Meet Your Elmwood Farmers (part 2)

Cattle have been a part of this farm’s story since the early 1930s, when members of the Bell family first worked land in Scott County. The cattle-tending tradition has been passed down and now rests with Cecil Bell and his son, John Bell.

Cecil and John each got their start with Elmwood Stock Farm’s cattle in the same way, by exhibiting animals in 4-H, state and regional shows—albeit about 30 years apart. Cecil became involved in his family’s farm full-time in 1965, and when John is asked about when he became involved in the operation, he says, “I’ve never really not been involved.” Even through college and graduate school, John has been hands-on since he was a kid. Today, “we pretty much share the responsibility of the cattle,” Cecil says, while he and John each joke that one always has a to-do list for the other.

Cattle on a family farm is not a new story in Kentucky, which is the top cattle-producing state east of the Mississippi River, but having a 100-percent grass-fed and -finished certified organic herd since 2008 is something Cecil and John take pride in. Anyone can have grass-fed cattle, as cattle are ruminants—their digestive systems break down forage. Grass-finishing is more difficult because it requires carefully managing the type and age of forages in the pasture and on the hay ground, rotating pastures at the right time, and having the right genetics in the herd. The finishing puts the marbling in the meat and gives the animal the last bit of weight gain it needs.

Keeping these animals fed with nothing but forage is a year-round full-time job, and Cecil spends most of his summer making hay to feed when forage isn’t available, putting up 1,200 round bales this season. He and John both put up fences and move cattle through their rotational-grazing system, manage the animals’ health-care needs, and feed cattle hay through the winter. Additionally, John manages the cattle-breeding program. (He also manages vegetable and grain-crop production.) Maintaining the herd according to organic standards—which Elmwood has been doing since 2000—proves an added but worthwhile challenge.

“You probably work half-again as much or more when you’re working on a family farm than if you had a job working for someone else,” Cecil says. But “you can’t get any more down-to-earth than being a farmer and raising good food for other people.”

Cecil and John still sell Angus breeding stock cattle to local farmers, which is how the Elmwood’s cattle operation began. The beef has been available retail since Cecil’s daughter, Ann Bell Stone (and now her husband, Mac Stone) began selling at farmers markets in the mid-90s and through the CSA in the early 2000s. This adds a new element to the work for John. “I enjoy working with animals. Raising animals for food is emotionally more challenging than simply raising breeding stock, but there’s more fulfillment in raising actual food,” he says. “I am convinced that grass-fed meat is healthier for us than grain-fed, and then there’s the laundry-list of substances that aren’t used in our production because we’re organic.”

Healthy food and healthy families are two of the reasons Elmwood Stock Farm has been around for six generations.