HD Farm is a small family farm in east central Alabama located near the town of Talladega and the Talladega Superspeedway. The 95 acre farm owned and operated by Henry & Paula Dorough specializes in pasture-raised, all-natural lambs. Lamb and lamb products are sold throughout the year at our on-farm market and at The Market at Pepper Place Farmers Market in Birmingham, Alabama. All of our lamb products come from lambs born and raised on our farm.

Long before we began grazing sheep on this land, indigenous people lived, hunted and cultivated crops in the same fields and fished in Choccolocco Creek, which forms our eastern and southern property border. A walk across our farm tells the story of many generations of people who took care of the land that provided for their health and wellbeing. We frequently find tools left behind from Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods as well as Creek Tribes. These people began the long list of succession where we now find ourselves. A recent archaeological survey located the footprint of a hut that was once part of a village of people living in the very fields we now have the privilege of being the caretaker.

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the New Deal to put people to work and bring the country out of The Great Depression, a portion of the program was dedicated to helping farmers. One program provided for the purchase of many of the large farms in the region, dividing them into smaller farms and building homes and barns. Many of these farms were established as dairies that provided milk and milk products for the local communities and larger towns and cities in the region. What is now HD Farm was originally operated as a small dairy by the Turner family until 1954 when they sold the property to the Snow family. The Snows continued the dairy until the dairy buyout program in the 1980s. Henry purchased the farm from Mrs. Snow in 2004 and moved his small flock of sheep to establish HD Farm.

Our farming philosophy centers on the principle of sustainable, year-round grazing with little to no supplemental nutrition. Of course, nature is not always perfect when it comes to farming, so when necessary, we purchase hay and other supplements to keep our animals happy and healthy during the occasional gaps in forage availability. Our management practices focus on building and maintaining healthy soils that support a variety of lush, nutritious forages for the sheep to graze. We nurture a variety of cool season and warm season perennial and annual forages to provide the highest quality nutrition for our flock. Our sheep spend their entire lives grazing our green pastures

In addition to raising our sheep on pastures, we lease a portion of our property to a farmer who grows corn and soybeans. During the winter months, our sheep graze a variety of cover crops including wheat and radish that are planted to maintain healthy soils rich with microbial life to prepare the land for the next crop season.

Every spring, we plant sunflowers in one of our rotational fields and invite all of our customers and friends to visit the farm so we can share the beautiful sunshine and our farm story.

Read a little more about us!

Read an article at Alabama Farmers Federation: Harvest Hosts: Travelers Find Rest On Alabama Farms

April 2017 ALFA Neighbors Magazine Country Kitchen article – Lamb Chops, Lamb Meatballs, Mediterranean Lamb Rub For Lamb Roast Recipes

https://alfafarmers.org/recipes/april-2017-country-kitchen/

Lamb or Ham? Alabamians weigh in on Easter meal traditions by Eric Velasco

https://soul-grown.com/lamb-or-ham-alabamians-weigh-in-on-easter-meal-traditions/