Ridgecrest Poultry is a small family farm based in southwest Missouri. Tucked between rolling green hills and miles of oak trees is a barn decorated with hand-planted zinnias and rosebushes, where hens are found wandering to and from the pasture at their leisure.
Next to the barn is a space for family gatherings, the Egg Room, as our farmers call it. Inside, the family is hard at work. A father and son, Dan and Dane, are sitting by their desk, discussing the day’s work, while Dan’s in-laws, Dennis and Donna, hover above the conveyor belt, collecting and filling stacks of grey trays with a typical morning’s supply of eggs.
“My great-grandparents came to Illinois from Germany and bought their farm in 1892. We still own that property – my mother inherited it from several generations of family farmers. And my dad was born and raised on farms in Missouri. So both sides of my family have come from an agricultural background,” Dane explains.
While the family has been in agriculture for quite some time, this is Dan and Dane’s first egg operation. They finished building their barn at the start of 2023 and have been farming with Vital Farms since they received their first flock. Before Ridgecrest Poultry, the family primarily ran a swine farm.
…This is something just about anybody can do. It’s very family-friendly; even children can help out.
Dan compared how egg and swine farming differ, “With swine, you have a 300-400lb. animal and you need muscle to take care of them. With the hens here, my wife can help out, and Dennis – he’s 73, he helps out three times a week. So this is something just about anybody can do. It’s very family-friendly; even children can help out.”
When Dane was young, he and his grandmother converted an old building into a chicken house. When he came to work with his father at Ridgecrest Poultry, that same coup remained a home to 20 backyard hens, each with freedom to roam his land.
“I’ve always loved animals. When I was younger and too little to help out on the farm, it was my grandma and I’s thing to take care of the chickens. They were a similar breed to these – we used to call them Cinnamon Queens. We also had free-range hogs and I would go out and catch the little babies shortly after they were born, sneak ’em inside and sit by my mom on the couch with the little baby pig,” Dane reminisced.
A love for animals runs in the family. You can often find Dennis sitting on a log in the pasture holding a hen in his arms, giving her pets while talking with the girls gathered below. In fact, Dennis spends so much time with the flock that they’ve adopted the habit of following him around the barn.
“They’re more like his pets than they are farm animals…Our farm support are always amazed by how gentle and tame the hens are, so we attribute all the time Dennis spends with them to how good they are.”
“I call them chickies,” Dennis flashes a wide grin, “I go out there, sit down and say ‘chickie chickie!’ and before I know it they’re all gathered around.
“They’re more like his pets than they are farm animals,” Dan adds,” He spends a lot of time with them, and wants what’s best for them. Our farm support are always amazed by how gentle and tame the hens are, so we attribute all the time Dennis spends with them to how good they are.”
The Ridgecrest Poultry family are often hard at work maintaining their farm. They rotate their girls across pastures to care for the soil, make sure the girls have enough water and sufficient nutrition, and handle finance and operational paperwork.
Right now, Dane takes care of all the paperwork and machinery, while Dan performs the hands-on chores in the pasture. Eventually, Dane, a fifth generation farmer, will take over Ridgecrest Poultry and carry the family farming tradition forward.
