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The Golden Hoof

Boulder, Colorado

	MESA Notes – Public
	Website :	http://www.thegoldenhoof.com
	Blog, Online Newsletter, etc. :
	Public Contact Information:	[email protected]

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About the Placement:

Detailed Placement Description

The Golden Hoof is a 200 acre Diversified, Grass-based, Regenerative Farm in Boulder Colorado with a satellite 1900 acre beef cattle ranch in The San Luis Valley of Colorado. Our Boulder operation produces products from a highly diversified mix of livestock enterprises including grass-finished beef and dairy products along with eggs, poultry and pork, as well as some vegetables and fruit; all products are marketed exclusively though our on-farm direct-to-consumer private food club. Our operational systems and philosophy are grounded in ecological stewardship with an eye toward optimizing the health of the land, animal performance, economic return and work-life balance. We are primarily soil/ grass farmers focused on the holistic management of our grass ecosystem. Our Boulder operation manages approximately 180 irrigated acres, finishing around 35 grass fed beef cows per year, and milking 8-10 grass-fed raw-milk dairy cows. Our operation up cycles nutrients from our community’s waste stream which we feed to our pigs and poultry in a deep bedding system. We process all of our animals on-farm and create myriad value-added products which we offer to the community through our Private Membership Assosicaton/On-farm Store.

Primary Production :

Cattle, Dairy, Farm Education & Community, Pork/Swine, Poultry

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About the Internship

Training Hours:

40

Training Expectations :

We will expect you to give us your all 5 days a week from the break of dawn until the day’s work is done and maintain a positive attitude in an effort to help us continually improve our operations on every level. Work will be demanding and rewarding and we will be supportive coworkers, managers and coaches. We will anticipate high performance and continual improvement from you as we do from ourselves. This entails not just the acquisition of knowledge and skills, but must be driven by personality characteristics which are derived from a mindset of total responsibility. To be truly useful on the farm you will need to be open minded, curious and ask lots of questions about why we do things the way we do them. Usually there will not be one right answer, but it is important to have these conversations so that we understand the context within which we are making decisions in order to achieve consistent high quality results and continued improvement. A morning meeting will generally be held daily after breakfast where we will cover topics necessary for you and the team to learn about, understand and perform your daily tasks.

On-Site Training, Steward’s primary activities :

Training is focused on our diversified livestock operation with a focus on our grass-fed dairy and beef cattle finishing operations, as well as on the up-cycling of community food waste for our pig, poultry and compost operations and on the production of value-added food products for our customers. Trainees in Boulder will be exposed to all aspects of our regenerative and holistically managed farm practices as well as sales of food products through our private membership association at our on-farm store. This will include opportunities to learn everything from using low stress animal stockmanship, animal husbandry; including health assessment, veterinary care, assessing animal performance variables, forage assessment and rotational grazing planning and execution – moving mobile fencing, milking, cleaning, ensuring food safety, raw milk testing, etc. Also activities related to running a private farm store including: creating high integrity food products, curing and smoking meats, fermenting vegetables, sausage making, cheesemaking, etc. and helping tend to the store.

Climate and Location Description

Our farm is located 4 miles east of Boulder Colorado at an elevation of 5300 feet at the base of the Rocky Mountains. This is a semi-arid environment with four distinct seasons. The frost-free growing season is typically from early May thru the end of September.

Compensation :

We will be providing lunch for you from the bounty of the farm on the days you work as well as providing eggs, dairy, veggies, meat for you for your other on-farm meals when we have excesses of these items available (when we have shortages, we refrain from partaking of those things that are in short supply- we also refrain from partaking in high value items). We will also supply you with other bulk staples such as grains and legumes and things like laundry detergent. You should likely not need to purchase any food for yourself while you are here (although many people have chosen to).

Accommodations and amenities provided :

You will be given a fully furnished private bedroom and shared bathroom in the upstairs of our beautiful, straw bale agricultural worker’s house. You will also have full access to the shared, fully furnished downstairs kitchen and living space. All needed utensils, bedding, cleaning equipment, etc. will be supplied. No smoking will be allowed indoors. Internet will be provided and use of a vehicle or bicycle to get into town can be arranged. Public transportation is not available at the farm.

Preferred start date :

MarchApril

Preferred length of internship :

10 months

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