"Whispering Pine Farms" Operation
Whispering Pine Farms is owned and operated by Jason and Marcy McDonald and their children: Gina (14), Vanessa (13), Drew (11), Blake (9), Cameron (8), Braden (6), Kyler (3) and Sophia (2).
Jason started an electric motor repair shop (Tri-County Electric Motor Service & Repair) with his Dad in 1996. This business grew and expanded and more concentration was placed in the wind industry. With a rapidly growing industry like wind power generation and a desire to grow, the name was changed to Trico TCWind. Inc.
Jason and his brother Grant bought out their Dad's portion of the business. With still more growing and a promising future in the wind industry, the company moved to a larger 75,000 square foot facility in 2006. In 2008, the brothers were approached by Intergrated Power Services (IPS) and asked if they would be interested in selling. Jason and Grant were interested and the sale of the business was finalized in September 2008.
We started dreaming and our dreams started to feel like they could become reality. The cattle business was our dream and could we make it a reality. The home place at the time only consisted of 10 acres. The neighbor offered to sell a 19 acre piece that connected the length of the home site.
We got excited; we could now run a few head of cattle!
The pastures and barn designs were drawn out and we got the ball rolling to get our project started.
We bought seven heifers, two bred cows and a bull from Able Acres out of Indiana. Both cows calved in January and both had heifers!
Jason went on the internet auction for Colyer Herefords and bought three heifers. No sooner did things get rolling and we found another piece of property nearby, that was for sale. This was a 47 acre piece and worked out perfect for our plans!
We went to the 2010 Denver Stock Show in January and bought Colyer's pick of the fall heifers. We now had a heifer that we thought would be good to show and start getting the farm recognized.
Jason flew to Idaho and went to Colyer's auction in Feb. 2010. He bought a bull and seven more heifers. We now have the base for our herd.
We had 40 acres of pine land, that we had purchased previously, but could not see it being very useful to our farm. We traded the pines for 33 acres of farm land with a building site and barns. In Feb/March of 2010, the farmer on the east side of our property approached us, asking if we'd be interested in buying the 75 acres adjoining ours. We purchased those 75 acres and our farm now has room to grow. |
