There used to be three basic good reasons to own a Shade Haven;
Now there are 4!
Number one, is providing comfort and protection from the blazing hot sun for your animals. Every large and small animal, given a choice, wants to get out of the noon-day sun. Rotational grazers have a high degree of empathy for their animals and a portable Shade Haven solves the problem. Besides: Comfortable animals gain weight; Comfortable animals breed back; Comfortable animals stay healthy!
Number two is doing a proper job of nutrient management on your rotationally grazed pastures. The Shade Haven permits the farmer to put the manure exactly where it is needed and not next to the same water tank or fence corner where it accumulates year after year while the rest of the pasture slowly starves. Portable shade builds and balances soil health, and healthy soils grow healthy animals.
Number three is enhancing the farmer’s sense of well-being. Having portable shade greatly reduces the guilt and anxiety about having animals stranded in small and otherwise shadeless paddocks. Users regularly tell us that they would buy a Shade Haven again even if it never made them a dime simply because it just feels so right to provide animals with shade. There is no comfort in an air-conditioned house when you look out at your animals roasting on a 90-degree day.
And now there is an important FOURTH, and very good, reason to own a Shade Haven.
As a result of the coronavirus pandemic and the shock to big ag and the big food processing systems, the small, thrifty, independent, diversified grass-based farm that sells direct to consumers has become a magnet in the countryside. While almost 100% of conventional agriculture is on government provided life support, these farms that specialize in growing food people want to eat are all reporting that their business is doubling, tripling, quadrupling, and more. People want to find a farm they can connect with and know where and from whom their food comes.
Guess what? A high percentage of these special farms already own Shade Havens! The big, round, black, Victorian-hat Shade Haven has become a clearest visible ICON, a symbol of an agricultural and food system alternative. If a farmer or informed consumer drives through the countryside at 55 mph and sees a Shade Haven on the landscape, he or she knows exactly what that means, what kind of farm it is, and what kind of farmer lives there and likely what books he reads.
The Shade Haven has quietly become a statement; a symbol, of an alternative way of thinking, living, farming, relating to animals, and producing food.
If you buy and drive a Mercedes, you make a statement about yourself.
If you buy and drive a herbicide sprayer with 120 foot booms you make a statement about yourself.
If you buy and unfurl a Shade Haven in your pastures, like a flag high on a standard, you just made a clear statement to the world and what is important to you and your family.
These are special times.
Be the change you want to see in the world.