When Betty and John Ballard founded Live Healthy Farms in Bonnerdale in 2020, they knew they were not going to do things conventionally.
“We wanted to raise our children in a farm setting on land where we don’t have to worry about them going outside to play. They’re just within our gates,” Betty said. “When the livestock came and everything came, we made a decision based on God-given instinct to say we’re not going to do any synthetic inputs and put anything God didn’t design on this land to feed them. They’re thriving, and the ecosystem’s better, and the honeybees came back. It’s just such an encouragement.”
The couple’s journey began seven years before purchasing the property in Arkansas, when they decided to buy land on which to raise their future children, Jack, 4, and Sue, 18 months.
Betty and John Ballard started Live Healthy Farms in Bonnerdale to provide a wholesome life to their children, Jack, 4, and Sue, 18 months. (Photo provided by Live Healthy Farms)
“Our intention was to go to southern California, buy a yacht in Redondo Beach, live in Texas and kind of rent that California lifestyle, hanging out on the beach, and God’s like, ‘No, you’re going to buy the land,’” John said. “We went on a seven-year journey, and we went all across the country, not knowing exactly what we were looking for.”
John stumbled across the idea of regenerative farming while watching The Biggest Little Farm on a flight back from a board meeting in California. Although the couple had no agricultural experience, the film gave them an idea of what they did not want — herbicides, pesticides and fungicides — and what they did want — land that became more biodiverse and more rich in nutrients each year.
“We had learned enough and studied enough to understand that soil quality, the biodiversity and microorganisms that exist in soil, are critical for soil health and that anything that you grow or anything that eats the forage and any vegetables and fruits that you grow require nutrient-dense soil and quality soil in order to be able to eat it and not have any adverse effects,” John said. “It started with the idea that we’re going to raise a family, and we want to put everything in our bodies that’s as healthy as possible.”
Central to that, he added, is avoiding any synthetic products that are potentially disruptive to human health but also rob the soil of beneficial microorganisms and animals such as earth worms. Most importantly to John and Betty, regenerative farming provides them with peace of mind knowing their children are being raised in a healthy environment.
“Our children can put their feet in the grass, you know, grounding, without us having to worry about if there’s poison going into their bodies,” Betty said. “Our cows are eating organic forages and a variety of forages that, in turn, are just reflecting in their nutrient density in their meat.”
The farm has now grown large enough that the family is able to share the abundance of the land with the community. Healthy Living Farms boasts 100 Angus cows, 10 dairy cows and 100 laying hens, along with bee boxes, an orchard, and a paddock and greenhouse for growing herbs and vegetables. In addition to the 115-acre farm, the couple utilizes 80 acres of neighboring land for cattle rotation.
Photo by Ryan Parker.
The couple rotates the cattle using techniques designed to mimic the migratory patterns of wild herd animals such as bison. John said he encourages the cattle to “mob, mow and migrate” by moving them between paddocks every day, ensuring a sufficient amount of high-quality forage and cutting down on the risk of parasites and disease.
John and Betty recently started moving chickens behind the herd to eat insects that may be attracted to the manure left by the cattle, he said, and the Ballards are also experimenting with raising goats, which eat the plants left behind by the cows. They currently have two Boer goats.
“What we find is we’ve really started to change our definition of a weed,” John said. “Most of the time, we think about cattle eat this particular grass or that particular forage, and if they don’t eat it, we call it a weed, but sheep and goats actually thrive on those woody-stemmed and thorny-type weeds, so is it a weed, or is it a forage for animal diversity?”
It is all a part of the couple’s overarching philosophy of working in harmony with the world as God designed it.
“I think what got put on our heart is to steward this land the way that [God] intended it to be and, every year, to restore and enhance the soil naturally based on the ecosystem he designed without any synthetic inputs,” Betty said. “We’ve not sprayed this land with anything since we’ve owned it.”
Photo by Ryan Parker.
The land, which John said once looked like a golf course, is becoming more abundant thanks to the couple’s regimen of not ill drilling and other regenerative practices.
“I don’t remember a honeybee being on the property,” John said. “I couldn’t find an earthworm if I dug into the soil, and now you can go just about anywhere on the property, and there’s honeybees and earthworms and dragonflies and butterflies and so much diversity that really demonstrates the ecosystem is healing.”
He said the couple is actively trying to increase all but its Angus herd to maximize the impact the animals can have on the land. In turn, the farm is providing higher quality produce, beef, milk and eggs every year.
“Betty asked me, she said, ‘Honey, who eats better than us?’” John said. “This was about a year ago, and I said, ‘Us a year from now.’ That’s going to be true next year because we’re going to get better. We’re going to pivot. We’re going to tweak it. We’re going to do the things necessary to make it the most nutrient-dense, quality food that we can possibly produce. Every year, the land gets better, and, by extension, the food gets better.”
Photo provided by Live Healthy Farms
For the Ballards, the farm is essential to achieving their wellness goals not only for their children but for John, who, at 56, is keenly interested in longevity. Nutritious meals sourced from the farm or locally coupled with the activity that goes into maintaining the property helps him achieve that.
“To waking up with the sun rising over the mountain, shining in our eyes, to working in the sunshine every day to evening walks after dinner as the sun sets, it’s absolutely an incredible blessing for us,” he said. “Being stewards of this land and the abundance that we’ve been given, by extension, we wanted to provide that to the community with whoever wanted to participate.”
The couple has partnered with other local growers and artisans to offer goods from Live Healthy Farms and elsewhere at the farm shop, creating a community of like-minded members who are multiplying as more people become aware of the farm.
Photo provided by Live Healthy Farms
“We’ve really created a little microeconomy at our little tiny, small part of the world that blesses some of the producers and blesses any of the people that come to shop and buy and consume the food,” John said. “It’s a really special thing to think about being able to nourish, we think, not only with food but spiritually and viscerally and just everything that happens on this farm, that it’s a place of healing, a place of wellness, a place of abundance.”
The couple also opened an Airbnb on the property, as well as a spa with services provided by Jeanie Zachary, who worked as John’s massage therapist in Texas and followed the couple to Arkansas upon retirement.
Whether they are women with hormone imbalances, parents caring for children with autism or adult children caring for elderly parents, most everyone who visits Live Healthy Farms is on some kind of wellness journey, Betty said, and having deep conversations with visitors has become part of the rhythm of farm life.
The Ballards are committed to operating a regenerative farm with no pesticides, herbicides or fungicides while working to provide the land with more nutrients year after year. Photo by Ryan Parker.
“They come here, and they feel like it’s a safe place and we’re kind of walking the walk, and so they want to confide, and in some cases, we’re really able to help them,” Betty said. “It’s super rewarding for John and I, so we do see this as a ministry.”
It is a stark change from the corporate life the couple once had, John said, and somehow, those California vacations do not seem to hold the same appeal they once had — not compared to life on the farm.
“Every week, I’m on a plane. I’m flying around the country. Betty’s with me. We’re staying the weekend in L.A. or Miami or New York or Seattle. We are corporate life, conference calls, computers, constantly on the go, and we would go on vacations, and we would go to the beach, and we’d hang out,” John said. “We went this summer. We went to Hermosa back there in California and hung out with some friends. It was fun. It was good, but it doesn’t have that draw anymore. It’s different.”
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