“When I was kid, I loved to go out with my dad in the early mornings and help him feed the animals, especially scooping corn out of a wagon to feed cattle.”

Old School Farm is a diversified operation with various livestock and crops, including: cattle, hogs and sheep, with corn, soybeans, oats, alfalfa, annual and perennial pasture and cover crops. The farm is 160 acres, 2 1/2 miles north of Edgerton, Minnesota, where Joel lives and also by Chandler, MN where Joel grew up.  His hogs, sheep and some of the cattle are kept at the Chandler location, where he rents an additional 160 acres.

The grass-fed cattle that Joel raises graze grass and forages their entire lives, and reach marketing weight around two years of age.  They are never given any grain to supplement their diet.  Joel also finishes cattle on a grain based diet, but those are sold into a different market.  The hogs he raises are non-confinement and certified natural hogs, and has 90 breeding ewes that he lambs each spring.

With the help of many friends and family, Joel rehabilitated an old school house (originally built in the 1900s and closed in 1952) that sits on the property. The building now serves as his home, and gives inspiration for the name, Old School Farm.