Mettenburg Farm, operated by Al and Roxanne Mettenburg near Princeton, Kansas, in Franklin County is a place of green grasses, rolling hills, and happy animals (human and otherwise). The Mettenburgs have been living organic, natural, free-range and local for many years. Turns out, now they are at the forefront of a global food movement.
Native, Natural Grasses
The farm sits on a pile of Kansas limestone, which means it’s a premium location for growing one thing: native prairie grasses.
Tired of fighting the rock and burning fossil fuels, the Mettenburgs returned their cropland to grasses years ago (much of the farm had always been unbroken tallgrass prairie). Their herd of premium, carefully managed Simmental cattle didn’t put them in the beef business … it put them in the solar energy collection business – using grass!
Native and Natural
The farm’s native prairie grasses capture energy from the sun and carbon dioxide from the air. Photosynthesis converts the plants into high-quality nourishment for cattle and other herbivores. In turn, these animals provide high-density, high-quality nutrition for humans and other carnivores.
Recyclers extraordinaire: watch dung beetles doing their work on our farm. These insects serve an important role in burying nutrients from manure deep into the soil where it can feed plants and soil microbes.
The physical activity of the grazing animals also nourishes the microbes in the soils beneath the grasses. As the herd grazes and moves through the pastures, they trample uneaten grass and deposit waste. Then each pasture is rested. These activities increase soil organic matter significantly.
Increasing organic matter in the soil expands its water-holding capacity – creating protection from both flood and drought. This results in even more grass. The wonderful symbiosis between soil, grass and herbivores is a “win-win” for humans, animals, and the environment.
By marketing premium local meats, Mettenburg Farm provides mother nature’s goodness direct to consumers in a product that’s free of chemicals, has no added hormones or antibiotics, and is born and raised right on a farm you can actually locate on a map (and contact directly … or even visit!).
Learn more about how farmers and ranchers like us are utilizing the land to enrich our environment as well as our health, through careful animal and earth husbandry.
Follow us on our Facebook page.
Find us in rural Franklin County, Kansas
Take Highway 59 to Princeton, Kansas, and head east on John Brown Road. Drive 3 miles east to Nevada Road and turn left (north). Mettenburg Farm is about 1.5 miles north.