Skyline Pastures: A multi-species farm built from scratch

Full-time Pennsylvania Army National Guardsman CJ Lafferty had some downtime on his last deployment in Kuwait, so he decided to write a livestock-based business plan. He was ready to move out of his suburban cul-de-sac where he’d been dabbling with raising animals – a flock of hens and a few pet goats – in his 1/10-acre backyard. His wife Tanya agreed to the plan, and they started farm shopping in late 2019 right before COVID hit. After being outbid on several properties, they made an offer on a 12-acre property in Mohrsville, PA, before they even stepped inside the house. It had a small barn and about half of the south-facing acreage was pasture with the rest wooded. The property was ideal for implementing the business plan. Methodically, over the past six years, as he holds down a full-time job with the National Guard, Lafferty has built a multi-species, pasture-based livestock enterprise. He started with Cornish Cross broilers. As a first-generation farmer with no prior agricultural background, he credits graziers like Joel Salatin and YouTube tutorials for learning to raise his first flock on grass. “Broilers, they’re your gateway for most people that get into livestock,” Lafferty said. He built a brooder in the barn and his first six-by-10-foot Suscovich-style chicken tractor, and he was pleased with the system. He currently has five of these houses, which he moves daily to a new section of grass while offering free-choice non-GMO grain. He raises about 300 broilers per year in two batches. “Usually I butcher my first batch in July, and then I get my chicks for the second batch in August and butcher them in October,” he said. “That way I avoid the hottest part of the year.” Lafferty also raises pastured Broad Breasted White turkeys for the fresh Thanksgiving market but struggles with blackhead disease and has experienced up to 90% mortality. He’s been able to reduce that to 50% by topdressing the grain ration with cayenne pepper. “The cayenne doesn’t bother them in the least,” he said, “and it creates a gut biome where this parasite does not want to be.” Awarded a 2026 Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) farmer grant , Lafferty recently began a three-year trial comparing the efficacy of non-pharmaceutical blackhead disease treatments. He will raise three separate groups of 15 turkeys each: one will get oregano oil in their water; one will get cayenne pepper in their grain; and one will receive no treatment. He hopes the treatment groups will have less than 50% mortality – the threshold he needs to keep raising turkeys. The next livestock Lafferty added was Berkshire cross pigs, rotating 12 to 14 animals across four wooded acres. He uses electronetting as a perimeter fence and divides the acreage into three-quarter- to one-acre paddocks with a single strand of polywire. Since grazing the pigs, he’s transformed what was a thicket of multiflora rose into a shaded silvopasture with lush grass growing beneath the tree canopy. “The pig is an amazing pasture creator,” he said. His long-term goal is to keep the pigs moving enough that they don’t damage the trees he’s trying to nurture, like hickories and black walnuts. Undesirable tree species he cuts down and uses the wood to heat the house. The last livestock Lafferty added were Angus-Seminole crosses purchased at about six months old. They are the only livestock he overwinters, and he likes to have three at all times. During the grazing season, he moves them daily, ideally in front of the poultry, who help distribute manure across the pasture system. His pasture is limited, so he supplements with dry hay year-round. He doubts he’ll be able to eliminate the supplemental hay, but as his fertility improves, so do the pastures. “Each year my grass is thicker and it’s taller,” he said. On-farm USDA-inspected mobile processors butcher all of the livestock. The poultry processor has a butcher shop built into a horse trailer, and it takes about three hours, from killing to shrink-wrapping, to process 150 broilers. The cattle and pig processor arrives with a refrigerated truck. The animals are killed, gutted and halved on site, then transported to a slaughterhouse to hang. Beef and pork are custom cut and sold exclusively as quarters, halves or wholes. Demand for the farm’s products currently exceeds supply. Lafferty said there is a strong market of people committed to eating pasture-raised protein. Beef and pork tend to be easier to sell because some people balk at the idea of a $36 broiler. Lafferty’s been known to give away a broiler to a reluctant customer. “All they have to do is eat one chicken and you’ve got a customer for life,” he said. “There’s no comparison between a store-bought $5 broiler and one that was raised on grass.” The majority of his customers are National Guard colleagues, but demand reaches beyond his military network. Some customers make the 2.5-hour drive from the New York City metro area to stock up on frozen chickens. Lafferty has maxed out the available time he has to raise animals while still holding down his full-time job. He has also maxed out the carrying capacity of the 10-acre property. Buying a larger property is a possibility, but it’s difficult to find affordable farmland in this part of Pennsylvania. Whatever his next move is, farming is a good fit for Lafferty, and he anticipates retiring from the National Guard in the next three to four years. He’s glad he moved slowly, learning from his mistakes before taking on significant infrastructure and livestock-related expenses. “For me, farming creates a real job,” he said. “Agriculture lends itself really well to retirees or people that are leaving military service.” Find Skyline Pastures online here . by Sonja Heyck-Merlin