Bashaw Valley Farm began as a dairy farm in 1981.  Our small herd of Holstein cows produced milk and an income for the farm until 1995 when the last of the black and white bovines were cross bred with beef bulls to produce the foundation of our Angus herd today.  The greenhouse "seed" was planted at the end of our dairy farming and by 1995 it was consuming more and more of our time.  A decision had to be made because we could not keep up with milking cows and the demands of the retail greenhouse operation.  



We wanted one of every kind of beef breed and did some experimenting with Simmentals, Herefords, Charlois, Belgium Blue, and Black & Red Angus.  Some of the lineage of our cows today could be traced back to our Holstein cows from our original milking herd.  In the late 90's we operated as a cow-calf operation which meant the cows calved on open pastures and raised their offspring until they were 7 months old.  The calves were then sold as feeders to feedlots where they were "finished" (grown to butchering maturity) before entering the food chain.  

The grass-fed approach was implemented in 2009 when we decided to keep all our calves and market as much as possible, our all natural grass-fed Angus beef directly to the consumer through our store.  In 2010 we joined the Wisconsin Grass-fed Beef Cooperative which allows us to market any excess beef to restaurants and stores in the Madison and Milwaukee areas.  Currently we are selling all of our beef through our on farm store, on line or by the quarter, half or whole.