We are Richard & Liz Pomeroy, trading under the business name of Cornish Heritage Ventures LLC. We live & farm on 65 acres in the beautiful Ozarks of southern Missouri. We have five children ranging from 22 to a 2, a daughter-in-law and two adorable granddaughters! We met at the ages of 15 & 16 & have been married since 1987. Our two eldest children are biological, the younger three are adopted. We have been & still are truly blessed to have them in our lives.

Why the name "Cornish Heritage Ventures?" Well the "Ventures" comes from the fact that we have our fingers in several different "pies" & never know what "venture" we are going to get into next. The "Cornish Heritage" is due to us both originating from the county of Cornwall, England which is in the far south west of the country - that little peninsula where you are never very far from the ocean. How life has changed for us! We emigrated to the USA in 1997 on our 10th wedding anniversary. Yes one we will never forget! In all honesty the first two weeks we were here we wondered what in the world had hit us & what we had done BUT we have never looked back & God has richly blessed us in the grand Ol' USA! When we first arrived on the east coast we spent our first few years in the fast lane. Richard was working for a very well known company in Washington DC. After 4 years we had had enough - we were losing our kids emotionally & we all knew it was time to get out. We started homeschooling & then moved to the mountains of West Virginia where we regrouped as a family, but we knew WV would never be home. We enjoyed our two years there & started living the homestead life. Liz was/is a country gal. In fact Liz's relatives still farm big dairy herds back in England. Richard, however was a city guy & so the lifestyle took him a little longer to adjust to. Neither of us would change it now though :) From WV we moved to the wide open spaces of Montana - Big Sky Country where the scenery was incredible, population low and the winters so frigid you had to be hardy to survive! LOL! We spent 7 wonderful years there during which time we learned an incredible amount about farming. However in early 2009 we began to feel it was time to move on. Where to go? After printing out a map of the USA with all the states on & gradually crossing out the ones that were not homeschooling or adoption friendly (yes we would like to do another adoption) we really felt drawn to Missouri. We did some research, started receiving some of the local newspapers down there & really felt drawn to the south. In August 2009 we took a trip & looked at many properties but only found 2 that we liked. One sold early on & looking back was definitely NOT the right place for us. The other place, our new home, was still waiting for us when we finally sold the farm in MT in July 2010. September 2010 saw us on the road with quite the convoy, not only us & the children but also dogs, over 50 pigs & piglets, chickens, geese and turkeys.

SO how did we get "into" Milking Devons?! In our aim to be more self-sufficient, our quest in 2011 led us to researching hertiage cattle that were milkable but did so solely on grass/hay. The main reason being that, amongst other things here on the farm, we also raise Large Black hogs, another heritage breed. Large Blacks do great on pasture but because they have a digestive system very much like our own they do need some kind of food supplement - very hard to raise them on just grass. With the price of garin heading ever higher & the quality not as good as we would like it was time to start working on switching the pigs over to a diet of grass, dairy & eggs. Yes we have 300+ chickens free ranging around here! The idea is that the milk from the cows will feed both the chickens & the pigs.

So.... back to the cows :) As stated above, we were not at all interested in bringing cows onto the farm that not only needed high quantities of grain each day but were also bred for large bags etc as so many of the commercial cows have been. Richard had the opportunity to go with a friend to New England earlier in the year to pick up a Milking Devon cow for him. He saw the cows & drank the milk so when we started researching, Milking Devons came to mind & were certainly a viable option. But where to find some? To cut a long story short we found a herd of 13 for sale in Pennsylvania. Liz was on a trip so went to look at them. She was very impressed & so we made arrangements to pick them up a few weeks later.We have been extremely pleased with the quality of this herd and we do not mean that in a big headed way. To see all our Milking Devon breeding stock click here.

This is a totally new venture for us, Although we have milked a milk cow for several years we have never milked several cows each day. We & the cows have some training to do & I'm sure if you read our blog you will get some laughs as we share our adventures with you :)

Our FAQ page will grow as we learn so if you do not see your answer there, please do not hesitate to call or email us.

As to what else we raise here, we were very blessed in late 2011 to be be able to purchase a conservation herd of St Croix sheep from California. This enables us to be your "one stop shop" for registered breeding stock of cows, pigs & sheep. We can help get your farm stocked with quality, hardy animals to provide your family with the meat & dairy products they need.

Richard & Liz