Around the Farm Table

Inga

I headed up to go visit with Erin, another woman who's bringing her own unique vision to the area.

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Inga

My name is Erin Link. I am the owner of EB Ranch, located in Dunn County, Wisconsin. And I am a goat farmer and poultry farmer, among other things.

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Inga

EB Ranch's big idea was to showcase that a small farm can be diverse in not only livestock, but in the products that it produces and offers to the community.

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Inga

And show off that these animals, that these different livestock and poultry can work together in tandem in a rotational grazing situation. She decided to focus on raising and preserving a rare breed of goat called the San Clemente.

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Inga

I am happy to say that I'm steward to the critically endangered San Clemente Island Goat. There's only about 1,400 of them left. And what's so intriguing and special about them is their multipurpose nature. They are really hardy; they're adaptable. They can be really good milk and meat producers, as well as possibly fiber, or just browse pets. You name it, they're there for any small farm or homestead. They're this rugged little goat that I really enjoy raising. Erin finds creative solutions to the challenges she faces as a homesteading farmer.

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Inga

My milking situation is fun. The shelter that the goats use on rotational pastures is actually a gutted-out camper that I have the milk stanchion in. Good girl.

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Inga

I enjoy farming because of the variety and the challenges that it offers me. I love problem-solving. Look out you guys, we're moving.

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Inga

It's a mix of routine and surprises.

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Inga

Erin, thank you so much for inviting me to your farm today. This is a really beautiful location. I love the peacefulness and the birds. Tell me what you're envisioning for your farm. I am a person that likes to do many things, and so having multiple species on my farm is really important to me to see how everybody works together for livestock. And so my big dream is to have ducks and goats and chickens and other poultry following each other up in this rotation system that has been recommended by a lot of different places and people. I'm always fascinated with how people decide on either dairy cows or beef cows or goats. How did you come to the decision of the goats and the ducks and the chickens? I, you know, moved back up here in western Wisconsin. And I always wanted to have goats since I was a little girl. And I couldn't have goats 'cause everybody had dairy cows. Yeah, same here.

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Inga

And so it was never my true intention, really. Like I didn't have this long-term plan of moving back up here to farm, but my partner and I had the opportunity to do so. And so I was like, "I'm getting goats." And I wanted to see if there were any heritage breed goats around. And that's where I came across the San Clemente Island Goat. These goats have a very unique DNA, and that's part of this heritage breed is that they offer diversity and uniqueness in our food system that is really important for our food safety. We need people to be more aware of like, their actual meat sources or their product sources. And if we don't find those purposes for those animals, those animals are gonna be gone. So we need to support farms that are raising heritage breeds. I love it, because a lot of people who are not from Wisconsin really think that Wisconsin is just dairy cows, right? Yeah. It's so fun to be in these communities like Prairie Farm and see how diverse it is just in this community, with what you're doing here with these amazing goats and the ducks and the chickens, what Maggie's doing growing these beautiful flowers. And then you have Ken and Jay with America's first pumpkin seed oil production, all in this area. I just, this is the great thing about Wisconsin is just all these communities that are being built through agriculture, and just through sharing of knowledge too. And this being supportive of each other. The overwhelming support and this encouragement, this is a really open and giving and helpful community to be part of, yeah.