Our Farm

Our Farm’s History

Our 40-acre home farm was once owned by the Washington State Department of Wildlife (now the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife) and they named it Kennewick Game Farm.

From 1936 to 1980, the Kennewick Game Farm was operated by the Washington State Department of Wildlife.  The game farm was specifically operated for the purpose of raising Chinese Ring-necked Pheasants.  As many as 12,000 roosters were produced each year with all expenses being paid with monies received from hunter’s licenses and assorted wildlife programs.  The Department of Wildlife was the only organization within the state to support itself from its own revenues.

A major paradigm shift took place within the State of Washington and the Department of Wildlife in the early 1980’s.  The first change was to move the Department of Wildlife revenues to the State’s General Fund.  This changed the funding practices for the Department of Wildlife and politics in the operation of the Department of Wildlife greatly increased.  The second decision was to move from planting birds for hunters to a process of “habitat enhancement” and species-specific monitoring.

The Department of Wildlife continued to own the Kennewick Game Farm until 1992.  The two homes on the property were used as rental units.  One of the things the Department of Wildlife did during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s with the buildings previously used as brooder buildings was lease the buildings to Falconhurst Raptor Rehabilitation and Environmental Education Center (F.R.E.E.) for the purpose of rehabilitation of wild birds of prey.

In 1992, the Kennewick Game Farm was traded for 1200 acres of prime elk calving ground on the back side of Rattlesnake Mountain.  The new owner continued to use the homes on the property as rental units and the buildings were left vacant.

In 1999, we purchased the 40-acre Kennewick Game Farm and it became Kennewick Game Farm, LLC.  We operated Northwest Gamebirds, LLC in the buildings on the farm producing an average of 120,000 coturnix quail annually as a food source for meat eating animals and producing premium grade orchard grass hay from our fields.  Over the years we purchased more property near our home farm.  In 2017 we closed Northwest Gamebirds, LLC.  We now focus on farming our nearly 300 acres of orchard grass hay.

Wildlife on the Farm

We enjoy sharing our land with wildlife and farm areas specifically for them so they will have the habitat they need to survive.

The owls, red-tailed hawks, Swainson’s hawks, kestrel falcons, harriers, great blue herons and coyotes help control the mice, gophers and meadow voles in the fields.  This is important because the dirt mounds from the gophers can damage the plants and our equipment.

We plant food plots for the many species of birds found on our farm and for our honey bees.

The gamebirds and songbirds enjoy eating the sunflowers, corn and other grains we plant for them.  We enjoy listening to their songs and watching them raise their broods.

Many of the plants are also attractive to honey bees and other pollinators.  We grow honey bee food plots and have bee hives for honey.