Yon Family Farms

In 1996, Kevin and Lydia Yon started their farm on 100 acres outside Ridge Spring that had once been a peach orchard.

Today, it looks very different.

What began with 100 Angus cows has grown into thousands of acres of South Carolina farmland, with Angus cattle at the center of the operation and the next generation of the Yon family now working alongside their parents.

But cattle had been part of Kevin's story long before Yon Family Farms existed. At just 12 years old, he borrowed money to buy an Angus heifer—an early beginning for a life that would eventually revolve around raising cattle.

Kevin and Lydia later met while studying Animal Science at Clemson, spent years managing another Angus operation, and eventually took the leap to build one of their own.

Nearly three decades later, families can buy Yon-raised Angus beef close to where those cattle are raised—from individual cuts at The Nut House & Country Market in Ridge Spring to larger beef shares for the freezer.

And the farm is still very much a family operation. Their children, Sally, Drake and Corbin, have returned to work in the business, carrying the farm into its next generation.

The detail worth remembering: before there were cattle grazing across Yon Family Farms, there were peach trees.

An old South Carolina peach orchard became the ground on which the Yon family built a farm.