Alden Hills Organic Farms enters the Piedmontese world

from 2023 Summer PIEDMONTESE CATTLE magazine

Piedmontese Semen For Sale

Alden Hills Organic Farms is located at Walworth, WI which is right on the Wisconsin-Illinois border, about 1.5 hrs from Chicago. Very diverse with their farm offerings, they have about 500 acres in production of certified organic beef, hogs, chickens, turkeys and eggs – with everything pasture raised!

They focus mainly on direct-to-consumer [via their website AldenHillsOrganicFarms.com] and offer home delivery to Chicago and shipping throughout the Midwest. They also work with a few grocery stores and restaurants as well.

Ethan Heelein is the farm’s Livestock Manager and oversees everything with 4 legs (including the nascent Piedmontese enterprise). Ethan tells us “We’re a very small crew but we get alot done! Levi and Emily Powers have managed the farm since 2014 and have been the driving force in the growth and development of Alden Hills. There is no job they haven’t done and no acre that they don’t know by heart. We also have a Marketing Manager (Alida) on staff who handles orders and marketing for the farm and we usually have 1 or 2 interns and farmhands during the production season.”

Levi Powers explains the path they followed that led them to the Piedmontese. “Our family has always been very entrepreneurial and involved in the health food industry for a couple generations… Starting a farm was a natural progression in creating good, healthy food for folks! When the farm started we were doing a cow/calf operation with Belted Galloways and we did that for about 10 years. As the farm grew though, we weren’t as happy with what the breed offered us and we began to look around at changing things up. Last fall, my wife Emily and I had a chance to go to the Piedmont region of Italy for a farming/food festival…” cont. page 15

Alden Hills Organic Farms - Piedmontese

“I had been interested in the Piedmontese breed and took the opportunity to visit some farms in the regions that were raising the breed. That trip whetted the appetite and we doubled down on researching the breed when we got back. Ethan took the interest from there and really put together the plan to switch breeds… we knew that we had some very specific requirements for a new cattle breed and the Piedmontese fit the bill on nearly all of them. We put together a taste test with 3 or 4 different breeds and Piedmontese was the unanimous winner! From there Ethan tracked down a herd near us (Keith Schnese in Wild Rose, WI) and the rest is history.”

The beef is strictly grass-fed, requiring daily rotation of the herd to different grazing fields. Right now Alden Hills are finishing Angus stockers until the Piedmontese herd is fully up and producing finished beef in 2025.

The mission at Alden Hills is to raise and distribute the cleanest, healthiest and best tasting meats.

Ethan describes their farm-to-fork philosophy, “We feel that it starts with what we do above ground. We run a multi species rotational that moves animals daily. Broilers, Layers, Turkeys, Hogs and Cattle work together recreating the natural grazing systems you see in nature. Whether it’s the great American plains or the African savanna evolution has created multi-species boom and bust cycles that drive ecological health & fertility.

A lot of what we do as a Direct market farm is telling the story of agriculture to the public. For us that starts with the type and quality of animals that we raise. To be completely honest we are still in the infant stage of seeing how well Piedmontese fit into our operation. We are starting out small with 20 cows to really understand the breed. At first look we liked the beef - it was unlike anything we had ever tried or tried since. As I move them daily I am continually impressed by how efficient they are as grazers. They will eat certain grasses in the marshy areas that our angus won’t touch.” cont. p. 16

Alden Hills Organic Farms - Piedmontese

Alden Hills is well on their way, having calved out the first crop of Piedmontese this spring and now learning the grazing habits of the herd this summer.

The goal now is to grow their Piedmontese beef program, while facing the same hurdles that most farmers do. As Ethan says, “The main challenge is the consumer idea that low cost food from Industrial Ag is the only option.”

Levi is optimistic about the future. “This is the best possible time to be in farming. There is so much opportunity right now!

We’re all about the end product. We want great tasting and healthy food at the end of the day. We do know that healthy meat has to come from healthy animals.

We are most proud of the way we include the community that we serve with what it is that we do. We open our doors once a month to a farm tour to see first hand how animals are raised. In its second year we have a kids class where kids are able to meet our staff, see daily operations and meet the many animals that call Alden home. We also host a couple special events each year!”

When asked if he would have any advise to offer to others just starting out, Ethan said “To those creating direct market food ecosystems in their communities, don’t be afraid to start the discussion of what you’re passionate about with the consumer. I feel like we all have this idea that if we engage with someone we don’t know it has to be this grand well thought out presentation. At Alden Hills I have learned it is just as simple as saying “Do you need help with anything?” to a customer in our on-property store. It opens the door to create a producer-consumer relationship that customers don’t forget! l

Certified Piedmontese provides America with the rare Italian-heritage Piedmontese beef with a farm-to-fork approach that ensures traceability, environmental sustainability, humane animal handling, and responsible resource management at every step.