I headed up to go visit with Erin,
another woman who's bringing
her own unique vision to the area.
[upbeat music]
- My name is Erin Link.
I am the owner of EB Ranch,
located in Dunn County, Wisconsin.
And I am a goat farmer and poultry farmer,
among other things.
[goats bleating]
EB Ranch's big idea was to showcase that a small farm
can be diverse in not only livestock,
but in the products that it produces
and offers to the community.
[upbeat music]
And show off that these animals,
that these different livestock and poultry
can work together in tandem
in a rotational grazing situation.
- She decided to focus on raising and preserving
a rare breed of goat called the San Clemente.
[groovy music]
- I am happy to say that I'm steward
to the critically endangered San Clemente Island Goat.
There's only about 1,400 of them left.
And what's so intriguing and special about them
is their multipurpose nature.
They are really hardy; they're adaptable.
They can be really good milk and meat producers,
as well as possibly fiber, or just browse pets.
You name it, they're there for any small farm or homestead.
They're this rugged little goat that I really enjoy raising.
- Inga: Erin finds creative solutions
to the challenges she faces as a homesteading farmer.
[upbeat rock music]
- My milking situation is fun.
The shelter that the goats use on rotational pastures
is actually a gutted-out camper
that I have the milk stanchion in.
Good girl.
[milk splashing]
[metal clinking]
I enjoy farming because of the variety
and the challenges that it offers me.
I love problem-solving.
Look out you guys, we're moving.
[chickens chirping]
It's a mix of routine and surprises. [laughs]
- Erin, thank you so much for inviting me to your farm today!
This is a really beautiful location.
I love the peacefullness and the birds.
- Erin, tell me what you're envisioning for your farm.
- I am a person that likes to do many things,
and so having multiple species on my farm
is really important to me
to see how everybody works together for livestock.
And so my big dream is to have ducks and goats
and chickens and other poultry
following each other up in this rotation system
that has been recommended
by a lot of different places and people.
- I'm always fascinated with how people decide
on either dairy cows or beef cows or goats.
How did you come to the decision of the goats
and the ducks and the chickens?
- I, you know, moved back up here in western Wisconsin.
And I always wanted to have goats since I was a little girl.
And I couldn't have goats 'cause everybody had dairy cows.
- Yeah, same here. [both laughing]
- And so it was never my true intention, really.
Like I didn't have this long-term plan
of moving back up here to farm,
but my partner and I had the opportunity to do so.
And so I was like, "I'm getting goats."
And I wanted to see
if there were any heritage breed goats around.
And that's where I came across the San Clemente Island Goat.
These goats have a very unique DNA,
and that's part of this heritage breed
is that they offer diversity and uniqueness
in our food system
that is really important for our food safety.
We need people to be more aware of like,
their actual meat sources or their product sources.
And if we don't find those purposes for those animals,
those animals are gonna be gone.
So we need to support farms
that are raising heritage breeds.
- Inga: I love it, because a lot of people
who are not from Wisconsin
really think that Wisconsin is just dairy cows, right?
- Yeah.
- It's so fun to be in these communities like Prairie Farm
and see how diverse it is just in this community,
with what you're doing here with these amazing goats
and the ducks and the chickens,
what Maggie's doing growing these beautiful flowers.
And then you have Ken and Jay
with America's first pumpkin seed oil production,
all in this area.
I just, this is the great thing about Wisconsin
is just all these communities
that are being built through agriculture,
and just through sharing of knowledge too.
- And this being supportive of each other.
The overwhelming support and this encouragement.
This is a really open and giving and helpful community
to be part of, yeah.