It’s official–we have a new Facebook page promoting our locally grown beef. A website will soon follow.
We’ve been in the beef business for decades. As a small scale producer, we have close contact with our cattle. There are a lot of good producers out there who take great care of their herds. We aim for the same.
Our cattle are handled with low-stress techniques. What does this mean? It means that we use natural methods for pasture rotation and slow movements. We try not to raise our voices. Studies show cortisol levels in cattle increase with raised voices alone. Can you imagine what whips and a high lope do?
Yes, some people do still use these methods. Early on in our history, we tried a lot of methods–many which told us what NOT to do. We’ve learned from and by our mistakes. It is much like being a parent: there times I wish I would’ve responded differently to my kids. Sometimes we change our tune and say we are sorry because even though we are the adults, we don’t always get it right. We try to do it right–certainly! The same is true with ranching. We’d love to think that we have arrived at a perfect homeostasis because that would mean everything is perfect. However, we are constantly learning and studying so that we make choices that are best for the cattle and for us. We want the best long term effects, not what gets them to the pasture the fastest. We want to capitalize on strengths.
Each of our children exhibit different strengths. Ranches are similar. Granted, we don’t look at our cattle and think: “Wow, that one is artistic, that one is an engineer…” However, we can look at a particular piece of land, note the strengths, and determine, “This is great summer pasture. Or this is a great space for a hay field.”
With our place, we have a great set-up to raise beef naturally. We’ve got nice forage, river pasture, and an irrigated cover crop for later in the season. We are able to rotate pastures as needed. Most of all, we love what we do and we believe in quality food.
Check out the link to our page:
How about you? What is the best use of your land?
Cowboy Wife 