Kingbird Farm

Karma and Michael Glos and their daughter Rosemary raise Animal Welfare Approved pigs, beef cattle and laying hens at Kingbird Farm in Berkshire, NY. Before starting Kingbird Farm, Karma and Michael both gardened extensively with their families growing up and then went on to apprentice with farmers.  They purchased their current land in 1995, became certified organic in 1998 and ever since they’ve worked to build a diverse, productive, and sustainable family farm.  Karma says, “It is very important to us that our farm be ecologically, financially, socially, and emotionally sustainable.  We want to raise food in the very best way we can so we can feed the community around us.”

Kingbird is a very mixed farm of livestock, vegetables, herbs, and forest.  All the animals are grazed free-range on certified organic pasture.  Their small herd of Highland cattle are bred to a Red Angus bull to produce hardy calves that are grassfed and finished.  They also pasture a herd of Tamworth sows and a boar.  Sows give birth in deep bedded barns where they can meet their maternal need to nest. Piglets are then raised on pasture. The laying flock is composed of Black Australorp hens, which they have been breeding and raising on farm for several years.

On their reasons for applying for AWA certification, Karma says, “We found the standards to be very strong and took it as a personal challenge to meet them.”

To keep up with what’s happening at Kingbird Farm, please visit http://www.kingbirdfarm.com/.