We are a small family farm located outside of Radcliffe, Iowa. Allow me to introduce you to our herd! I’ll start with the people. I am Heather Schachtner, I am the mom behind Honey Creek Cattle. My husband is Eric and is the primary caretaker of our animals on a daily basis. We do have 3 children, Alexis and Brandyn are out on their own but visit often. Our youngest is Tyler, he is still at home – but he is a senior in high school – so he won’t be for much longer. Tyler is involved in FFA and used to be involved in 4H and has shown our cattle for many years. We also have a grandson, Harrison and one more grandbaby on the way! Harrison really loves being on the farm and enjoys the pigs, cows and chickens. All of our animals are so good with Harrison.

In addition to owning and operating Honey Creek Cattle Company, we also own and operate Berner Babies (est. 2006), where we raise bernese mountain dogs, bernedoodles and yorkies and we also own and operate Honey Creek Properties (est. 2015), where we own and manage rental properties and renovate homes (construction). Eric and I tend to be very busy people but we absolutely love our lives and wouldn’t change it for anything!

Eric started his love for cattle when he was young. He grew up in central Iowa and showed in 4H and FFA at his local county fair with many of his friends. I was the exact opposite, I grew up all over the country and my love was for dogs. I did collect Mary Moos, so I had a love for cows, just more of the cartoon type versus the real life cows. When Eric and I got together, he made mention of his desire to have cows but we did not have a physical set up nor were we financially set up to have livestock. As time went on, I was living my dream with my dogs and it was time to push forward to make Eric’s dreams come true too, so Honey Creek Cattle Company was born in 2017!

After we decided that we were going to get cattle, we had to decide what kind of cattle and where to get them from! (Who knew that there were so many kinds of cattle!?) We went down to the Iowa State Fair and walked through the many breeds showcased from all around the state (and the country). Eric was leaving it up to me to decide what kind of cattle we would be getting – no pressure!! I decided that I really liked the look of the roan shorthorns and Eric agreed with the shorthorn breed. Eric set out on a mission to find a responsible breeder and someone who had great bloodlines, that we would be proud to have on our farm.  Eric did find a great shorthorn cattle breeder from Minnesota, that we still have a wonderful relationship with to this day. Our shorthorn bloodlines come from Canada and we have some excellent, large boned girls! Our bull, also comes from this same breeder (of course, no relation to our girls) and our bull is the sweetest boy and he lets Harrison feed him, which for a bull, is very surprising!

Our Cows

We have a small herd of 5 cows and 1 bull. Our cows are Molly, Calli, Karen, Maybelle and Fancy. Our bull is Kodi. Molly is a HUGE white shorthorn, she is also our boss cow. If she doesn’t want to do something, she isn’t going to do it. She is also usually the last one to cause an issue, she knows the rules and typically is happy to follow them, so long as her belly is full. She is one our best mothers and her calves really adore her, it is a true genuine connection between mother and baby. Calli is a roan shorthorn. She is very easy going. Our son, Tyler showed her, which can times make her our stubborn cow. She is also a great mother! Karen is a red shorthorn. Everyone loves her name and I can tell you, she typically does live up to it. She likes to complain, even when there is nothing to complain about! One time she bellowed so loud, she made Harrison cry. And we were all right there, she had grass, water and hay – there was no reason to complain, she just likes to make sure she lives up to her name, I guess! But honestly, she is a stunning cow and also a great mother. Maybelle is Molly’s calf that we kept back, she is a black and white, shorthorn plus. She is HUGE, just like her mother but a lot more easy going when compared to her mother. She is sweet and also a good mother! The last cow to join our herd was Fancy, she is our only cow who is not a shorthorn and this is also my doing. She is a simmental. Eric used to work a guy that farmed and raised simmental cattle and one morning, his favorite cow had delivered a very cute calf and he sent me a picture of her. Well, as soon as I saw her, I wanted this cute little calf, she was adorable! So, we “reserved” her that day and about 10 months later, she was pulling into our driveway. And because she is technically “my cow” I did her first AI (artificial insemination) and got a cute little bull calf – that I was very proud of – you’ll have to make sure you check out those pictures! Our bull is Kodi, who is a roan shorthorn. You would never know that he is a bull, his temperament is so amazing, even when the girls are in heat, he never gets too wild. He is so good with Harrison and will even let Harrison feed him hay. Our cows (and bull) are truly the best! We have a great herd, we love and enjoy them!!

Once we had had our cows for several years, we were just sitting around one day and I say to Eric, I think we should get pigs. Eric says, you do? Yea….I do! So he asks me the next obvious question, which is, “WHAT KIND?” Again, I had no idea, there were so many types of pigs. So, I start researching pigs. One thing you have to know about me is, while I was in kindergarten, we had sows (mama pigs) on the farm I lived on, and they would constantly get out of their enclosures and CHASE ME! So, I was afraid of pigs. (I remember this small little detail AFTER our pigs come home) But while researching, I had two very important must haves for our pigs. They had to have nice temperaments and they had to be good mothers. During my research, I stumbled upon the mangalitsas and instantly I was in love with this hairy pig! I have hairy dogs and I needed hairy pigs! I tell Eric all about their temperaments and he agrees (I rarely get told no) and now I am on the search for a good and reputable breeder! I find my girls in Michigan. And pretty soon Emma and Stella are making their way from Michigan to Iowa to be on a small family farm outside of Radcliffe!

Eric did a lot of research on mangalitsa pork – and it turns out – it is seriously the best! (more on that later) it is the best because of the fat but we also learned that if you breed the mangalitsa to a Berkshire pig, you get the great flavor produced by the fat with the better muscle content of the Berkshire. So, we also decided to find 2 berkshire females, sisters. We found them on a local farm about 2 hours south of us and we adopted Cinder and Indy. We adopted our boar, Wilbur, from an orchard about 1 hour south of us.

Our Pigs

The first pigs on our farm were Emma and Stella. They arrived when they were around 5 months old. They were not very social, so when you tried to pet them, they would grunt and get a little grumpy and lunge toward you a little bit – they really didn’t want to be pet. This is when I remembered my intense fear of pigs, as my heart was POUNDING out of my chest, hoping these girls would one day love me and that I would love them in return. Emma is a black and tan (swallow – bellied) mangalitsa. She is incredibly sweet and loves behind her ears rubbed. She also will flop on her side and let you rub her belly! She is just a doll! Stella is a blonde mangalitsa. Stella is my favorite pig (but don’t tell the others) I ADORE Stella and Stella is so smart. She knows her name and comes running if I say, where is my Stella Pig!? She loves her ears rubbed and I think that if I wanted to, I could lay down next to her and she would let me! She is seriously the best! Both Emma and Stella are great mothers – not only with the piglets – but with us as well. We do use caution because they are still protective mothers but they do trust us and their actions show it. Next came the berk girls, Indy and Cinder. Cinder has more black and was named Cinder, like ashes, my thinking was like Cinderella. And then Indy has more white on her face and legs than Cinder. They can be hard to tell apart if you don’t them. They aren’t nearly as calm and laid back as their mangalitsa sisters but, they are pretty good girls. When it is dinner time, the girls can get very vocal and they sound like they are ready to eat you but they are just showing their excitement! They are comical at times. Cinder loves the water on a hot day, she will roll over and just let you spray the hose on her all afternoon if you had the time. They can really make a bad day better! And then there is Wilbur. He is the world’s most jealous boy! He can get a little pushy when he thinks someone else is getting more attention than him. He is also a talker and will tell you when it is dinner time, time to pet him or whatever else he thinks you may need to know.  He can be a little intimidating but he means well!

And then there were Chickens…..

So at this point, we have dogs, cows and pigs. I feel like we have a great little farm going. Life is good! Eric walks in and says, I would like some chickens. My first response, is no, I don’t want chickens. He says, I just want like 12 laying hens. I still say, no, I really don’t want chickens. I think this conversation is over but boy, was I wrong. A couple of days later, Eric comes home and says – Hey, me and my buddy are going to **some place** and picking up 50 retiring laying hens. He is going to take 25 and we’re going to take 25. I couldn’t say too much, he already had a plan in place and according to him, he was getting a “good deal.” So, the next day, they went to get their chickens.

Now we have chickens…against my will, but they are here – so I am ok with it, I guess. They’re kind of cute. Pretty soon, Eric says to me that we need meat birds. At this point, the hens had grown on me and I had come to accept our 26 (not 25) chickens and I was on board with the meat birds and we brought home some Cornish cross chickens for the first time to grow and take to market. Currently we do not have the Cornish cross any longer but we do continue to grow our own meat birds and are currently trying to determine what breed is best for us.  

We do have ONE CHICKEN with a name and her name is SAMPLE. She came free with the Cornish cross chickens that we bought from the hatchery. She is now one of our laying hens and yes, I really do like her. She is the hen that there are a few pictures of me holding. Yes, I completely understand the irony! But you will also notice that she is not your typical chicken, she is “hairy” – she has feathers on her legs. She is a very cool looking chicken!