomach that includes a large fermentation “vat” called a rumen. Rumination involves swallowing grass, soaking and mixing it in the fluid rumen contents, regurgitating a cud, re-chewing it, then re-swallowing it.

Animals fed inappropriately on dry grain diets suffer from numerous gastrointestinal and other diseases. By definition, then, grain feeding means suffering for the animal. It also can mean suffering for the humans who ingest their meat, eggs, or milk. Grain feeding alters the animals' intestinal flora, increasing opportunities for the growth of pathogens such as E. coli (in cattle) and Salmonella (in poultry). The intestines of cattle fed only grass or hay are free of virulent E. coli, and chickens raised entirely on pasture are free of Salmonella. Mad cow disease is unknown among cattle fed entirely on pasture and hay.

 

We aren't in business to mass-produce inferior products like factory farms do; we provide clean, quality service and hold our products to the highest standards. So please, browse our site at your leisure, we think you will see just how great free range products are!

 

In addition to our free-range animals, we also breed guard dogs and provide boarding services.

Be sure to check out all of our pages showcasing our services and please call or e-mail us to set up a visit — We would love to see you!

Check out our recent article in the Howard County Women's Journal - we are on pages 16-17!

**Due to high demand, beef, pork, lamb, goat, and tastes of the farm boxes are sold out for the spring and summer 2011. We still have meat poultry and eggs for the spring.