National Culinary Review

LET’S TALK TO CRAIG ROGERS ABOUT...

sheep production Tell us about Border Springs Farm. It’s a sheep farm nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. We raise a hybrid lamb designed especially for its mild fat flavor and rich lamb meat. Our primary business is selling to the country’s finest chefs. Selling to chefs satisfies our devotion to our animals in knowing that they are being honored by the skill and talent of the very best.

alfalfa hay possible. We also save several pastures for winter grazing. We will provide access to supplemental natural feed, if needed. Like most shepherds in the United States, we never feed antibiotics to our animals and never use growth hormones. If I use antibiotics for acute health issues, the lamb never enters the commercial food chain. Our lamb is certified by Animal Welfare Approved, which audits our farm annually.

What made you get into sheep production? I was a professor at Virginia Tech in the ‘80s and ‘90s. My wife and I attended a sheepdog trial that was held on campus one weekend, and we were amazed. We had never seen anything so beautiful and lyrical with animals. We set out to find a small farm for our two horses where we could have a few sheep and learn how to train a border collie to herd them.

How does selling directly to
chefs work?

Building a relationship with the chef is important. Each sale begins with providing free samples so that chefs can taste for themselves the difference in flavor and texture of our lamb. Then, the product must be consistent from week to week— size of the animal, taste, texture and price. Reliable delivery is also paramount.

What are some of the biggest challenges? Handling the logistics of orders, scheduling and delivery is by far the most challenging aspect of direct sales of fresh meat. By the very nature of a small farm operation coupled with a custom slaughter house, we can only process our lamb once a week. I must be exceptionally reliable with the delivery of my product each week if we wish our lamb to appear on menus.

What do you feed the sheep? We refer to our approach to farming as “doing what’s right for the animals.” All our sheep and lambs are raised on pastures of high-sugar grasses. During the winter months, we provide the finest grass and

What’s the hardest part of your job, and the most satisfying? The hardest part is the logistics. There are many more difficult tasks with working with the sheep, particularly in the extreme cold of winter or the heat of summer, but those are tasks I cherish. The most satisfying part is spilt between both ends of the job. The first is a love for lambing season—watching the lambs enter the world, and within minutes, begin life by nursing and prancing across the field. The second is sitting down and enjoying a lamb dish in one of my chef’s restaurants, and seeing how they honor our work and animals. C