Connecting with the Land – Baker 4 Farm

Chip and Becky McLaurin are passionate about raising quality food for their family and community. “Stewardship of the land is a really important thing for us, in just utilizing the resources that we have in the most natural ways that we can to benefit the land, soil, and wildlife, while still raising a quality product,” said Becky. 

The McLaurins work to achieve this mission on Baker 4 Farm, their sheep and cattle grazing operation in Jena, Louisiana. They said that they’ve been operating a rotational grazing system for about five years, and have already been rewarded by seeing the fruits of their labor. 

Chip said that he is passionate about using their farm to work together with the existing wildlife and ecosystem. He said that he wants to implement practices that will positively impact the wild ducks and turkeys on the property.

“We believe in maintaining a diverse ecosystem – whether it's the fauna or the flora, it’s going to promote a diversity of wildlife species. And that's a benefit to us,” said Chip.

LGLCI recently hosted a pasture walk at Baker 4 Farm, and Becky said one of the things she wanted to showcase during the event was that you don’t have to know a lot in order to get started. She said the most important thing is to first get started, then learn from your experiences and mistakes. 

“I think with regenerative agriculture, you start to see the diversity in your grasses and you start to see what you think was a mistake, actually turn out to be a benefit. And you learn about how important it is to unroll hay, or to make sure you've got your livestock all over your property, eating your grass and trampling down old plant material. I think that it’s important for us to be able to sit back and look at what we’ve seen in the last five years,” said Becky. 

Baker 4 Farm is located within an important watershed in central Louisiana, so maintaining water quality is something that’s important to the McLaurins. They said they’ve recently been approved for an NRCS EQUIP program, so that they can improve the fencing and water structures on their farm. 

Becky said she’s excited about being able to build on and improve the existing infrastructure on their farm. She said they’ll be able to expand some of their grazing areas with the addition of the new water troughs. 

“We're blessed to have this land and want to honor God and our family with how we manage it and what we do with it. We want to make sure it's in good working order, and the best it can be when we hand it off to the next generation,” said Chip.