Meet the Cushmans!

Our commitment is to quality -
quality meat, quality service, and quality practices.

Trevor and Kim Cushman, along with their three daughters, run and operate Cushman Family Farm in Bonners Ferry, ID.

Trevor is a fourth generation farmer who has a passion for agriculture. Kim has a background in education and a love for children. This combination lends itself well to raising a homeschooling family on a farm. Each of the three Cushman girls (Katie, Peyton and Avery) is instrumental in the day-to-day operations of the farm including: feeding, watering and moving animals; heavy equipment operation (forklifts, tractors, trucks/trailers, hay-harvesting equipment, tillage equipment, planting equipment, manure spreader, feed-processing equipment, etc.), mucking animal pens, addressing animal health needs, all while fulfilling their educational requirements. Since we are a homeschooling family, an abundance of energy goes into the science of feeding our animals well. The daily ration for all animals consists of homegrown hay and fermented forage, plus local non-GMO barley. This produces delicious and tender beef and lamb!

Our farm is a diversified operation, specializing in quality beef, lamb, hay, and silage.  We use black Angus genetics in our cow/calf operation and Texel genetics in our lamb operation.  The calves born on our farm go on to be either replacement cows (mothers) or steers intended for slaughter. Due to our history as a raw milk dairy, we continue to bring in bottle calves to be raised up for harvest. When done properly, we’ve found that they yield a consistent, uniform carcass, with exceptional tenderness and taste.

We do a few things here on our farm that differ from the conventional beef supply chain (please, do not hear us knocking that industry, it is helping feed our world):

• One thing that we do is name every animal. While this is cute and fun, the real reason is so we can mentally connect individual animals with specific traits, circumstances, and locations, helping us to better care for the livestock.

• All of the steers in our finishing operation have access to indoor space, allowing them to escape the elements, therefore growing more efficiently.

• We have implemented a compost bedding (pack floor) system in our finishing barns. We combine wood shavings with naturally occurring animal waste, this mixture is turned daily October-May and as needed the rest of the year. This bedding stays warm and dry-ish with the help of turning and composting activity. This system is very, very rare in beef- finishing environments, but has become quite popular in the dairy industry because it helps reduce incidences of utter health complications, and improves animal comfort. This product is removed 2-3 times a year and spread on our crops as fertilizer.

• Much of the forage we harvest is put up in the form of individually wrapped silage round bales. The wrapping creates an anaerobic (without oxygen) environment that allows the fodder to ferment via lactic acid producing bacteria. This lactic acid preserves the feed for later use. This system allowed us to put up forage quickly and create a quality product rather than having a dry hay crop get rained on.

• Most cattle ranches have calves either in the spring or the fall (for good reason), but we choose to have calves throughout the year. This allows us to supply beef to our customers all year round.

We believe that we are stewards of the land that the Lord has allowed us to inhabit, hence we feel blessed to share what we have. In many ways, the farm functions like a petting zoo, offering opportunities for visitors, young and old,  to have an authentic hands-on farm experience.

Cushman Family Farm's main objective is happy, healthy animals that feed happy, healthy customers.