Winchester Farm’s livestock operation is on 1,600 acres of rolling land on the outskirts of Dancyville, Tennessee. The land is a diversity of scattered woodlots that include oak, hickory, persimmon, tulip poplar and sweet gum timber interspersed with small pastures and grain fields no larger than 30 acres. Wild deer, turkey, wintering waterfowl and shorebirds, rodents and predators, bluebirds, hummingbirds, wildflowers and wild honeybees, among others, make their home on the Winchester Farm plot. These flora and fauna live in harmony with the farm’s domestic Angus cattle, Berkshire and Large Black hogs.

In 2019, we reopened The Gin Lot (www.theginlot.com) in Dancyville as our farm store and pizzeria, where we butcher and sell our pastured beef and pork. We use our meats as ingredients for our wood-fired, Neopolitan-style pizzas, as well!

History

Winchester Farm was a cattle ranch in the mid 1900s and had become a collection of smaller farms, creek bottoms and woodlots that Peter and Leslie Schutt have acquired over the past 20 years. In the late 20th century, the land was intensively farmed using industrial agribusiness methods. But in the past ten years, the Schutts have adopted a  sustainable model of farming, one that eliminates the use of chemical herbicides and pesticides and minimizes the use of nitrogen fertilizer. Read more about the history of the farm here.

Dancyville

Dancyville’s history is one of supplying locally grown food to the surrounding communities, including Memphis. Located 13 miles south of Brownsville, Dancyville’s history dates to 1837, when a blacksmith named Isaac Dancy was the area’s lone merchant. That year, the Dancyville Methodist Church was formed, and the building that housed the church beginning in 1845 remains the community’s primary landmark. The Dancyville community supports and staffs the farm. Meet our staff »