In the 1980s much of our land was a part of a 2,000 acre dairy farm owned by the late Dewey Beam. Dewey was Secretary & Treasurer of Carolina Freight until his retirement in 1969. Carolina Freight, founded by Dewey’s brother Grier, was one the of largest employers in Cherryville, NC before it was acquired by Arkansas Best Corporation in 1995 and moved out of state. Dewey’s farm was dispersed after his death in January 1995 but we have been successful reassembling much of it. Charlie Jones, our Farm Manager worked on Dewey’s dairy farm and we recently acquired the original farm buildings of Dewey’s “Cedar Lake Farm” and have already started renovating them.
In the late 1990s about 230 acres of the farm was a nationally recognized, state of the art, equestrian breeding facility focused on halter horses. The farm was home to “Noble Tradition”, a four time world-champion halter stallion. We have wonderful facilities as a result of this legacy including equipment and hay barns, stabling, exercise facilities and paddocks for over 100 horses.
We are keeping our connection to horses by offering our facilities as a training ground for the North Carolina Caisson Unit and their color guard. We are also providing a home to some rescued Thoroughbred horses.
River Taw Farms LLC started operations in July 2008. We are still working hard on the infrastructure and appearance of the farm to create the foundation for our grassfed rotational grazing plans.
Our name is inspired by a river and its surrounding moorlands in Devon, England. The River Taw rises at Taw Head, a spring on the central northern flanks of The Dartmoor National Park. It reaches the Bristol Channel 45 miles away on the north coast of Devon at a joint estuary mouth which it shares with the River Torridge.