Psalms 37: 4 says, " Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart". V. Mac has been given the desires of his heart.
He grew-up in Durham County, North Carolina, but not in a farming family. His home was on a 2 acre tract. However, at 10 years of age, he bought his first calf. V. Mac states that raising that calf gave him a passion for cattle that he has never lost. His boyhood dream was to “own and work on a good farm”. In fact, in his High School Senior Yearbook, it was predicted that he would become a cattle rancher.
V.Mac and Peggy, Founders
Baldwin Family Farms |
In 1969, after a hitch in the Navy, marriage to Peggy Oakes, two degrees in Electrical Engineering and a busy job with Bell Laboratories, V. Mac started a Charolais herd. He rented Peggy’s 19 acre home farm and bought two registered Charolais heifers. For the next 12 years, through trial and error, artificial breeding, renting numerous farms, and trading in Charolais cattle, V. Mac learned to breed, feed and graze Charolais cattle for profit.
In 1981, V. Mac and Peggy bought a rundown 331 acre cattle farm near Yanceyville, NC. He developed and intensive year-around grazing system using winter and summer annuals of Grazing Rye, Marshall Ryegrass, Crimson, Red, and Arrowleaf Clovers and Red River Crabgrass. The system is a nutritious (sweet grass) forage bank that puts up to 3 lbs of daily gain on cattle. This led him into grazing stocker cattle in addition to his purebred Charolais. By leasing 1200 acres and adding over 400 acres of additional deeded land, V. Mac expanded his Charolais herd to over 400 mama cows. In addition to his growing beef operation, in 1996-98 he became a contract grower for Allen Family Foods, producing 8 million hatching eggs and 1200 tons of organic fertilizer annually. The farm now produces 12 million hatching eggs per year.
In 2002-03, he learned to direct-market by selling dry-aged, cut and packaged grassfed Charolais beef at the Carrboro Farmers' Market near Chapel Hill, N.C. By grazing and grass finishing his 2 year old purebred Charolais steers, he soon developed a unique brand of all-natural, extra-lean beef with rich flavor and high customer acceptance. He sells his beef under the label, “Baldwin Charolais Beef”. As part of his marketing strategy, in 2005, V. Mac established an e-Commerce online Web Store at www.baldwinbeef.com and ships beef weekly to internet customers throughout the USA. In addition, to operating an on-farm Beef Outlet, his “Baldwin Charolais Beef” is featured and sold in seven Whole Food Stores in Piedmont North and South Carolina. Now, over a half-century after purchasing his first calf, V. Mac is raising cattle the way nature intended--pasture-based and free of hormones and antibiotics. His farm and grass is also all-natural---free of all herbicides, pesticides and chemicals.
V. Mac has been named the 2008 North Carolina Farmer of the Year. He is the 2009 President of the North Carolina Forage and Grassland Council. He is a member of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension State Advisory Council. He is also an active member in the Gideons International.
|
Please sign up for our free monthly e-newsletter upon checkout or 
