Cotton Patch Geese

Cotton Patch Geese are considered critically endangered and in need of protection.  *As of 2020 Cotton Patch Geese have officially moved into the Threatened category!  A huge success for preservation breeders!* Our flock is used for education and preservation breeding of this unique breed.  They are grazers which prompted a new forage system on the farm known as silvopasture.  This type of pasture is a sustainable method used on a wooded lot for grazing.  

Thanks to the Livestock Conservancy's Microgrant program we are added an 8x8 mobile goose 'tractor' in 2020!  This unit allows us to keep all of our geese on a forage fed system throughout the nesting and laying season. 

In 2023 we sold a breeding pair to the Beardsley Zoo where they began a conservation program with this amazing breed!  Their first hatch made four different news stations as well as the national AZA website!

The following info is taken from the Livestock Conservancy, which we are a proud member of.

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Once commonplace on farms in the southeastern United States., the Cotton Patch is a breed of goose that gets its name from the job it performed. These geese were used to weed cotton and corn fields up until the 1950s. Cotton Patch geese are remembered in the rural south for helping many farmers and their families survive the Great Depression by providing a regular source of meat, eggs, and grease.
The breed's beginnings are not clear but it is thought to have descended from European stock brought to the U.S. during the colonial period. Cotton Patch geese possess many qualities in common with other sex-linked European breeds such as the Shetland, West of England, and Normandy geese. However, these breeds are recent importations to North America, and have not played a role in the development of the Cotton Patch goose. The Cotton Patch goose is the remaining relic of a little known American breed of goose with parent stock that probably shares common ancestors with these other sex-linked geese. Cotton Patch differ from other sex-linked goose breeds by having pink or orange-pink bills, light weight bodies, and the ability to fly.