Generations of farming — five, in fact — have left Keith Southard with the notion that there’s nothing in life he’d rather be doing.

But times change.

Not the farming: Keith and his parents, Nile and Dana Southard, still grow wheat, cotton, alfalfa and soybeans each season on the Limestone County farm that has been in the family since 1876.

Not the land: The 240 acres won by Keith’s great-great grandfather, Nial Southard, in an auction on the Athens Courthouse square still yield a sustainable life for not only the Southards, but for those to whom they sell their products.

Not the family: Keith, educated by hand as a farmer and school as an engineer, is the fifth-generation Southard to work this land on Huntsville Brownsferry Road.

No, what’s changed since early 2020 is an addition to the farm. Today, pigs, hogs and chickens share land with the crops that have been the farm’s legacy. Now, fresh eggs, chicken and pork are also available to the local community — products processed, inspected, frozen and finally, sold from the same place the Southard family had done business for nearly 150 years.

Livestock farming wasn’t what Keith had envisioned as a youth, and he admits that it took some doing to convince his father — the younger Southard still isn’t sure his dad, who on a late March day was preparing land for about 50 acres of cotton, is fully on board — but, with the volatile nature of farming, he said he went this way for one, simple reason.

“We’re doing what we have to do to save the family farm,” Keith Southard said.

From all appearances and a tour of the farm, Keith’s stewardship is working toward that goal.

Clean and odor-free fields and pens weren’t primed for a photographer’s visit — Keith said that anyone who is looking at ordering his products is welcome for a tour — but the result of studying the techniques of Joel Salatin, a Virginia-based farmer whose holistic, clean food production methods serve as a model for Southard and others.

“I learned farming from just growing up on the farm, but also I studied Joel Salatin’s regenerative form of agriculture. Instead of using fertilizers and chemicals, he’s using animals in different ways to improve the land organically,” Southard said.

For example, Southard moves his hens, protected by electric netting so they have free access to forage the pasture, about twice a month.

“That way they eat all the greens, the insects, scratch the round up a bit, drop the manure. Once they do that, I move them to a fresh spot, and this spot grows back,” Southard said. “Alfalfa (the greens) is kind of perfect for that. You cut it about 4-5 times a year so it grows back quick.”

Similarly, his meat chickens are moved to fresh pastures every morning.

And such techniques are also perfect for his pigs and hogs.

“Rotating, moving them, that’s the key,” Southard said. “You’ll notice there’s no smell, like you might have in a place where you keep them in the same spot. I also don’t have to give them medications because they’re moving around and the ground doesn’t have time to build up parasites.”

“The pigs are already very smart,” he said. “They can use their instincts to forage the woods and pasture. They also have free choice hog feed from a local feed mill.”

The difference, “fresh air and sunshine,” results in a healthful, safe product, Southard said.

“We take them to a USDA-inspected processor and they do an excellent job on curing and smoking bacon and hams,” he said.

Southard’s bacon, ham and other products, can be ordered at the farm’s website, southardfarm.com.

There, visitors can learn about the farm, view photos, choose what they need and set up a time to pick up the products — at which time they’ll likely be met by another generation of Southards, Keith’s mom, a retired piano teacher doing her part with her husband and son in keeping the family farm alive.