join our herd
Seasonal Internships
We are looking for self-motivated, capable, curious and enthusiastic individuals who are excited to work hard, live rustically, and spend a lot of time on the land with goats. We are passionate about what we do, and we are looking for interns who share our love of the natural world, have a hearty appetite for meaningful work, and an enthusiasm for sustainable ranching - coming with an open heart and mind is an important part of working and living with us . The desire to caretake land and animals is what drives us, and we are committed to continually learning and to sharing what we have learned in our 15 years of doing prescribed grazing and raising goats. Our season starts in early May with our kidding season and lasts until the end of September when our grazing contracts are complete, although there is a possibility of arriving earlier in the spring to prepare for kidding season and extending later into the fall.
We live and work on 150 acres of family ranch land outside of Red Lodge, Montana in a beautiful landscape at the foothills of the Beartooth Mountain Range and we use goats as a way to heal the land and for sustenance. In the summer months we move our goats around our county for natural invasive weed control and land regeneration. Our goat herd consists of over 250 head of breeding goats, with an additional 200 some kids by June, and they are a unique hybrid that we have developed over the past 15 years to be Montana-hardy meat goats that produce a cashmere coat in the winter. We utilize their meat, milk and fiber, as well as using their help to restore fertility and resiliency to the land we work with. We use regenerative farming and ranching practices, also called rotational grazing, prescribed grazing and targeted grazing, as well as utilizing principles of holistic resource management. Dogs are an important part of our operation both for herding and protection from predators. We herd the goats by foot, moving them up to 15 miles in a day, and we utilize portable electric fence. We have a diversity of animals at the home ranch, including our milk goats, a small herd of dairy and beef cattle, a horse and pony, and chickens. Through our work care-taking land and animals, we have grown a passion for educating people about regional regenerative agriculture and local ecology. In addition, we see butchering animals as an important part of raising animals, and of cooking and eating meat. We butcher one or two goats at a time every month for our own nourishment, as well as for butchering workshops, and our farm-to-table and live-fire cooking events in our community. We are a family that makes our entire living from our herd of goats - we have a twelve year old daughter, a six year old son, and a 3 year old daughter, so being comfortable with and enjoying being around kids is a must. Interns are quickly taken in as part of the family if it is the right fit for everyone.
Work will entail setting up portable electric fencing (net and multi-strand), understanding how to read pastures and animal behavior to know when the herd needs to be moved, participating in planning our rotational grazing, handling working dogs (herding dogs and livestock guardian dogs), herding goats on rugged terrain without fence, walking the goat herd up to 15 miles down Montana roads and highways to new grazing properties, hands-on experience with assisting and taking care of birthing goats and goat kids, milking goats, helping with butchering goats and participating in our farm-to-table fire cooking events, helping plant, tend and harvest our homestead vegetable garden, installing permanent fence, helping with a variety of ongoing construction improvements on the ranch including carpentry, stone masonry, cob building, and historic renovation.
Accommodations include living space (RV with a gas range; outhouse), utilities (electricity, wifi down at main house), and access to ranch facilities (barns, select tools). We provide a portion of interns' food including: goat, beef, elk, eggs, milk, cheese and yogurt, potatoes, wild harvested greens and fruit, and some locally grown organic produce - we try to do a communal ranch meal once a week. We offer a stipend after one month's stay, to be determined in person, and based on skill level.
Our vision is to provide opportunities and skills for people to deepen their awareness of and their connection to the natural world and to help nurture a culture that celebrates place-based food. To apply for our internship please email us at healthymeadows@gmail.com and include a resume, letter of intent, and a list of two references with phone numbers. Thank You!
" My two grazing/working seasons at Healthy Meadows catalyzed a love and realization of pastoralism, animal husbandry, and prescribed grazing. I came with a desire to learn all things related to goats (grazing, dairying, butchering, breeding) and found nearly the perfect experience for that immersion. Working for the Thranes is an incredibly unique and rewarding experience to learn a way of life with the animals that is centered in reverence and relationship. You will work hard and feel rewarded by the work itself, the goats devouring weeds and the herding dog resting in the shade. They are a beautiful family making a living with a herd of animals sharing all their knowledge and skills with whomever is willing and wanting. I strongly encourage working a grazing season at Healthy Meadows if you are called to the goats and their song. The Thranes will be caring, open and committed. " - Eric B., Wisconsin
"My experience with the Thrane family was fundamentally life alerting--to put it mildly! I was living in New York City, working an office job in book publishing and wondering why I was so miserable. I realized I was so disconnected from nature. I had always wanted to work with animals, so I decided to take a chance and choose a place I had never been before (Montana) with lots of animals (hundreds of goats). The Thranes are not just "ranchers", they are true stewards of the land. Simultaneously of this world and an ancient one that so many people long to visit.... They are constantly educating themselves and others on their native flora and fauna, and how we can dig deeper into those natural relationships, with no pretension and open minds and hearts. When you are with them, you immediately feel like a member of their family. Their children are curious, helpful, and always put a smile on your face. Every day there is a new project for the betterment of body, mind, land, and animals; it is all symbiotic.
Then there are the intangible things you will learn... like the daily humbling lessons goats have to teach us, how to make a true difference in your environment, a sense of place, how to feel the pulse of nature every day--something we often ignore in our modern busy lives. In the almost 10 months I spent with the Thranes, I can honestly say every day was a new adventure. Such is life on a ranch, but there is a certain magic there that you just have to see for yourself to believe!" - Veronica C., New Jersey
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