The Olympian

Man realizes dream by becoming farmer

Jerry Stokesberry minimizes high costs with innovative methods

By John Dodge | The Olympian • Published April 28, 2008

An hour spent with Jerry Stokesberry at the epicenter of Stokesberry Sustainable Farms reveals just how hard he and his wife, Janelle, are willing to work to fulfill a lifelong dream.

There are turkeys gobbling, laying hens clucking, baby chicks chirping — all certified organic poultry raised from infancy on the farm, processed on the farm and marketed directly by the husband-and-wife team.

The days are long and the pace is hectic, but Stokesberry seems to be enjoying the farm operation spread over the 5-acre home on 85th Lane Southeast and two leased pastures in East Olympia and Violet Prairie near Tenino. At those three locations, he expects to raise 10,000 broiler chickens, 900 egg-laying hens, 150 turkeys and 20 head of cattle this year.

Since he was a boy drawn to his grandfather’s dairy farm, Stokesberry, 56, has wanted to be a farmer. It just took him nearly 50 years to realize the dream.

“I love farms and farming, but I always thought I couldn’t afford the property or the costs of operating a farm,” Stokesberry said.

He has circumvented the high cost of owning pastureland by leasing land. His method of raising chickens with home-built portable chicken pens moved around the pastures and his use of a winter shelter for chickens that doubles as a greenhouse in the spring and summer have made it affordable with minimal machinery and no hired help.

The multispecies pasture grazing system starts with the cattle. Then the chickens and turkeys follow behind.

The chickens like the broad-leafed plants and insects hatched in the cow pies, while the turkeys zero in on the tall grass the cattle leave behind.

“Every species has its special niche in the pasture,” said Kirsten Workman, who works with small-scale farmers through the Washington State University Extension Service and the Mason Conservation District.

Stokesberry also uses portable electric fencing when he’s moving the poultry around the pasture. But there can be fairly high predation rates from dogs, eagles, hawks and raccoons.

“I don’t mind sharing with the wildlife, if they’re not greedy,” Stokesberry said.

The farm also is one of the few in South Sound with a state Department of Agriculture- certified processing plant for butchering and preparing the broilers and turkeys for the marketplace, which includes eight restaurants in the Puget Sound region, six farmers markets and the Olympia and Yelm food co-ops.

Stokesberry organic turkeys, which take seven months to raise, were gobbled up by customers quickly for Thanksgiving Day dinners last year.

“The 100 we presold last year were gone by September,” Stokesberry recalled.

The frozen broiler chickens are a steady seller at the Olympia Food Co-op, co-op meat manager Lucas Anderson said.

“They’re very good,” Anderson. “I enjoy them myself.”

“I’m in front of an avalanche, running as fast as I can,” Stokesberry said of the growing demand for his broilers, eggs, beef and turkeys after just two years as a full-time farmer, following an adult life spent as a carpenter and massage therapist. “But I love hard work.”