WINONA — Galloway and Wagyu cattle graze the high grounds and roam the valleys of Blackberry Ridge Farm near Winona, where Will Oberton and his oldest daughter, Erin Gervais, run a certified grass-fed beef operation. Part of the farm sits 500 feet below the bluffs of Blackberry Ridge, while the rest overlooks Winona with the Mississippi River in sight.
“Southeast Minnesota is the most beautiful place in the state,” Oberton said. “I hadn’t been to southeast Minnesota until I came for my job at age 21. I was shocked by how different the landscape was compared to growing up on a dairy farm near Randall.”
For the last 10 years, Oberton and Gervais have steadily expanded the farm and its property. What started in 2015 with 41 head of Galloway cattle has grown to a herd nearing 300 head after this year’s calving season, Oberton said.
Oberton bought a portion of what the farm is today in 2012 after his retirement. He said he had long looked forward to the opportunity to spend more time outdoors and get back into farming. One day, he talked about this with his daughter.
“What if we raise some cattle?” Oberton said to Gervais. “We have the opportunity here.”
Oberton, Gervais and their farm manager, Joe Lorenz, work alongside each other to run the operation. Gervais said 98% of the work is done by the three of them, but their families help when the chore lists start stacking up.
“Slowly, we have been putting it all together,” Gervais said.
Her husband, Chris, often helps with late night chores while their three children, Harrison, Jack and Evan, lend a hand as well.
“The boys love being involved and working with Grandpa,” Gervais said.
When Oberton and Gervais started their farm, they first raised Galloway cattle, which Oberton said are known to tolerate winter very well and can graze and grow in areas that are not perfect pastures.
“We didn’t want to manicure our farm,” Oberton said. “We wanted it to be as natural as we possibly could.”
Galloways are known to be a docile breed. The gentle nature of the cattle make them a better fit for children. Gervais said that was a selling point for the father-daughter team.
“It’s a great environment for children,” Oberton said. “They’re learning stuff that most children don’t have the opportunity to today. Whether they ever use it or not, it’ll be with them.”
Lorenz does a lot of the day-to-day on-farm feeding, tagging of calves and crop farming, Gervais said. Together, they farm 250 acres of cash crops and 400 acres of hay land, which they rotationally graze or bale, whichever makes the most sense at the time, Gervais said.
“We breed Galloway and Wagyu cattle right here on the farm, raising our livestock for their entire lifespan,” Gervais said. “All of our livestock feed is grown on our farm, and (the cattle) are 100% grass-fed.”
The quality of their grass-fed beef continues to become better every year, Oberton said, and he thinks it is due to the fact that their pastures are getting better each year, too.
“We’re doing a really good job planting better pastures, … using cover crops to improve the soil and putting up better hay,” Oberton said. “Therefore, the beef is better and better all the time.”
After finding that grass-fed beef is not as marbled and juicy as corn-fed beef, Oberton and Gervais began to think about how they could improve the quality, Oberton said. In 2023, they started breeding “Gallogyu” cattle, he said, crossbreeding Galloway and Wagyu to try and further improve the quality of the meat.
“We’re taking a major step introducing the Wagyu,” Oberton said. “We could have some very good beef to sell and supply our families.”
Blackberry Ridge Farm processes its cattle in Dover and sells direct to consumers through the farm’s website. With beef prices being higher than average, Garvais said they sell wholesale beef at a steady rate at the sale barn in Lanesboro. She also said their market for home delivery within a 20-mile radius of the farm has seen rapid growth this year.
“For those interested in local food sources, (our farming operation) really checks all the boxes; … everything is done within a 30-mile radius,” Gervais said. “It’s very gratifying to sell to people you know and fill their freezer with high-quality meat.”
Gervais runs the managerial side of the business but also loves the challenging, physical work needed on the farm.
“Anytime I’m working on the farm, I am generally happy,” Gervais said. “There is a lot of value in this lifestyle.”
In 2024, Oberton and Gervais began a pilot program with the Norwegian company, Nofence, which provides solar-powered GPS collars for virtual fencing. After talking with a neighbor who was using Nofence for his goats, Oberton and Gervais became interested in the potential the collars could provide them.
“There are a lot of ways to make a living in agriculture if you’re open to trying new things,” Oberton said.
Today, they use 80 virtual Nofence collars controlled through an app. This allows their cattle to graze their land down in the valley all summer long.
“We put collars on the cattle in spring, give them a few days of training to learn the audio cues, and from there, we are able to adjust boundaries where we want the cattle to graze,” Gervais said. “We had some land that wasn’t really fence-able due to the topography of our land. Nofence has really expanded our ability to expand the herd.”
The ability to control the fence virtually has come with a bit of a learning curve, Gervais said. It took some time to learn the human part, but now, when her son, Jack, steps outside and hears the cattle bellering, he knows exactly what to do.
“Basically, they’re calling to move the fence,” Oberton said. “So, you go grab your phone, slide the fence, and within 10 minutes, the cows are now in knee-deep or waist-deep grass.”
If one drives out to the pasture in the summertime, the area looks as though a tractor came by and mowed it. The grazing is that precise. If they move the fence too fast, the cattle tend to trample the grass, but by sliding the fence slowly, the grass is able to grow back up. For the 90 days of summer, the cattle are sliding down and back up the valley every four to five weeks, Oberton said.
“What we’ve learned is if we keep the pasture a little bigger than we think we need, (the cattle are) calmer,” Oberton said. “It provides for a much more relaxed herd, which is a huge benefit for livability.”
Outside of the beef operation, Gervais and Oberton’s main focus is improving the land. With over 700 acres of hardwood forest, both families enjoy hunting whitetail deer. Keeping the forest healthy has led them to create a forestry plan, Oberton said. The farm is certified by the National Audubon Society, and Oberton and Gervais are working with the nonprofit to help improve the bird habitat on their land, even introducing pheasant and quail last year, Oberton said.
“Part of the whole farm project involves doing a lot of things that probably take more time than money, but to try to improve the property,” Oberton said. “Hopefully, 20 years from now, people will look at it and say, ‘Wow, this is a beautiful farm, and they raise great beef.’ Doing things the way we do them, … it’s a very practical way to improve your farm and be environmentally friendly.”
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