One Year as a Polyface Apprentice

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October 6, 2026

Written by Dana Den Herder

Photos by Dana Den Herder

Hello! My name is Dana Den Herder and I have had the honor to be an apprentice at Polyface this year!

Just a little background about myself, I am originally from Sioux Center, Iowa and I grew up on a large-scale conventional farm. My family grows many acres of corn and soybeans, and we also manage various hog barns. Therefore, it’s safe to say my farm back home is very different than Polyface! During my college years in pursuit of an agricultural business degree, I had the chance to read Joel Salatin’s The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs. Long story short I have been sold out for regeneration agriculture ever since. That book gave me words for something I’ve felt for so long. I soon after applied for the Polyface stewardship and began my time here in May of 2025. I stayed on for the 1-year apprenticeship in October of 2025.

In reflection of this year, the apprenticeship program has pushed me and challenged me in more ways than one. As leaders of the stewards and managers over the animal enterprises we are given much responsibility, trust, and ownership. It’s humbling, challenging, exhausting and rewarding all at the same time. It’s humbling to lead others and have the authority and confidence to make the call on various decisions. It’s challenging when things go wrong, a mistake was made and others are looking to you for direction and guidance. It can be exhausting working 6am to 6pm, 6 days a week sometimes 7, with animals that don’t always work around your work schedule. It’s rewarding to hear customers rave about our products and share appreciation for what we do.

All that to say it hasn’t always been easy, but it has been so worth it! This year has given me the most realistic perspective of what it looks like to farm and have ownership. Furthermore, it was so valuable to learn and make mistakes with upper-level leaders who were always there to support, guide and encourage us, apprentices.

In summary, the apprenticeship program is so much more than just an internship but rather it is an immersive experience into the lifestyle, culture, and community that the Polyface Staff and the Salatin’s have cultivated over the years. Therefore, not only have I gained knowledge, skills, and inspiration but I have gained a community I know I can always come back to and who are cheering me on as I begin a new chapter of life.

Short of Turkeys and Beef

For the first time in many years, we’ll be short of turkeys for Thanksgiving. Consistent with our policy of full transparency, here is why. And we’ve been short of beef now for some time. The underlying theme of this explanation is to inform you completely about why and what we’re doing about it. Unlike many businesses, we don’t call up other outfits to supplement ours when we’re short. We figure out how to produce more and until then, simply run behind. Because of that, when we explore new markets, we can’t adjust our inventory instantaneously.We’ve had a couple of incredibly exciting market developments this year. We’ve always tried to experiment with new opportunities when markets request product. You never know which ones will be long term, short term, positive, or negative. Over the years, we’ve given away turkeys when we overproduced due to assuming a certain market opportunity would come through; that’s not financially viable. As a result, we’re pretty careful about expansion. Three years ago, a large corporation in Virginia asked us to supply turkeys and Christmas hams to their 300 employees. We had no idea they would hang with us this long, but here they are, happy and showing unbelievable loyalty. We’ve been reluctant to count on them simply because these kinds of things normally don’t last. But isn’t it exciting and even exhilarating that a big company is buying our kind of turkeys and hams for their employees? The other thing that developed—and these things develop slowly—was Azure Standard asked us to supply them with 1,000 turkeys as a trial to see if their customer base would like them. By the time that deal was formalized, we were too late to order more turkeys and did not have the full number for them, but we we did the best we could. Some of you who are Azure Standard customers will no doubt see our turkeys pop up on their sales platform. When an engine going somewhere wants to hook to us, we always try to at least collaborate in an experiment. That’s where we are; if all are happy, this could be an extremely positive strategic client for us in the future. In the same way, we’ve been contacted by a new internet marketing outfit wanting some of our beef. We’ve agreed to let them have five in 2027. We’re hoping ongoing discussions will lead them to carry our poultry and pork as well—right now they’re only beef. None of this is about building an empire. It is about collaborating with the cutting edge of authentic food and circumventing Big Food, Big Ag, and Big Pharma. Innovation comes in many ways. Polyface perhaps leads the world in the production element. But processing, marketing, and distribution are also undergoing innovation and staying relevant is a daily objective. That some of the most creative significant players in the integrity food movement are asking us to play with them is wonderful. They could just handle industrial organic meat poultry, which doesn’t see pasture and doesn’t enjoy the happiness context of Polyface livestock. But they’re talking to us, and that’s awesome. All innovation carries a ragged edge as it develops, refines, and hopefully becomes efficient over time. Thank you for indulging us the freedom to explore these new venues and to collaborate with some of the best players in the good food movement. As you can imagine, growing and experimenting create their own sore muscles. Being short is not fun for either of us, but be assured it’s not because our animals are sick or we’re getting tired of being farmers. You can laugh at that. It’s because, true to our history, we are committed to putting food worth eating on plates held by friends. We count you as friends; that’s why we’re taking you on this little explanation behind the curtain. Hang in there and thank you, thank you for your loyalty and patronage.

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