Down On The Farm

Farming isn’t what it used to be.

Louisiana has lost thousands of small farms over the last few decades. The average farmer is over 58. Land prices keep going up, commodity prices keep wobbling, and modern farming techniques are about scale, not stewardship of the land. The small independent farmer — the icon of the American landscape — is by and large disappearing. But not everyone is signed up for extinction.

Christiaan’s guests on this edition of Out to Lunch are young cattle farmers who have thrown out the conventional big ag playbook, putting their sweat equity into sustainable practices that emphasize high standards of animal care and meat quality.

Their meat story starts with a meet-cute in an animal science lab. Molly Abeshire-LeJeune met Hayden LeJeune while at McNeese State. She is from Little Cypress, Texas, where her family owned a big piece of land her grandfather once farmed. The land stayed in the family even after the farming stopped, which meant Molly grew up with a kind of open-ended question: What should this land be?

Molly Lejeune, Co-Owner of Cypress Prairie Farms, grew up dreaming of farming on a sustainable farm but didn’t know how to make that happen. Then she met Hayden in college.

That question followed Molly into high school, where her family started buying beef from a woman practicing sustainable agriculture. That was Molly’s lightbulb moment. “I think I could do that,” she thought. By the time she graduated, she’d decided she wanted to farm — and not just farm, but farm differently.

At McNeese, Molly built her own curriculum — regenerative farming, soil biology, direct-to-consumer models.

Hayden LeJeune grew up on a family farm but reconciled himself to a carer in agribusiness when it looked like he wouldn't be able to stay on the farm. Then he met Molly.

Hayden LeJeune grew up on a family farm but reconciled himself to a career in agribusiness when it looked like the math meant he wouldn’t be able to stay on the farm. Then he met Molly.

Meanwhile, about 80 miles east, Hayden LeJeune was growing up on a rice, crawfish, and cattle farm in Richard, Louisiana. Like a lot of farm kids, he wanted to stay on the land — but the math didn’t work. Most small farms can barely support one family, much less two. So Hayden went to McNeese for agribusiness, figuring he’d become a feed rep or crop consultant and farm on the side like everybody else. Then he met Molly.

By the time they graduated, Hayden’s dad decided to get out of cattle — and handed his son a small starter herd.Today, Molly and Hayden run Cypress Prairie Farms, a regenerative beef operation in Richard with about 40 head of cattle on 70 acres. No pesticides, no fertilizers, no grain byproducts, no antibiotics. Their cows rotate on pasture to rebuild soil, reduce pests naturally, and create something rare these days — a farm that is building land instead of depleting it.

Hayden and Molly LeJeune farm 40 head of cattle on 70 acres on Cypress Prairie Farms. Did you do the math on that? Each cow has nearly two acres, probably way more square feet than you’re living in

At Cypress Prairie Farms, Molly and Hayden sell everything from steaks to marrow bones to beef shares at local farmers markets and online. Their beef is USDA processed, dry aged for flavor, and delivered with the kind of transparency you only get when you personally know the people raising your dinner.