Ayrshire Farm looks after its heritage breed livestock with the highest, most responsible standards, producing good-for-you food that is USDA Organic, Non-GMO Project Verified, and Certified Humane Raised and Handled. After Sandy Lerner bought Ayrshire in 1996, she set her sights on establishing a sustainable, profitable farm that earned a sterling reputation for locally produced, humanely raised and handled meats and organic produce. The products are sold online and at The Home Store in Middleburg, and served at Lerner's Hunter's Head Restaurant in Upperville.

As Large Livestock and Equine Manager, Crystal Ritenour leads the topnotch farm staff. She has worked for Lerner for 9 years in varying capacities and knows all aspects of the farm. She is responsible for 980 Scottish Highland, Ancient White Park and Beef Shorthorn cattle, 280 Gloucestershire Old Spot hogs and 13 Shire horses. She's also in charge of 10 full-time employees on two properties: Ayrshire's 800 acres and a nearby farm of 300 acres.

"There's never a dull moment at Ayrshire and I have an incredible crew — it would be impossible to handle everything without them," said Ritenour, striding out happily one gray day to show off several new litters of Old Spot hogs. "My absolute favorite part of caring for the animals is calving and farrowing season. There's nothing better than seeing the miracle of life and watching those little ones grow."

Ritenour stops to check on a sow and her day-old litter by raising a special flap at the back of a farrowing (pig birthing) hut. She seems to know each Old Spot sow by sight, which is amazing because, at first sight, they look so much alike. Then again, she's in charge of their wellbeing, day in and day out. Whipping out her smartphone, she types rapidly — high tech for hogs — then moves on to the next sow, heavily pregnant, but not quite ready to farrow. We continue up the field where a five-month-old boy hog has escaped his family to gallop around and play with a group of youngsters half his size. It seems he's a well-known escape artist.

"One of the other things I love about what I do is being outdoors so much," said Ritenour. "I do have desk time, to keep our extensive records in order and up to date, but I'm outside a lot more than I'm in the office." She checks on another sow whose farrowing hut teems with amazingly nimble and active piglets. From the hogs, we drive a short way and enter a field of cattle.

"The cow herd has sit-ins when they want to move to a new field," she said. "They congregate at the gate and scream all day. We put out hay for them, but when they're ready to move to a new field, they really let you know it."

Ritenour checks out every cow and then we're on our way again, stopping where two Ayrshire staff are involved in swapping harness from one pair of Shires to another. They have been chain-harrowing the field. Grazing rotation is imperative for organic farming, because you can't put down chemicals to kill parasites. The Shires pull the chain harrow (although Ayrshire does have all the requisite farm equipment) which breaks up the manure from whatever livestock was grazing that area, allowing the birds and sun to do their jobs.

"I don't have a typical day on the farm. I have so many areas to oversee that I can be pulled in many directions each day," said Ritenour. "I do rounds, checking on all of the animals. I help the crew in any area they need help with — feeding, watering, moving, health checks, medication and so on. I also drive and ride the horses and check on them, groom them and do any treatments that they need. I help in the training of young horses. I schedule vet visits and communicate with our veterinarians when needed and refer information to the crew. I make sure our supplies are stocked."

That isn't all: Ritenour is a licensed vet tech. She grew up in the country and always loved animals. At 18, she went to work for a boarding stable and about a year or so later joined the internship program for horses at Ayrshire Farm where she fell head over heels in love with the Shires. Learning everything she could, Ritenour moved up from being an intern with no driving experience to Assistant Equine Manager and Head Coachman. She worked at Ayrshire for three years and had the opportunity to work with UC Davis with a study on a condition that affects the lower limbs of Shire horses and how Lyme disease affects horses. She was also getting her Business Management degree at night school.

"After Ayrshire I worked at a Morgan horse farm and then moved to Texas for a couple years. I lost my horse who was a huge part of my world and like my child," said Ritenour. "I was deciding what my next step would be when I got a phone call offering me a job at a veterinary practice in Virginia with the agreement that I go back to school and earn a degree in Veterinary Technology. I decided to do this, because maybe if I knew more I could have done something to help my horse and maybe save her."

Ritenour moved back to Virginia, working full time for the vet practice and taking vet tech courses in the three-year program. She passed the Board exam and became a Licensed Veterinary Technician and continued working for the practice for two more years, spending a lot of time in the hospital with the worst cases. She needed more "good times" and, one day, stopped by Ayrshire to say hello.

"They asked if I would ever be interested in coming back there to work and I said maybe," recalled Ritenour. "A couple months went by with some serious discussions and, although I had a heavy heart about leaving Rose Hill, I decided to move back to Ayrshire to work in the food side of the production. I love my job. I love taking care of the animals. I get excited about every baby that's born. The difficult part is when a baby doesn't make it or an animal gets sick or injured. We do everything we can to help the animal, but sometimes there is nothing we can do and sometimes you think that all is lost, but the animal keeps fighting and makes it. It's very hard to have the responsibility of deciding when to let the animal go."

Ritenour communicates regularly with Lerner, works with the property manager and supervises the financial side of her departments. Most of all, she oversees the health and wellbeing of the animals.

"To me, every life is precious," said Ritenour. "Yes, we're raising these animals for food, but they live freely and naturally — you saw the young hogs playing. They enjoy their lives. That's really important. We work on a certified humane farm, producing food for people who care where their food comes from and who want to know that they are buying products that they can feel good about. That's what we do at Ayrshire — we raise happy, healthy animals."

To learn more about Ayrshire Farm, please visit: www.ayrshirefarm.com