Cooper Family Farms — Pinewood

When Hase Cooper was growing up on Sullivan’s Island, he knew he wanted to find a way to make his living on the land. He did not yet know whether that would mean guiding hunters, fishing, ranching or farming. What mattered was being outside and building a life connected to a piece of ground.

That idea eventually carried him west to Montana State University. While there, Cooper worked around cow-calf operations, helping with pregnancy checks, branding and cattle work whenever he could. The experience settled something for him: cattle were where he wanted to be.

Cooper eventually came home to South Carolina and began building Cooper Family Farms in Pinewood. Today, he raises South Poll cattle on forage rather than grain, moving the herd regularly so grazed ground has time to recover.

The farm describes its approach plainly:

“No pesticides, no herbicides, no fertilizers, no hormones, just cows eating grass, raising food for our neighbors’ tables. That’s how it used to be done, and that’s how we’re doing it today.”

Those are the farm’s own words, and they capture what Cooper is trying to build: a cattle operation centered on grass, grazing and fewer outside inputs. He watches rainfall, pasture recovery and what grows beneath the cattle’s feet, moving the herd according to what the land can support.

For Cooper, farming is the answer to a question he began asking long before he owned cattle: How could he make a life on the land?

He went west to learn. Then he came home to build it.