Gauker Farms

Here are some of the frequently asked questions we receive both on Facebook and at the Farmers’ Market. We hope this will help you learn more about our farm. We encourage questions, so if you have one, let us know! What makes Gauker Farms meat so special? Everything! (Just kidding!) Lee is the 9th generation to farm his family’s Fleetwood, Berks County farm. Jodi somehow got roped in and married Lee, so she’s here and helps Lee out when she can (and “deals with people” because Lee doesn’t like to do that!). We sell our beef (and lamb and bison from our friends – and soon there will be pork!) by the whole, half, quarter, or cut. We are licensed by the PA Department of Agriculture and the Chester County Health Department (because we go to a Chester County farmers’ market). Our steers are butchered in a USDA inspected shop in Lancaster County that does an excellent job with our livestock. They (our butcher shop) are Animal Welfare Approved! The beef is dry aged (for at least 10 days) which really helps the flavors within the beef concentrate, giving it that “not from a grocery store” taste. We raise all of our own grain and hay – and the straw bedding! – on our 270 acre farm. (We do buy some grain in – more on that later!) The entire Gauker Family is involved – Lee’s dad does most of the feeding and helps Lee with some of the field work, Lee’s mom can sometimes be found in the tractor baling straw or helping with a market, and Lee’s sister helps out from time to time, too. Even Lee’s uncles and cousins help us bale and put away straw in the very hot barn in July, which we truly appreciate! Our steers will be out on pasture from about July through November once we get our fence up for our new barn! (they are in the barn for the winter) – and some of our older steers stay in the barn when they are close to “finish,” but they have ample room and are quire happy living their best steer lives. Our steers are all fed grain twice each day though. We produce the grain right here on our farm. So, are they grass-fed? No. There are very specific criteria for that – i.e. no grain ever – and that’s not how we raise our steers. If grass fed is more your jam, Jodi is happy to provide recommendations for farmers who meet your needs! No. We use judicial use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers on our farm to produce quality crops. Does Gauker Farms raise and feed genetically modified (GM) crops? Yes, we do. We plant lots of different varieties of corn, soybeans, wheat, and hay on our farm, and while our hay and wheat is not genetically modified, and our pastures do not have genetically modified seed, we do plant (and our steers consume!) genetically modified corn and soybeans. We agree with the FDA in their opinion that GM crops have been tested and have been proven safe for humans. We also find that we are able to use less pesticides (read: less spraying, less fuel to go over the fields, etc.) because we use GM technology. If you are uncomfortable with this, we are HAPPY to recommend another farm to you that does not feed genetically modified crops. We support your right to know and choose! Are Gauker Farms cows happy cows? Our dairy farming friends would want you to know we raise steers – castrated male calves – and not cows that give milk. 🙂 Our steers are happy though! Sad steers don’t eat. Sad steers get sick. We VERY rarely have either of those cases on our farm. We have happy, hungry steers. Do you feed hormones or antibiotics? We want you to know hormones are not fed. They are a small capsule that is placed in the ear of a steer that releases estrogen that helps the steer better convert feed to muscle. Now that you know this, you should know that we do NOT implant with hormones. It’s just not part of our management plan. If we did, a serving of beef from a steer that did have an implant would still have much less estrogen in it than a spinach salad. However, we still don’t do it. We do treat sick animals. We give sick animal