About Us

Marvin and Holly. Married September 15, 1984.

Marvin is a retired network engineer. He manages the farm full time. Holly is a retired Registered Respiratory Therapist from Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. She works the farm full time too.

We wanted something to keep us busy after we retired. Little did we know how much work it would take to get started, and how much we would learn as we went. It has been an amazing journey so far. Raising Dexter cattle is living the dream.

Apafia is an acrostic for A Place Apart From It All. See what we did there. We feel it is.

God has truly blessed us with the desires of our heart. There is such a peace here. Almost always a breeze, birds singing, and yes, cows mooing about something.

We are not fancy. Just a basic small family farm. The family farm is divided among three brothers. We have lived out here for almost the entire time we have been married.

Our part is about 22 acres. The fenced pastures are about 12 acres. We boarded horses for years, then closed that down in 2016 when we bought our first Dexter herd. I thought I would miss the horses. I have not. I enjoyed that time, and I also knew we needed to change.

The next years were a roller coaster of learning. Cows are different from horses in all aspects. I really enjoy working with them. Every one has a different personality that comes out when you walk the herd. And we love the babies.

We enjoy visitors. Contact us if you want to come see the farm.

AGW

Apafia Farm is not AGW certified right now. We still follow the same practices we did when we held the certification.

We asked our loyal customers if the certification mattered when they bought from us. They said their trust was in us, not an outside organization.

Questions about how we raise 100% grass-fed, grass-finished Irish Dexter beef? Just ask.

We do not give antibiotics unless a serious medical need requires it. That has not come up. We do immunize our young cattle against some pretty serious known diseases. That has been the practice for a very long time.

We fertilize the pastures with fish oil. No herbicide. We burn weeds with a weed burner — think small flame thrower. Fly control is fly traps plus an organic mix Holly came up with, and it is working great.

Dillon of Kirkhaven Farm

Dillon came from Lesa and Hayden Reid of Kirkhaven Farm in Rutledge, Tennessee. God decided we needed to meet them. Lesa loves teaching anyone about Dexter cattle, and we learned a bunch from her. If you ever get the chance to visit Kirkhaven, go.

We met Cabernet, Lesa’s prized red polled bull. He was the perfect bull in all aspects, and he has won every award a bull can win in showing. Respectful, kind, took care of his herd, and the prettiest bull we had ever seen. The stories she told about him were amazing.

We told Lesa we would one day love a bull calf related to Cabernet. The next year she called. She had a calf built exactly like him. We were so excited we didn’t even ask how much.

His name is Dillon. He has been the best thing since sliced bread. A carbon copy of his daddy.

Ellie

Ellie is a black registered polled heifer. She just got old enough to go in the herd with the bull.

She is extremely sweet, and she misses her buddies in the teenager field. We hope to have a nice calf out of this sweet girl next year.

The End

That’s us. That’s the farm.