Meet Robert Copeland | Farmer and Rancher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Robert Copeland and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Robert, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I’m trying to save the world, and Regenerative Farmers are superheroes. Corporate factory farming has ruined our food system over the past 40-50 years. Raising livestock in cages, and vegetables in a fog of toxic chemicals, along with lab manufactured GMO grains for animal and human consumption, has depleted the nutrition in our foods and made the animals and plants sickly. Factory farms (feed lots) make the animals unhealthy and they are treated with antibiotics overuse and growth hormones. The corporate farms that grow grains, vegetables and fruits use GMO’s and toxic chemical herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers to keep them alive. All of this may be profitable for the multinational corporations that own these big farms, but it is extremely harmful to the animals and the plants, it causes toxic runoff into our water table and into the air, it ruins our soils, and it greatly diminishes the nutrition we should be getting from our foods.

Small scale, regenerative farmers like me don’t do any of that nonsense. Working with Nature instead of against Her promotes healthy animals, healthy soils and water, and healthy humans. Rotational, intensive grazing of livestock actually sequesters carbon in the soil as the animals plow in their manure with their sharp hooves as they graze, leaving behind an aerated, fertilized pasture, ready for new growth.   Pasture raised beef is full of healthy proteins and fats, high in Omega-3 fatty acids, contains high levels of CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acids), and the beef isn’t likely to have any of the e coli and other viral contaminations associated with factory feed lot raised beef.  We use rotational grazing techniques, organic feed supplements, native grasses, and give our cattle herd free roaming lives on our farm, The Sunflower. My partner and I take great pride in raising and selling the most healthy, best tasting, tender and juicy beef anywhere in Texas. Regenerative Farmers are superheroes. We are actually out here saving the world every day. Call on us any time you need a healthy meal. We sell our beef and produce direct to the consumer thru a co-op of farmers and customers in north Dallas, and thru a mobile farmers market moving all around Fort Worth. I also donate foods to the local women’s shelter in Wichita Falls.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I want everyone to know that they can always count on Sunflower Farms to provide them with healthy, tasty, and nutritional food. I have spent the past 10 years building a farm business that puts the health and welfare of the animals and our customers above big money, and in the process it has allowed me to earn a good living, one that I have no regrets in pursuing.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
With the problems of Covid and the virus still spreading in Texas, I’d say we might have to cook out at the farm for the short term, but if we can get the pandemic under control, I’d take them out to a Texas dance hall to hear some live music from Dwight Yoakam, The Mavericks, or my old buddy Deryl Dodd. I’ve been trying to get Jennifer Garner to come down here to Texas from her organic farm in Oklahoma for some two-stepping for years, maybe you guys can help with that. haha

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I give credit to my family, especially my mother, who taught me hard work, honesty, and integrity will serve me best. My family has been in the food business since Moses was wearing short pants. My father and all his brothers were in the beef cattle business (he was an auctioneer and rancher), and my mother’s family was in the grocery store business. I guess I come by my chosen line of work naturally.

Website: http://www.rdcopeland.com/index.html

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunflowerfarmsrdc/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/senatorcopeland/

Other: https://richardson-farm-co-op.myshopify.com/pages/sunflower-farms