Cattle standing together in a grass pasture

Limited beef available now

Pasture-Raised Meat from Macomb, Illinois

A regenerative family farm. Raised on pasture and sold straight from our farm to your freezer. Call us about what's in the freezer today, or get on the list for what's next.

Call (309) 313-2276 Get on the List

Locally RaisedMacomb, Illinois

RegenerativePasture raised, rotationally grazed

Family OwnedMitchell, Miranda and the girls

Sold DirectFrom our farm to your freezer

Our Story

We built this from scratch

We're Mitchell and Miranda Woodside. We raise cattle on 106 acres just outside Macomb with our two daughters, Charlotte and Eleanor, and our two dogs, Rosko and Luna.

Mitchell grew up around Rushville and spent every minute he could on his grandparents' farm: cattle, sheep, chickens, row crops, and keeping all the machinery and equipment running. That's 35 years around livestock, and more than 20 years owning his own cows. He earned a degree in sustainable agriculture from Western Illinois University, with a minor in forestry.

Plenty of young people who grow up around farming hit the same wall: there's only so much room on a family farm, and not enough for another family to make a living on it. So Mitchell set out to build his own. In 2016 he hit the road in renewable energy construction, building and upgrading power generation sites, substations and transmission lines across the country, from Minnesota and North Dakota to Texas, New Mexico, California and the Carolinas. He lived lean, paid off his student loans and saved every dollar he could toward one goal: coming home to buy a farm.

In 2020 he moved back home for a regional job, bought a run-down house in Industry and rebuilt it from the studs out, living in it and saving the whole time.

Along the way he met Miranda, who grew up in Miles, Texas. They met online. First date was at the Rusty Spur, then a rodeo and a barn dance, and that was that.

Mitchell and Miranda on their wedding day

2022 was a big year. We sold that house and bought the farm, added our first big group of cows to the handful Mitchell already had, got married, and found out our first daughter was on the way, all in the same year. The old farmhouse needed serious work, so we started gutting and rebuilding it into a home kids can run around in, while upgrading the farm piece by piece as we could afford it.

Mitchell has always worked hard to pay for the dream. He ran a pilot car business, and today he runs Illinois Gutter Pros, a seamless gutter company here in Macomb, while also working a full-time remote job for a construction company. All of it goes toward making this farm work.

2016Hit the road in renewable energy construction
2020Rebuilt our first house from the studs
2022Farm, cows, first pork sold, got married
2023First daughter, water line, fence and barn
2024Kept rebuilding the farmhouse
2025Second daughter, first steer to the freezer
2026Still building, still learning

The first house Mitchell rebuilt, in Industry — First house, Industry

The farmhouse when we bought it — When we bought it

The farmhouse partway through the rebuild — Work in progress

The farmhouse at night, nearly finished — Almost done

Why We Do It

Good food shouldn't be rare

Mitchell spent years lifting, training and paying close attention to what he ate. That led to a simple question: why is so much of our food unhealthy in the first place? The more he learned, the more the answer pointed to a food system built to grow corporate profits first, with the land, the animals, the farmers and the people eating at the end of the line all coming second.

That's not a knock on any farmer. Most farmers, regenerative or not, care about the same things we do: their land, their animals, their families and their towns. They're up against the same system we are. We're just taking a different road, one family figuring it out as we go: take care of the soil and the animals, keep the profit with the farmer and the community, and put the value on the plates of the families eating the food.

Selling direct is part of that. It keeps food local, puts a face and a phone number behind your beef, and rebuilds a little of the community that used to exist between farms and the families they fed. It's also what gives a farm that started from nothing a real chance, since that's close to impossible on commodity prices alone.

We also want our girls to grow up the way we did: outside, boots in the dirt, watching calves get born and learning what hard work builds. If we can build this from scratch, maybe it shows somebody else they can too.

How We Raise Them

Simple, steady, and getting better

We're a regenerative farm: the cattle are how we build better soil and better grass. Our herd is commercial crossbreds, and they live on grass.

The farm is split into seven pastures. Right now we move the herd to fresh grass about once a week, so each pasture gets real time to rest and regrow. In 2023 we trenched in over 2,000 feet of water line that can reach every pasture, and five waterers spread across the property keep fresh water close to wherever the cattle are. That same year Mitchell built 2,000 feet of high-tensile electric fence. A mineral feeder on skids moves right along with the cattle.

Every morning and every night we take the side-by-side out to check on them.

They eat mostly grass and hay, with some grain and silage when it helps keep them in good condition.

Where we're headed: smaller paddocks so we can move them more often and grow better grass, more water line and fence as we go, and over time, a move toward South Poll genetics, a breed built to thrive on grass with low inputs and strong mothering instincts.

Sheep and goats in 2027. They'll graze alongside the cattle and clear brush like honeysuckle and autumn olive out of the timber and pastures, work the cattle won't do.

106

acres outside Macomb

pastures on rotation

2,000+

feet of water line, trenched in 2023

2,000

feet of high-tensile electric fence, built in 2023

The Land

No row crops since 1998

Drag the slider. On the left is our ground in the 1998 Illinois aerial survey, still farmed in row crops. On the right is today: pasture, timber and grass, same spot, same frame.

1998Today

1998: Illinois State Geological Survey aerial photography. Today: Esri World Imagery.

The Beef

Grass-finished or grain-finished

Every animal here is raised the same way: on pasture, moved to fresh grass, checked every day. How it's finished in the last months is a matter of taste, and people have good reasons for both. So we plan to offer both.

Grass-Finished

Grass and hay start to finish. Leaner, with that deeper, beefier flavor grass-fed fans look for.

Grain-Finished

Raised on pasture, then finished with grain. More marbling and the rich, buttery steak most people grew up on.

In the freezer now

We have a limited amount of beef from our 2025 steer. It's first come, first served. Give us a call or text and we'll tell you which cuts we have left. Want to try some before buying a bigger share? We'd like that too.

Call (309) 313-2276

Beef

By the cut and by the share
Fall 2027 or spring 2028

Pork

Coming back

Chicken

Coming back

Eggs

Coming back

Lamb

Maybe, we'll see

Produce

Down the road

Pickup at the farm. Delivery possible within about 100 miles of Macomb.

Coming Soon

Order online

We're building a simple online catalog so you can see exactly what's available and reserve it. Here's a preview of how it will look. These are examples only, not current stock.

EXAMPLE

Ribeye

Ribeye Steak

About 1 inch thick, 2 per pack

EXAMPLE

Ground

Ground Beef

1 lb packs

EXAMPLE

Roast

Chuck Roast

About 3 lb

EXAMPLE

Quarter Beef

Mixed cuts, reserve with a deposit

The Farm Runs on Data

A modern farm, built by hand

Mitchell's background is construction, systems and technology as much as farming, and he believes the best farms of the next generation will use all three. Most of what you see here he built himself. The goal is simple: better care for the animals and the land, with less wasted time and money.