The Urban Homesteader

The Urban Homesteader Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from The Urban Homesteader, Grocers, 1852 S Dewey Drive, Valle, AZ.

Sea Level to High Desert Homesteaders | Storefront Open | Farming in Valle, AZ since ‘21 | Raising Animals, Growing Food, Building Community — Let’s Grow Together

♻️Green Sawdust for sale!🌲🪚🪵♻️‼️80 Cu. Yrd. Loads 🚛‼️Only Private Distributor in Northern Arizona Here are a bunch of us...
03/25/2026

♻️Green Sawdust for sale!🌲🪚🪵♻️

‼️80 Cu. Yrd. Loads 🚛‼️

Only Private Distributor in Northern Arizona

Here are a bunch of uses for green (fresh) sawdust:

1. Animal bedding
Green sawdust works great for bedding in chicken coops, goat pens, pig pens, and dog houses. It absorbs moisture, manure, and urine, and then you can shovel it out and compost it later.

2. Compost carbon material
Sawdust is a “brown” in compost. Mix it with manure, food scraps, grass clippings, or garden waste. It helps balance nitrogen and keeps compost from getting slimy and smelly.

3. Mud control
If you have muddy areas around water troughs, gates, or feeding areas, dump sawdust there. It soaks up water and gives animals something dry to walk on.

4. Garden paths
You can lay sawdust down in garden walkways to keep w**ds down and keep your feet out of the mud. Over time it breaks down and improves the soil.

5. W**d suppression
Put a thick layer of sawdust around trees, bushes, or along fence lines to stop w**ds from growing. Just don’t mix fresh sawdust directly into garden soil unless it’s composted first.

6. Manure soak in barns
If you have a barn or shelter, spread sawdust on the floor and keep layering manure and sawdust. After a while you can clean it out and you’ve basically made compost already.

7. Fire starter
Dry sawdust mixed with wax makes really good fire starters. Even just dry sawdust alone helps get fires going.

8. Ice and traction
In winter, sawdust can be spread on ice or snow for traction on walkways and around animal pens.

9. Fill material
You can use it to fill low spots, holes, or around fence posts. It will eventually break down and turn into soil.

10. Composting toilets / outhouses
Sawdust is perfect for covering waste in composting toilets or outhouses to control smell and help composting.

Basically it’s bedding, compost, mulch, w**d control, mud control, and soil builder all in one.

03/09/2026

Many people share the view that disbudding is a cruel practice, as it undeniably causes pain and distress to young animals. Animal welfare advocates and some producers emphasize that the procedure is traumatic, especially when performed without adequate pain relief.

The practice remains standard in commercial farming because it is viewed as a necessary trade-off for long-term safety.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) | (.gov)

The Case Against Disbudding (Welfare Concerns)
Acute Pain: Regardless of the method—hot iron or caustic paste—disbudding causes significant pain that can lead to behavioral and physiological signs of stress, such as increased cortisol levels.
Healing Time: Research indicates that the wounds from disbudding can take up to 13 weeks to fully heal, affecting the animal's affective state long after the procedure.
Risk of Botched Procedures: Inexperienced application can lead to "scurs" (deformed horn growth), infections, or even fatal brain injuries.
Loss of Natural Functions: Horns are used for self-defense against predators and to help regulate body temperature through blood vessels.

The Case For Disbudding (Safety & Management)
Preventing Severe Injury: Horned animals can seriously injure herd mates, often causing punctured udders, facial wounds, or even death.
Human Safety: Horns pose a significant risk to handlers, particularly in dairy operations where animals are handled daily.
Entrapment: Animals with horns frequently get stuck in fences, which can lead to strangulation or broken necks if they are not found in time.
Comparison to Dehorning: Disbudding is considered more humane than dehorning (removing horns from adult animals), which is a far more invasive and dangerous surgical procedure.
Mother Earth News

Efforts to Improve Welfare
Pain Mitigation: Leading veterinary organizations, such as the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP), recommend using local anesthetics (like lidocaine) and systemic analgesics (like NSAIDs) to minimize pain.
Polled Genetics: A growing alternative is breeding for "polled" (naturally hornless) traits to eliminate the need for the procedure entirely. However, this can sometimes lead to genetic issues like Polled Intersex Syndrome (P*S) in certain goat breeds.

10/23/2025

Our new baby KuneKune girl with big thanks to Abigail Joseph. This little piggy is just the sweetest and very friendly held her for about an hour without a squerm. 💜🐷🩷

Intact Male 6 Mo for sale $75
10/01/2025

Intact Male 6 Mo for sale $75

🌱🌞 Building Healthy Soil 🌻🌱🥕🥬 Healthy food starts with healthy soil 🌱🍅🥒 — and here in Valle, we’ve got unique challenges...
09/28/2025

🌱🌞 Building Healthy Soil 🌻🌱

🥕🥬 Healthy food starts with healthy soil 🌱🍅🥒 — and here in Valle, we’ve got unique challenges: 🪨 heavy clay, 🧱 layers of caliche, 💦 low rainfall, and 🌡️ big swings in temperature. But 🌍 soil can be regenerated with the right practices 🌱🌿🌞. These 🔟 permaculture strategies are especially powerful 🌟 for our high desert conditions 🏜️🌄:

1️⃣ 🌱🌾 Keep soil covered 🌿🍂 — bare soil ☀️🥵 bakes in our sun 🌞 and turns rock-hard 🪨. Always mulch 🍁 or plant 🌻 cover crops 🌱.

2️⃣ 🌿 Cover crops & legumes 🌱🌸 — clovers 🍀, vetch 🌼, and peas 🫛 fix nitrogen 💨 and keep the ground alive 🌍✨.

3️⃣ ✂️🌱 Chop & drop 🌿🍂 — let plants 🌾 feed the soil 🌱🍄 by cutting them back 🪓 at the right times ⏳ and leaving the biomass 🌿.

4️⃣ 📦🍂 Sheet mulching 🌱🪵 — cardboard 📦 + compost 🥕🍌 + straw 🌾 builds a rich layer 🌍 above our clay 🧱.

5️⃣ 🔄♻️ Recycle biological waste 🍎🥚 — kitchen scraps 🥔🥦, goat bedding 🐐🛏️, manure 💩 — nothing living 🌱 should leave your land 🌍.

6️⃣ 🧑‍🌾 Make compost on-site 🪱🍂 — compost 🗑️ loves our altitude 🏔️ when kept moist 💦 and shaded 🌳.

7️⃣ 🧪🍵 Soil probiotics 🌱 — natural teas 🍵🌿 (compost tea 🪱, worm tea 🐛) restore microbial life 🦠🌍.

8️⃣ 🐑🐐 Managed grazing 🐄🐓 — animals 🐑 help cycle nutrients ♻️🌿 if rotated properly 🔄✅.

9️⃣ 💧🏞️ Water harvesting features 🌊🌿 — swales 🌱, basins 🏺, and small berms 🏔️ slow runoff 🌧️ and sink water deep 💦.

🔟 🛠️🌱 Contour subsoil plowing 🚜 — when done carefully ⚖️, helps break up caliche 🧱 and allow roots 🌳 + water 💧 deeper access ⬇️.

👉🌱 Even with clay 🧱 and caliche 🪨, we can turn desert dirt 🏜️ into living soil 🌱🌍. It takes time ⏳, but every cover crop 🌾, every mulch layer 🍂, every drop of water 💧 we sink builds fertility 🌻🥬 for future food 🥕🍅 and community resilience 🏡🌎.

🌍🌱💚 Regenerating soil here means stronger gardens 🌻🥦, healthier livestock 🐐🐑🐓, and a self-sustaining Valle 🏜️🌄🌱.

Chuck with his little horns coming in! 🐐👩🏾‍🌾We're looking for a doeling to accompany this little Nigerian pygmy baby ❤️💜
09/28/2025

Chuck with his little horns coming in! 🐐👩🏾‍🌾
We're looking for a doeling to accompany this little Nigerian pygmy baby ❤️💜

🌿✨ Urban Homesteaders LLC Soft Opening! ✨🌿We’re opening the shop today! Come check out:👕 Tie-dyed shirts & bedspreads🛏️ ...
09/10/2025

🌿✨ Urban Homesteaders LLC Soft Opening! ✨🌿

We’re opening the shop today! Come check out:
👕 Tie-dyed shirts & bedspreads
🛏️ Tie-dye pillow protectors
🍞 Fresh homemade bread
🍫 Cereal bars

🐐 Come hang out, feed the animals some treats, and enjoy the farm.

🍽️ Potluck & BBQ starts at 4:30 PM – bring a dish if you’d like, or just show up and relax. We will have Burgers and Drumsticks cooking! 🍔🍗

This is just the beginning — more goods will be coming to the shop soon.
📍 I’ll be here all day, so swing by anytime.

Be sure to follow Urban Homesteaders LLC for updates & future events! 🌱🔥

Still up for discussion!!3mo old Speckle Park's 🐮2 Males 3 females leftSerious inquiries only**Not a stock photo**
09/10/2025

Still up for discussion!!
3mo old Speckle Park's 🐮
2 Males 3 females left
Serious inquiries only

**Not a stock photo**

🚨 Livestock Available 🚨We’ve got 3-month-old Speckle Park heifer calves and bull calves up for sale! 🐂✨✅ Healthy & well-...
09/08/2025

🚨 Livestock Available 🚨

We’ve got 3-month-old Speckle Park heifer calves and bull calves up for sale! 🐂✨

✅ Healthy & well-raised
✅ Great genetics for breeding or beef
✅ Ready to be a solid addition to your herd

📥DM us for details and pricing.
🚚 Delivery Available upon request.

First come, first served — don’t miss out!

*** STOCK PHOTO FOR REFERENCE***

The Brothers are getting bigger everyday and eating grass 🌱👩🏾‍🌾
09/05/2025

The Brothers are getting bigger everyday and eating grass 🌱👩🏾‍🌾

We got Thug Life behind bars 😂
09/01/2025

We got Thug Life behind bars 😂

Address

1852 S Dewey Drive
Valle, AZ
86046

Opening Hours

Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

(541) 805-2324

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Urban Homesteader posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to The Urban Homesteader:

Share

Category