I conducted a phone interview with a graduate student the other day that shocked me. She was writing a paper on Grass-Fed and Finished Beef (pasture-based livestock) and could not find anyone, and I mean anyone, who could answer her questions.

Very specific questions - like how is Grass-Fed Beef "Finished"?

A few years ago, I met with the same frustration. For the life of me, I couldn't wrap my head around why the concept of Grass-Fed and Finishing Beef was so hard to research. Even today, I hawk daily for nuggets of information regarding this totally foreign concept. Oh, I am not talking about the fake stuff imported from overseas and distributed by technology companies like "butcher box" in Massachusetts - I mean the real deal, real Ranchers who know how to grow cattle on grass and make them taste good. Guys and gals who understand ecology, care for our earth and have a soul-filled yearning for sustainably. 

Why was the skill of Grass-Finishing Beef so rare? Why is it so hard to find good, talented and proficient Finishers in the industry? Why are large, supermarket supplying companies taking so many short-cuts, by feedlotting beef and calling it "grass-fed" because it had one blade of grass two years ago? 

What could be so hard about this... isn't grass everywhere? Just let the Cows out and feed them...

To answer these and other questions, we must first lay some basic guidelines, define some essential terms and understand where we have come from, before knowing where we are going. 

The conventional cattle industry is split into three main sections, delineated by time. These are "Cow-calf", "Stocker" and "Finisher" operations. They describe, loosely, the three stages of life; Birth and weaning for "Cow-calf", teenage years for "Stocker" and the final stage of life where the animal is fattened for slaughter - known as "Finishing". Each of these three stages are separate enterprises, meaning that companies own one stage, but rarely or never two or all three. Subsequently, they collect revenues when they sell or transfer their "crop" from one stage to the next. So, in essence, a "Cow-calf" operator's job is done when a "Stocker" operation purchase their calves and moves them to their facility for "stocking". This process is repeated until a "Finisher" sells a full-grown, fat beef to a slaughterhouse for processing and eventual shipment to the grocery store shelf.

Ok, so now you have that, right? Cow-Calf, Stocker and Finisher - three stages, all distinct, all separate.

This chain of events has been in existence for many years. Companies have learned to specialize in each segment. They have refined, honed and perfected their operations for profitably. The system works with modern, breathtaking efficiency, until it doesn't...

In recent years, mountains of evidence have been collected to prove that Grass-Finished Beef is healthier for the consumer than Conventional Beef. The same can be said for the environmental impacts, and for the health of the animals involved. All three of these precepts witness against the current, industrial, confined Beef growing operation - and with the introduction of the world wide web public opposition to them is gaining ground at an alarmingly fast rate.

The departure from conventional to Grass-Fed and Finished Beef comes just prior to the last stage.  This last stage, known as "Finishing" is where the CAFOs or, Confined Area Feed Operations exist. These animal torture centers are the apex of cruelty. Activists rage at the mention of these facilities - and rightly so! 
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They are truly an abomination.

But, the industry sees them as necessary and functional. Only confined animals, allowed little movement and no other free choice of food will voluntarily consume large portions of grains and corn for fattening. This produces the intramuscular fats that the average American consumer desires on their plate - but it comes at a price. The obesity epidemic, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, that is now slightly larger than the state of New Jersey and the recent flooding of CAFOs resulting in the breech of manure ponds washing into rivers as this summer's hurricanes blew ashore are only a few of terrible consequences of this type of food production. 

Not only does Grass Fed and Finished Beef not have these terrible consequences, but, to the contrary, pasture-based production systems enhance the environment, sequester carbon, produce a superior health product all while allowing  the Farmers who care for them to sleep sound knowing that their animals are not being raised in a manner contrary to nature - like knee-deep in their own manure.

Conventional Beef cattle are fattened on grains and corn - all grown on the nicest farmland (called "class 1 & 2 soils"). These nutrients, in the form of harvest crops such as corn, are then transferred to a Finishing operation, or "feedlot" (commonly called a CAFO), by truck or train. Cattle are fed these feeds to fatten them quickly, often in as little as 180 days. This produces a "Finished" Beef in 18 to 21 months total time from birth to butcher. 

Kinda gives a new meaning to the term "fast food" huh?

​In contrast, true Grass-Finished beef is never sent to a feedlot or CAFO. These cattle are given the richest, fast growing, high carbohydrate grasses to add a layer of external and intermuscular fat to their bodies. This requires exceptional grass, soils and symbiotic, carefully planned cattle-to-grass management process. Producing this type of Beef, using only Grass, Sunlight, Water and Intuition is truly an art. 

It is for this reason that commodity style, conventional Ranchers have always seen cattle as a way to add value to otherwise useless land - land that could not be developed, farmed in crops, etc. 

With conventional, factory beef, at the finishing stage, the carbohydrate inputs (grains, corn) come from somewhere else, so the land is basically a "holding facility" for the cattle to be fed on while they eat. The land could be useless - they could use an old tennis court if needed. It would make no difference if grass was growing there or not. Conventional "Finishers" just need a place to feed.

Grass-Fed Finishing Ranches, such as ours are totally different. They see the land as adding value to cattle. In this way, we focus on soil to grow nutrient-dense grass. Then the cattle harvest that nutrient dense grass directly (without the use of petroleum intense equipment) and transfer that value, through nutrients, directly into the animal's tissue and fat for sale. This is an entirely new and different approach. It also takes an additional 10 months to "Grass-Finish" Beef. 

And, in farming, like any other business enterprise, time is money!
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So, then, why is Grass-Finishing so hard? Well, for one, no one teaches it. You need to learn it as you go, or as the old saying goes... "On the Job Training (o.j.t.) is the only Way". Overgraze your grass, an the beeves you are raising will be lean, flavorless and tough. Under Graze the grass and it will grow to maturity (giving it an off-taste to the cattle), lose nutrition and be useless. Grass Grazers are always walking a tightrope between over and under grazing while balancing the re-growth and biodiversity under their feet. We work tirelessly to manage the pressure on grass, in terms of foot lbs/acre - so as not to damage the soils, yet reinvigorate with proper manure dispersion. We time movements, to replicate what nature does with predators motivating a large herd of herbivores to move. And make darn sure the plants are pruned correctly, and rested between grazing rotations. 

One thing can be sure. Grass-Finishers care about the grass, and subsequently about the soil. It is the resource base for their operation. If abused, their venture fails. It's that simple. You will never find a proficient Grass-Finisher who is not in some way, deeply concerned about the environment and the ecosystem he and his cattle are plugged into.

Now, perhaps, you see why is it so hard to find these folks - they are a rare breed indeed. 

But, you may also see why Grass-Finishers are so interested in biodiversity, resilience and sustainability. Frankly, its our job - you try your hardest at work, right? We do too. It means more to the bottom line. It feels good to succeed. When we see plants flourishing, wild species working in conjunction with our large herbivores, and carbon being sequestered at twice the rate we are producing it - we feel good! 

Come join us...

It was a few summers into my self imposed, full-time Ranching exile. I was learning the ropes, so to speak, both usure and unsteady of how to handle the beasts in my care. I was at best an ameture - I had just enough Ranching experience to be dangerous.

But, I was a quick learner.

I had been taught the basics, by nook or crook, trial and error and with the grace of a few well respected Ranchers from the "old school" in my early days, but in this instance my experience fell short.

My objectives, convictions and ideas lay, conservatively speaking, outside the dogma of the "old school" and more experienced Ranchers surrounding me, and I was well into my metamorphosis of becoming "a lunatic farmer", one who was as rooted in ecosystems and symbiotic regenerative agriculture as they were the conservative, long-standing, pass-it down traditions-type that my grandfather was.

Then my favorite Cow contracted the bovine version of Pink Eye - and it was completely my fault. 

You see, not a week earlier, I had detected a bit of a stumbling problem in her walk and noticed she had the need for some calcium in her diet. A common problem with the heritage breed milk Cows, the kind our great-great-grandparents took with them crossing the western plains, was something called "Milk Fever".

Most, if not, all homestead families in those days had a milk Cow in tow as they lumbered from the east in search of whatever the great west held in perpetuity. With rich, abundant prairie grasses, consisting of as many as 40 species in any given acre - the family Cow, would produce abundantly. Repeleat with calcium drawn directly from the plains, this portable milk machine would provide rich cream, daily milk and abundance of other foods all at a conversion ratio that would put most modern dairies to shame. 

The overall concept was simple enough. Due to the lack of modern refrigeration, the milk would be produced on the go. Stopping each night, the wagon train, with as many as 40 families would begin the next day in earnest by milking their Cows. Cream, Milk and of course a trip down to the stream, where cold, snow melt water flowed would be sufficient for 30 more minutes of butter churning, to produce everyone's favorite - butter!

It was the ultimate camping experience to say the least - room and board, all in one!

The modern milk Cow produces much more calcium than it takes in through simple grazing. Our grasses today are a far stretch, in terms of nutritional density, than they were 100 years ago. In other words, today's grass alone would never supply the calcium needed for a milk Cow, and so, on our ranch calcium must be supplied artificially, mostly via alfalfa, and a supplement.

Without a supplement and rich alfalfa leafs, the Cow will mobilize calcium from its nervous system - thus the aforementioned stumbling. They look like a drunken sailor. I had learned properly to recognize the symptoms, and treat them correctly. Pen her up (so the others don't eat the alfalfa) feed, and observe. Have a bottle of calcium solution and and IV on hand in case she collapses. Its pretty simple really.

Now, with that being said - I did just as I had been taught. I penned her up, fed her well and waited for recovery. She did fine! After a few day she was on the road to recovery.

But... (and there is always a "but" when you are learning the ropes)

In the few day of being penned up, she contracted pink eye. Its very common for Cows in confinement to get pink eye. The flies hatch in the manure, and without chickens present, multiply rapidly. This makes for a nasty condition of flies landing on the cows face and transferring fecal bacteria, however small, to the soft mucus membranes of the Cow's eye.

There is only one cure - she must receive antibiotics. If not, she will go blind and this is a terrible way for a Cow to live. So I did what any good Rancher would do - I treated her. She healed, and I was able to keep my favorite Cow. Of course, I couldn't drink the milk for 90 days, but eventually, her system cleaned up and she served us many more years.

Here is the key point - the illness, pinkeye, was a direct result of MY MISMANAGEMENT of the Cow. If I had let her out for the day to graze, and then brought her back into the corrals for supplement and alfalfa, she would have been fine. I could have observed her recovery in the pasture without any more risk to the operation - in short, I did what was expedient, not necessarily what was excellent.

The default position of nature is health. Cattle on pasture don't get sick anymore than an entire herd of Elk suddenly fall ill. Sure, one or two might, but not the entire herd. A group of sick Cows is a sure sign of poor care. Animal illness is always a result of mismanagement. Period.

When you go to the grocery store, like me and pick up ​Consumer Reports most recent issue detailing the discovery of harmful drugs in meat - You are, justifiably,  both enraged and shocked. 

Paging through, you notice the issue focus almost completely on the concept of detectable levels and enforcement.  The piece drags on, and on, using terms like "Parts per Billion" and "background exposure". It asks why the USDA sets too high cutoff thresholds for detection. By the time you finish the column titled "The Struggle for Enforcement" you're ready to grab your proverbial pitchfork and call those lazy bureaucrats in D.C. demanding change!

Before you do, let me ask this... What makes you believe that the USDA, (who promoted the concept of feeding dead cows to cows, thus bringing down upon its constituency the plague of Mad Cow Disease) would be efficient at detecting drugs in meat in the first place?

No, dear friend, the problem is not in detection or enforcement. The problem is in the management of the animals. The problem is the whole method of animal husbandry, writ large, sanctioned and promoted by the USDA.

​The whole system is flawed! Do I need to say that again? The whole system is flawed!

In this case, the baby and the bathwater must go.

Eighty plus percent of all antibiotics manufactured in the U.S. today are used in the cattle industry. My question is this... with that number in mind, is it any wonder that drugs are detectable at all levels in our meat supply?

We must, as a Nation, repent of our ways with respect to animal husbandry. The CAFO (confined area feed operation) is flawed and must be scrapped. Pasture based livestock is the only way to avoid drugs in our meats. The best way to do this is to support pastured based Ranchers and Farmers. These small, local producers know how to care for animals without using routine, prophylactic drugs.

You can make a difference.

When my wife, Eve, attends Farmer's Markets, she is often asked for recipes or instructions to properly prepare our Dry Aged, Grass-Fed & Finished Beef. 
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Dry Aged Beef, of any type (Grass fed or not) cooks much differently than non-Dry Aged, so, the bulk of discussion centers on this topic. That is fine, for your average steak lover, but, occasionally we have a talk with a what I call a "clean eater".

These are folks who follow a strict dietary regimen, such as AIP (auto-immune protocol eating), KETO, PALEO and the like. These eaters are not just mimicking something the doctor told them in passing, like "You should really stay away from...(fill in the blank).

,These people are food prodigies, seeking out each ingredient with diligence, dedicating hours to crafting their meals. They prepare what I have found to be the purest, most nutritionally dense plates available. Their kitchen is an alter to food righteousness. It's a place of creation and purity - almost a holy ground. It's not terribly complicated - the meals don't win awards and would never be featured on the latest installment of "Top Chef".

They pour themselves into taste, quality and sourcing the cleanest food available. In truth, it is how the culinary arts and domestic skills of yesteryear were practiced.

They've created a larder of nutrition in their home. This is food purity, sacredness, consecration - truly a sight to behold and, if you are ever fortunate enough to join them for a meal, it will be an experience you will not soon forget.

In our home we grow what we eat. When we do purchase food, it comes from only a few trusted Farms we know, personally. Thus, the lexicon of food righteousness, for lack of a better term, has become a second language for us.

Eve speaks the language of food righteousness fluently, with grace, and is no doubt a true darling of the movement. 

The few processed foods found in our house usually fall into the category of condiments. I've always struggled to find good condiments - it seems like every Ketchup found in the entire universe have loads of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) or Sugar in them. Add to that the risk of pesticide accumulation found in all the common, industrial, factory farmed condiment ingredients and you have a real risk of tanking your own personal ecosystem.

So, in keeping with our anti-establishment thinking, Eve made our own BBQ sauce. In light of the impending holiday weekend, I thought we might share it with you...

First, grab these items...

• 15 ounce can of organic tomato sauce (better yet, make your own - it's super easy)
• ¾ cup Braggs Organic apple cider vinegar
• ½ cup Xylitol or equivalent stevia
• 3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 ½ tsp organic garlic powder
• ¾ tsp himalayan sea salt
• ¼ rounded tsp organic ground cayenne
• ½ tsp organic pepper
• 1 Tsp organic onion powder

Here is the skinny on how to put this stuff together...

Add all ingredients to sauce pan. Heat over med-high heat, stir and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Cooking longer results in a thicker sauce. Doubling the recipe will take an additional 10 minutes to thicken. 

Once you are done, here is what you will have; about 2 cups per recipe

Grab some short ribs, flank ribs or back ribs and pressure cook them as described in this FACEBOOK post. Once done, place them in the broiler and cover with BBQ sauce. 

Be prepared for a food odyssey! 

Sure, we offer Pastured based livestock products like Grass-fed & finished Beef and Pastured, Pork and Chicken – all stuff people desperately need, but on a daily basis, but I’m increasingly convinced that our primary purpose, here at SonRise Ranch is to reach out to the consumer and offer them an education.
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What kind of education can you get from someone who moves Pigs around a pasture all day long?In the early 20th century ninety percent or more of the U.S. population was involved in Agriculture to some degree or another. Today, Farmers don’t even rate being counted on in the US census. In fact, the current population of incarcerated persons in the United States dwarfs the number of Farmers by two-to-one.

People, for the most part, due to no fault of their own, are agriculturally illiterate. They have no idea how food is grown, how animals live, what they should or should not eat – this comprises the bulk of our conversations with our constituency.

Conservatively, I have over 100 conversations per week regarding food, food production and sustainable agriculture.
And we are by no means, a big attraction. On the contrary, we are a small farm.

I meet and talk with folks at the Farmers Markets, at Weston A. Price dinners and conferences, at social events, via email and phone calls – literally hundreds of concerned mothers, steak loving fathers, and environmental activists each week contact the Ranch seeking knowledge and information.
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The level of interest in farming is staggering.

“Hi – I am looking for chicken that is grown only on California soil, eats no Gluten, Soy, Wheat, Corn, Grains, Bugs, Dirt, Ants, Rodents, Fish or Fish by-products, Can you help me?”

My first question would be; “What do you propose we feed them?

Air? Snowflakes? Clouds?

Theirs is a valid question, don’t get me wrong, in fact we invite people to ask these questions. But seriously folks, what, pray tell do you propose these wonderful creations eat while being raised on our farm?

I need to feed them something!

The impetus for this disconnect is a lack of understanding between what the Doctor is prescribing, and what the chicken is metabolizing. The customer, in this case, is severely allergic to the aforementioned foods and desires the chicken they are consuming to have the same dietary restrictions they do. This is completely unnecessary and dysfunctional.

What a chicken eats, and how it affects the human who eats the chicken, fall into one of two categories.

1. Products grown or found in nature - Examples include seeds, corn, lentils, beans, peas, wheat, and other grains as well as bugs, plants, grass, legumes, forbs etc.
2. Products made by man. – GMO corn, GMO lentils, GMO beans, etc. Pesticides, Herbicides, Synthetic Hormones, De-worming agents, and the like.

The chicken has no problem digesting the gluten found in grains.

Trust me – they’ve been doing it for years.

Birds (Chickens) eat seeds in nature. This is why they exist symbiotically with Herbivores. They can eat a handful of seeds and a few will pass right though, undigested then get deposited on the soil after a short flight. Nature relies on birds to spread the seeds just as it relies on bees to pollinate. If we were to travel to the Caribbean a few thousand years ago, to find an un-domesticated chicken, in its natural habitat, it would surely be eating grains – gluten and all!

When a chicken eats, the gluten (a form of protein) will digest down into amino acids; starches will break down into simple sugars, and fats will be converted into fatty acids and glycerol. This is all perfectly normal. These basic elements are what make a chicken, a chicken. They comprise its whole structure, its feathers, legs and feet. The sacrifice of the wheat grain, in this case, created the life of a chicken. It’s the whole circle of life.

In the second category, products made by man, the story is entirely different. Transgenic modified foods (GMOs) are un-natural at best and diabolical at worst. They can be metabolized, but at a considerable cost. The unpronounceable compounds, assembled by someone in a laboratory with a post-secondary education and a well worn pocket protector are not natural!

Man made products can, and will transfer directly though the chicken and into you. If you are allergic to glyphosate, for example (the primary ingredient in Monsanto’s Round Up) you will be given a hefty dose when you eat a chicken that has spent its whole life eating feeds treated with Round up.

Glyphosate will bioaccumulate(1) in the tissue of the chicken and enter you directly. Your body will no more know what to do with glyphosate, than did the chicken – so it will insulate it, catalog it and wait for further instructions. "This is a toxic invader, we better surround it with fat cells and make sure it can’t travel anywhere in the body" the immune system cries.

Not so with heritage, natural, non-GMO wheat. The chicken’s great, great-grandmother ate the same wheat, gluten and all that the grand- chicken is eating today, it hasn’t changed in a millennium.

The chicken, like you and I, have a three-trillion member, internal, bacterial team alive and well inside it’s craw (they don’t have stomachs, like we do – but it’s the same concept). This guest society is well adapted, over thousands of generations and stands ready and waiting with all the right enzymes to break down and digest some wheat to convert it into energy.

Do you get the point here?

Our customer, in this case, was not really allergic to gluten, wheat or corn. They are allergic to the chemicals and transgenic modified versions of gluten, wheat and corn. Ancient, natural gluten, wheat and corn are nourishing, and have been for thousands of years – Jesus used it to feed 5000 hungry listeners and not one complained of an allergy!
Just because modern grains are sprayed with chemicals and have modified DNA, does not mean that ancient natural grains are bad! This requires putting your thinking cap on.

Throwing out all grains, because some have been sprayed with Round up, would be akin to outlawing cars because some are operated by careless drivers that cause ten-car pile ups on the freeway.

Would it not be wiser to simply arrest the offenders and revoke their driving privileges?

This is one of the reason we feed Non-GMO feeds to our Pork and Poultry (not Cows) – we don’t want the trace elements of glyophosate to enter the bloodstreams and muscle tissue of our animals.

Our method of feeding is called Bio-mimicry. Bio-mimicry is a fancy term that simply means “to impersonate nature”.
Let’s take corn for example. In nature, without human intervention, chickens would not eat GMO corn.

The Organic designation on our feed guarantees they are non-GMO and thus not poisoned with Round up. And while we are on this topic, a chicken diet restricted to vegetarian feed only, as is the craze right now, would be just as destructive as one doused with Round up. Chickens, like all birds, eat bugs. A chicken deprived of bugs would be a very unhealthy, unnatural chicken.

If a Farmer eliminates 99% of all feeds available, due to the unfounded fear that if humans are allergic to certain feeds, then so are chickens. Or worse, that chickens somehow transfer allergies to humans when consumed, will have a serious problem – his chickens will starve.

In days gone by, all, or nearly all Americans knew this stuff.

Of course, they didn’t have the allergies we have today. The credit for the absence of allergies went, first to the hearty immune system of past generations. Simply put, it was more robust than ours today. Those folks played with other snot-nosed kids in the park as children, ate more dirt wiping out on their bicycles or falling off tire swings, and did not have the so-called benefit of anti-bacterial soap.

Secondly, their immune system was not constantly assaulted with foreign substances, chemicals and transgenic modified organisms. They, unlike us, were not raised on sterile food, devoid of helpful bacteria.

They were healthier.
We are sickly.
​And it’s all a result of what we eat.

Notes: (1) Bioaccumulation is the tendency of  a consumed substance to become concentrated inside the bodies of living things. The lying scientists and their government cronies at the UDSA and FDA will insist that glyphosate does not bioaccumulate. Is that why, since the introduction of chemical farming in America, we have the dubious honor (or dishonor) of leading the world in obesity and chronic disease? Think for yourself! What makes logical sense?

Consumers are daily faced with scathing predicament. How to support a local, small farm while still getting what they want and need to sustain their families? To be sure, most are not concerned at all with this predicament. Many just don’t care.

But, for the few that do, a near-vertical, uphill battle exists. Trusting a label to scrutinize a farm, feed regiment or agricultural management system can be treacherous at best, and deceptive at worse.  With the new de-regulation of words such as “grass-fed”, the task of deciding which box to check at the voting booth with your precious dollar has become as mind-boggling as a four-way stop in downtown L.A. (I know, I always have to ask my wife for help with who goes next?)

And now, LOCAL is on the chopping block, due to a loophole in the Country of Origin Labeling Laws (COOL) allowing the words “product of the USA” to be placed on beef that is only packaged here, not raised, or slaughtered in the USA.

Ever wonder how all of a sudden “grass-fed” showed up in all the major stores, online technology companies (notice I did not use “Ranches”) like Butcher Box suddenly popped up overnight? Or, how all the mega-chain grocers, overnight had Local “grass-fed” from a farmer nearby?

The answer is simple – it wasn’t “grass-fed“, nor was it local.

What can you do to help?

Click this link and join the 900 plus other folks who feel strongly that a rule change is necessary, forcing the regulating authorities to require country of origin labels on grass-fed beef products to be accurate and not deceptive.

Here is the comment we placed;

A heavy pall hangs in the air, visibility is down to a block or two while driving, and we haven't seen the sun for days. A few weeks ago in Southern Oregon, on a visit home, where Ranching first began for me, a record was set for the poorest air quality in the entire nation.

The Air Quality Index (AQI), used to measure smog and pollution, ticked up to 300+ in my little hometown. Hey, at least we made national news! 

This is the AQI range where mothers and the elderly are told to leave town. Folks are given masks at the local clinic for free and just about everyone you meet looks as if they've just finished a memorial service with puffy, red eyes.

As a young man, I well remember my first wildfire. It was in 1987 (I know, I just dated myself). My father, a Helicopter Logging Pilot for 30 years, was called off his logging assignment, to dump water on a wildfire near our hometown. The teams, both ground and air, extinguished the fire in a few days and returned to logging.

Back then, firefighting with a Helicopter was a narrow occupation. He was one of the first pilots trained for it - up to that point he had only used a "Bambi-Bucket" (the water tote under a helicopter) a few times in his whole career. It would be another two or perhaps three years before he would be ordered to fight his next fire.

By the time he retired, in the late 90's, fire fighting accounted for three quarters of the annual revenue for his company.  He often commented "we used to log these forests, now we get paid by the goverment when they burn"
​

​I've found a fascinating TEDTALK by Paul Hessburg on this subject. In about 15 minutes you too, can understand what is really happening.  

Here is where it gets interesting. The Native Americans actually lit fires...why?

​Well, I can tell you they weren't playing with matches. They intuitively knew that the Buffalo, their primary source of protein and central to their way of life, grazed in silvopasture - widely spaced trees interspersed with perennial grasslands. Thus, burning the forest served two purposes; first, this allowed the brush that had collected and dead trees since the last disturbance to be eliminated. 

Secondly, these wise stewards of the land (much wiser than their successors, I might add) understood the simple natural maxum - "death creates life".

Or, as America's favorite Farmer, Joel Salatin puts it "everything is either eating or being eaten"

Perennial grasses store their energy in their roots, below the surface. Annuals - crops that require plowing and planting, store energy in their seeds. A perennial has 2/3rds or more of its structure below ground and 1/3 above. Thus a wildfire would not destroy the perennial plant life, it would envigorate it. 

The opposite would be true of annual crops.

​Stay with me here - if I come and light your cornfield, an annual crop, on fire, you will lose all your stored energy in the ensuing inferno, much like Sampson did in the biblical book of Judges, when he lit a few foxes on fire and sent them running through the Philistines wheat fields. Have you ever uprooted a corn stalk? They are about foot deep.

​Not so with perennial grass. 

Now, with that in mind, take a look a this picture...

Here I am standing next to some perennial grasses that were restored with proper cattle management using a holistic, regenerative, management intensive approach - in other words, we move the cattle daily, just like they would in nature due to predation pressure. These grasses stand as tall, or taller than I do - about 6 feet. If the subsurface structure is 2x the above surface structure, then the roots stretch nearly 12 feet below the topsoil. 

What pretell do plant roots do?

Bingo, they transport minerals and nutrients to the surface - something cattle can sense, seek out and love to eat.

In other words, the Native Americans were doing good - pruning, vine dressing, stewarding the land - with the ultimate end state of attracting large Herbivorous Grazers back into the silvopasture and feeding them with the richest, deeply-mined, subterranean minerals they could get, all transported for free by well meaning perennial grasses.

Those grasses were pressed into service by being burned, grazed or trampled. They followed their one true instinct - rebuild for further propagation. It's akin to lifting weights at the gym for you and me. And without the weights - the whole symbiotic system falls apart. Without the grazers, the plants don't propagate. They die and build up flammable fuels. Increasing carbon in the atmosphere.

Ok, now for the punchline. 

The Native Americans were unable to control their herds. They didn't have the benefit of portable water troughs, mobile electric fence and salt licks that can be moved from field to field. Most importantly, their herds were not trained - heck, they weren't even domesticated. They were at the mercy of the herd mentality - seeking safety from predation, better grass, deeper springs. It was up to the herd.

Not so, us.
Not modern man. 

We can control livestock with biomimicry. Yes, biomimicry (haven't heard that before have ya?) It means to copy nature. How? By using systems that impersonate the predator, like a portable electric fence, that delivers a harmless tickle to the back end of a Cow when it brushes up against the fence wire. Or, to entice the herd to move by offering  better feed, salt or water.

Move where, you say?

To an overgrown forest that needs trimmed before it erupts in a fiery inferno - that's where!

If cattle graze a forest they remove the undergrowth, the stuff that burns real hot and boils the sap in trees - killing them instantly. They trample the branches that have fallen, reducing the fast burn fuels and speeding up the carbon-cycle. On top of that, the cattle grow - yes - grow. 

Grow what?

Milk, meat, hide - all good stuff.

And at what cost?
Free.

In fact, opposite of free. Think about it. I told you my Dad's company earned three-quarters of all their revenue from fire-fighting in the late 90's. That was 12 Million dollars! And that was "back then". 

We are spending millions per hour fighting fires right now. This could all be done for free with good, properly trained cattle managers, and the correct eco-regenerative-carbon-sequestration-fire-prevention mentality from our forest management.

Why not?

With the recent release of The Magic Pill, by the home streaming service Netflix, Keto, like it's younger cousin, Paleo, birthed a few short years earlier, has come of age. Wildly popular with those seeking a healthier lifestyle, weight loss and exquisite energy, this new system of eating is rapidly gaining ground in the nutrition world. 

Nary a day goes by, at one of our Farmer's Markets wherein we don't meet
a healthy handful of folks that have commited fully to this method of nourishing their bodies. Having an icy cold display of our Ranch Direct products attracts these new devotees at the cyclic rate. 

What is shocking, for us,  is to find out where these folks are getting all their protein and fat, to fuel this new way of eating.  The answers abound - Costco, Ralphs, Sprouts, Butcher Box, US Wellness Meats, etc... all factory farm purveyors.

When Keto/Paleo eaters consume large amounts of meat and animal fats from the conventional, industrial, factory farming system it is deeply scaring and harming our ecosystems - bee colonies notwithstanding.

"From 2006 to 2016, more than half the conservation land within a mile of bee colonies was converted into agriculture, usually row crops such as soybeans and corn" - the majority of which was used to fatten cattle in feed lots.

To be sure, Keto/Paleo eating is the most efficient fuel you can consume, but, one must consider the entire impact on the ecosystem.

It is for this reason SonRise Ranch raises animals on pasture, integrated into their natural environment in a holistic approach (meaning we consider the "whole" ecosystem)

Then, just today, we saw this article in Farm Ireland.​

The USDA is allowing import beef from Ireland to be labeled “Grass fed" if they are fed grass 80% of the time.
 
In stark contrast, SonRise Ranch Beef are 100% Grass fed, all the time. This is called "Grass fed & finished" - scary stuff for consumers who rely on their imagination of what Ireland is like.

In fact, the article admits that most consumers associate Ireland with green grass - thus they can be fooled easily.
And so, the bigger picture begins to emerge. Terms like “Grass fed” and “Organic” are being confused with what we do, here at SonRise Ranch. ​

Here is a quick video that explains what to look for in true Grass fed Beef...

To add insult to injury, the USDA, who introduced Mad Cow Disease, and spoiled import meat to the U.S. now permits import and domestic Big Ag to label their product “Grass fed” when their beef eat grass only 80% of the time.

​So what does all this mean?

​Let’s take a look at some definitions… from top to bottom (and I really mean bottom). 

Number two above is what really gets me – “must be fed grass at sometime”

All Beef eats grass, sometime in its life! In other news, water is wet…Come on, this is a ploy for the big time producers to recapture what they’ve lost to small time Grass fed & finished guys and the government is in collusion with them.

The sad part is that people can be fooled by what they read on a label and it is affecting real Ranchers in real ways. “Grass fed” should really mean just that, but such is not the case.
​
Key takeaway - you've got to know your producer!

​Our hogs live outdoors where they should! You see, the nice thing about hogs is they will eat anything, and the bad thing about Hogs is they will eat anything... so you've got to be careful what they get close to.

​The most important aspect of raising hogs is not what they eat, but how they live. Most pork is raised in confinement on concrete - a real drag for the animal and a great way to ruin the meat. 

If you look at a Hogs trotters (their feet) they look like a lady standing in high heels - don't be dismayed, they can stand for long period of time, but are designed (yes I said that, I think they were designed - not chance) to stand on soft ground, not concrete - something we made. 

So, when they are kept on concrete all their lives, they don't adapt, they suffer. And, when and animal suffers from chronic pain, they are sick... now, let's see, what does conventional, mega-factory, industrial farming do about that... yep, you guessed it - medicine. And it goes straight into your mouth.

At SonRise, our hogs are free to roam, and the taste comes through in the product.

Most conventional hogs would scatter at the sight of a 12 year old boy hanging out next to their lounging area, as in the photo to the right. Not at SonRise Ranch. Our goal is to keep them as "human adapted' as possible. This prevents a rush of adrenaline at time of butcher and affords the best possible taste in the resulting pork - plus, it shows that we care. 

It's really pretty simple - we eat meat and they serve that purpose.  We treat them with the most dignity and care during our time with them. The fact that their distant relatives live tortured lives on concrete - tortures us. We have a responsibility and we take it seriously. 

Running cattle free range can be good for the environment - most environmentalists would disagree with this statement. In fact most environmentalists would say that cattle on rangeland are bad for the environment.

To be honest, I would have to agree with them.

No, that wasn't a typo. Let me explain...The traditional way of raising cattle, free range with no daily management is truly destructive to the rangeland they occupy. As just one small example, consider this...

Cattle have this funny habit of defecating when they drink. And, to make matters worse they drink (an average weight Cow or Steer) between 10 and 15 gallons per day. So that's a lot of manure being deposited next to the creek, trough or pond. Pray tell, where did that manure come from? You guessed it - the grass from the rangeland they occupy.

So, we have a problem. Technically this is called "Nutrient Transfer" and it is defined as the literal transport of minerals, nutrients and other organic material from the rangeland (wide area) to a specific location - in this case right next to the water trough. Or, even worse next to the creek! Let me tell you, right from the lips (or fingers) of a Rancher this is bad for the environment. How do we solve this?

Well, to be blunt - stop being so lazy. You see, in nature, cattle (actually buffalo to be precise) would have roamed freely as an entire herd. Every day, they would move to a new grazing area, due mainly to predator pressure, and in so doing, they would have spread their manure evenly over the rangeland they graze. So, in order to run a truly environmentally friendly cattle operation, you must move the cattle every day. Basically, a Rancher should run his Cattle like God ran the great western Buffalo herds. 

How do we do that? With electric fence. Each day, the cattle are moved to a new paddock of grass (a subdivision of the larger grazing area) - oh, and their water is moved to a new location too, preferably to an area of the paddock that is in need of nutrients.​
​
​This is just one of the many aspects of a well managed grass-fed beef operation.

​The sum-total of this is two-fold; first, the cattle are very healthy, and secondly, so is the rangeland that supports them.
Cool stuff, no feedlots, no antibiotics (cattle that are on new green grass don't need medicine), and great tasting beef - and if purchase meat from us, you are a part of that! Neat huh? ​

In part one of this series we looked at the inherent dangers in eating conventionally raised, confined factory chicken. These risks included contributing to overcrowded and inhumane chicken facilities, eating bacteria ridden meats and consuming antibiotics that were intended for humans thereby contributing to antibiotic resistant bacteria strains.
What then, happens to all the waste that is created by an average chicken farm producing over a half-million chickens in a small area each year?

Although innovative waste management techniques have been pioneered such as bio-fuel and bio-massing, the “litter” from broiler production in the United States is still processed the same way it was 50 years ago[i] – it is spread on surrounding fields.

• Yesteryears litter contained the same components it does today, but in much less concentration.
  Today’s production levels are much more intense in terms of animals per acre; therefore the waste, consisting of all the excreted antibiotics and medications the birds receive is all the more concentrated.
• ​The majority of these excessive nutrients translate to surface water areas (ponds, lakes, etc) and bays, particularly in the littoral regions of the United States.  The overabundance of P,N and K contributes to eutrophication leading to a dense growth of plant life and stagnation in the growth of animal life from a lack of oxygen.

The excess algae growth can block the sunlight, preventing the deep water production of grasses and other essential underwater habitat for fish, shellfish and microorganisms essential in the complicated ecosystem of body of water.
A USDA report published in 2000[ii] warned of the consequences from the consolidation of small farms into large and very large operations. The report linked the remarkable increase in livestock density with increased problems in the disposal of livestock manure. In other words the industry loves the cost savings associated with consolidation but can’t deal with the proper disposal of the waste associated with said production.

What makes our methods different?
At SonRise, we use three key concepts – movement, match and meticulousness

• Movement – each day our animals are moved to a fresh set of pasture. This is not our concept – we hijacked the idea from nature. As you observe animals in their natural environment, you will find that they are always on the move. They do this, primarily because they are forced to look for new food sources. The wonderful side effect is that they cannot concentrate their manures in any one space. We mimic this on our Ranch by keeping our critters on the march.
• Match – we know what nutrients are contained in our animals manure and match that to the needs in each pasture. Our primary goal is to grow grass (for our beef) so we use chickens, pigs and cows in successive order to add back what is being taken out.
• Meticulousness – husbandry is a lost art. We are trying to bring it back and believe that a diligent, professional and sincere care for the animals is key. They will tell you what they need – you just have to be willing to listen. My favorite example of this is when our pigs all got colds. Pigs have a similar biological system to humans – so much so that in college biology class we dissected a baby piglet, and human organs are often grown in pigs. So I did for them what I would do for myself, a large dose of Vitamin C. We went to the local whole foods and got a large box of juiced out, organic oranges. We fed them to our pigs and in two days they all felt much better. 

Recently my blogs have been somewhat shocking – even to the point of being accused of “scaremongering”, by some readers who, for whatever reason or motivation, just can’t deal with the awful truth that your government is not interested in your personal health. Fair warning to all who read, the next series of posts will be a real shocker.  If you’ve got thin skin or a queasy stomach - this one might not be for you either. We are going to take a look at conventional chicken production and how it differs from the Free-Range, Organic fed model used here at SonRise Ranch.

The density of chicken production in the United Sates has changed drastically since the 1950s and 60s. The Pew Research Center has published a report titled Big Chicken a report that details a number of startling statistics that consumers of chicken and chicken products should know;

• More Chickens but fewer farms - in 50 years, chicken production has increased 1400%, while farms that raise chickens has decreased 98%., thus increasing chicken production density by a staggering number, as you might imagine this means overcrowding. Compare the photo above with the video below and ask yourself; which animal is healther?
• Average conventional (even certified organic) chicken comes from a mega-farm that produces up to 605,000 birds annually

• The wages for such production have plummited. Fifty years ago, one could make a decent middle income wage from chicken farming. Not today, the average chicken farmer is a slave to the big producers

Drugs are killing us. The baltent overuse of antibiotics in the farming industry has created an epidemic of drug-resistant bacteria strains. This chicken industry has been one of the main culprits.

Tyson foods, one of the larger chicken producers in the US recently announced that they would stop using antibiotics used in humans – but the damage may have already been done. Currently 25 million pounds of antibiotics are used in animal product annually.

When you eat meat treated with antibiotics, you not only eat the antibiotic but the bacteria too, in fact 22% of all antibiotic resistant cases are related to food borne illnesses.

​What makes SonRise Ranch chicken different?

First, and most importantly, our chickens live outside, where they should.  If you’ve followed us for anytime now, you know about our innovative “Chig-tractors” a solid knock off of the traditional Chicken tractor designed and made tough enough to handle free range pigs too.

This solves the problem of density immediately since our chickens are given a new patch of land every 24-48 hours. This is great for the chicken’s growth, quality of life and overall health. But it is also necessary for good grass growth (the primary goal of a grass-fed beef operation). Conventional farms use Potassium, Nitrogen and Phosphorus, made from chemical compounds and petroleum. Nitrogen occurs naturally and in high concentrations in chicken manure. At SonRise, if our fields need Nitrogen, we move the chickens through and let nature supply the need.

Secondly, we don’t use antibiotics – period. This is pretty simple. Outdoor chickens don’t get sick because they are exposed to the elements and nature. They are very well adapted to “roughing” it and the last thing we want is to bring them in out of the sunlight and away from green grass, bugs and dirt. Thus we have no need of medicine for them. Our biggest worry is predators, which we mitigate with well build tractors the chickens occupy at night.

In our next installment we will look at bacteria, chicken waste and the fate of over 200 million chicks annually the system deems unmarketable.

​Stay tuned.

I often get asked - what do you feed your hogs. This is a valid, but secondary concern, the type of environment the hog lives in is far more important than the feed they eat. Where they live is addressed in my blog on Logging Without Laws. ​Our hogs live outdoors where they should! 

You may have caught this article in the Chicago tribune recently. It stands in stark contrast to our Ranch. The most important aspect of raising hogs is not what they eat, but how they live. Most pork is raised in confinement on concrete - a real drag for the animal and a great way to ruin the meat. 

If you look at a Hogs trotters (their feet) they look like a lady standing in high heels - don't be dismayed, they can stand for long period of time, but are designed (yes, I wrote that) to stand on soft ground, not concrete - something we made. 

​So, when they are kept on concrete all their lives, they don't adapt, they suffer. And, when and animal suffers from chronic pain, they are sick... now, let's see, what does conventional, mega-factory, industrial farming do about that... yep, you guessed it - medicine. And it goes straight into your mouth.

At SonRise, our hogs live outside, on dirt, where they should. They are free to roam, and the taste comes through in the product.

Why then, do we feed so carefully? You see, the nice thing about hogs is they will eat anything, and the bad thing about Hogs is they will eat anything... so you've got to be careful what they get close to.

It's the whole program that counts. Non-GMO feeds are those that are not sprayed with Roundup. The advantage of a GMO crop that it is genetically engineered to withstand being sprayed with Roundup (the key ingredient being glyphosate - or, Agent Orange in the 1970s). The reason farmers plant GMOs is that they can then spray the field and kill everything but the crop - thus eliminating the need for weeding.

So, then, when the GMO crop is actually harvested, it has had a significant dose of Roundup (agent orange, glyphosate) poured on it during its growth cycle. 

If the hog eats this crop (soybeans, wheat, corn, etc) this high concentration of glyposate goes directly into the hogs fat cells, and thus into you when you consume the animal. In short, you are what your animals eat!

So, our caution with feed is really for you, not so much the hog. We just don't want you (and my family too) to eat agent orange raised meat every day. 

This costs us a ton of money - conventional, GMO hog feed is 17 cents per pound, non-GMO hog feed costs us nearly 50 cents per pound - almost 70% more feed cost. That is a huge expense at our Ranch, but well worth it. 

In our area of the Sierra Nevada Foothills a hideously invasive plant referred to as Scotch broom invades nearly every inch of open space.  This dominate species has no natural competition. It found roots in Sierras becasue of alcohol use during the mining days. 

During the mid 1800’s, Scotch whisky was highly sought after by the Miners and tradesmen who made a living working in the mining camps. I can’t really say I’d blame them, if I lived in near freezing temperatures, sleeping in a tent with no earthly comforts beyond a wood stove that barely warmed my toes and burdened with back breaking work for the modern equivalent of $20 per day – I give a lick to the bottle too… but I digress.

The best whisky came from Scotland and when shipped for that considerable distance, required protection from glass breakage in the form of a soft, pliable wrapping. Sequestered deep in this protective wrapping the original Scotch Broom seeds found their mission here in America. Once emptied of their precious content the useless bottles were often discarded on the ground and forgotten – seeding a perfect botanical rebellion that can be seen on the hills of Gold Country today.

Over the years relentless acres of once productive land, having long been abandoned by hearty Homesteaders who left for the bright lights of the city during the ensuing waves of Farm Crises, succumbed to the Scotch Broome invasion. The remnants of our once great agricultural powerhouse are now covered in Scotch Broome – depleting the local ecosystem of productivity and resources.
One tell tail sign of Broome infestation showed this last summer as a devistating 97,000 acre loss due to the enormous King Fire. It lasted from September to October, costing eighty structures, a dozen injuries and millions of dollars in firefighting resources.

Scotch Broom is cannibalistic – meaning that it grows on top of itself, so that previous generations provide layers and layers of bone-dry decay below. When ignited, Scotch Broome stands burn hot enough to boil the sap in the surrounding trees. Even when the trees don’t ignite directly they usually die from a  “boiling effect” they might have otherwise survived. Once they die, our laws often prevent their removal by logging and they simply fall down - only to decay and provide yet another fuel source for the next fire.

There is a dangerous movement afoot to “keep things natural”, in an attempt to “re-wild” areas of the United States by leaving them for dead, with no human interaction at all. Unfortunately, the window for this opportunity has long since passed.  The “natural” we observe today in our local forests is actually man-made - and like anything man-made, it must be maintained.

Abandoning ecosystems once touched by the human stain to suffer without proper management is tremendously destructive – and reeks of human arrogance.  We messed it up - we ought to responsible to manage it properly. Human interaction has happened; we have affected the eco system - There is no turning back.  In an often ill-advised, but well meant gesture we allocate incredible resources to an effort that is doomed to fail though generous donations to this or that club or society.  The sad fact is that a dangerous cocktail of legal environmental rulings and ignorance of ecosystems have overruled the common sense approach of properly managed domestic animals on the land. Our country is now horribly mismanaging our forests on a wholesale level. 

Scotch Broome grows at the rate of 1 foot per year if left unchecked and can produce approximately 18,000 seeds annually. Conventional methods for removal include pulling by hand, spraying, burning it, bulldozing - each having their drawbacks. 

We have acres and acres of Scotch Broom covered land that could be used for productive grazing. One of Scotch Broom’s good qualities is that is it a legume, a plant that fixes nitrogen to the soil. You might recall that nitrogen is very useful in good grass production – we use Chicken manure for nitrogen too.  

What we’ve found is that if we can remove the Scotch Broome, the fire hazard is reduced by 70-90% or more and the next season, a grass sod begins to develop. By season three or four we are grazing cattle on lush, moist grass with no fire hazard. 

The problem – how do we effectively remove scotch broom? Bulldozing creates erosion, is often dangerous and costs money. Hand cutting requires frequent visits to the back specialist - and we have acres of Broome. Spraying will kill broom but eventually find itself back into our beef supply.

Our answer – HOGS!

We found that our 150-200 pound Hogs, love to root up Scotch broom.   We place a border around them with electric wire, and give them a good source of clean water.  Together with soy-free, 100% organic feed they go to town…

In a few cycles of rotation, they have done what would have been extremely difficult for us using a dozer or manual labor. The Hogs are in heaven - "Hog heaven". They love being able to express their hog-ness. They eat roots, bugs, acorns and just about anything else they can find. And, boy howdy are they healthy, building muscle and living life to the fullest. Most of all (for my wife) - they don't stink! Our neighbors and visitors are absolutely amazed that our pigs don't smell like pigs.  It is truly amazing what happens when you allow nature to symbiotically intertwine with animals the way God intended.

Beyond clearing brush and saving homes, lives and possibly thousands of taxpayer dollars, our Hogs provide Good, Clean food for hundreds of families. They provide real, meaningful jobs to a small family of people who care deeply for the environment and their animals; they rejuvenate the soils with their manure, to make growing grass possible for the grazing of Grass-fed Beef.  They take food dollars away from Hormel foods and other disgusting factory food, industrial, government subsidized producers that make available nutritious products such as Spam to you and your neighbors.

Free-range, proper domestic animal management is a boon to the environment. By voting with your dollars, you are doing more to save the environment than any donation you can make to a club or society.

We find the same types of behaviors with our Hogs. They always group up and move together.  This is where being a Rancher has a tough learning curve.  For the longest time, if I had one animal out, I would run myself ragged chasing it around until I could get it back in the confinement area I wanted it in - sometimes to my detriment. 

One day, after a particularly hard two hours or so of chaos and animal-induced aerobic exercise, I had an ingenious idea. I went up to the hill and let all the other Hogs out from the escapee’s pen! Man, you’d have thought I'd lost my mind (our Ranch hands certainly did). What happened next was awesome.  The penned Hogs joined up immediately with the escapee Hog and all of them acted as a giant herd.  We worked for about 3 minutes to move the now co-joined group back to “safety” (as they saw it) within the confines of the electric fence.

Now, as a matter of procedure, when I have one Cow or Hog out, I let all of them out, and herd them back in as a group – it works miraculously.

In the video above you will notice some of our Free-Range Hogs in the foreground. The Cattle in the background were absent one hour before this video was taken and the Hogs were hiding out near some pine trees as they typically do; but, when the Cows came around, the Hogs came out in the open and began grazing.  It was as natural as you could imagine – they just wanted to act as a herd.

We have found, oddly enough, that this type of behavior and social interaction is enormously necessary for proper animal health and nutrition.  To stay at optimal health, the animals need to feel protected, calm and at peace with their environment.  This creates the best tasting, most flavorful and delicious meat for two reasons:

First, healthy animals have no need for conventional medicine – something that has a tremendous impact on meat flavor.

Second, healthy animals are not in a constant state of stress and therefore have very little adrenaline in their systems. Animals in confinement, particularly Hogs living on concrete, have continually tense muscles which results in a horribly tough meat texture.

   
Herd animal behavior is kind of a funny thing…they do stuff we don’t normally associate with domestic animals. 
  For example, I will often see our bulls hovering near a fence line, only to find the Cows and Heifers on the other side.  Now, you might think to yourself, “Hey, that used to happen in High school, quite often,” but we’re not talking romance here. 
 
No, for the most part Bovines of both the Male and Female type aren’t really interested in each other until about the time of the Female's estrus cycle – they are sort of no-nonsense kinds of lovers and just associate at exactly the right time in order to get the job done, then he is typically off to see the next lady…a real player. So, in a sense, it might have been like high school, but I digress….

Anyway, what my Cattle were doing that day was just herding up together. No females were in heat, so the Bulls typically wouldn’t be interested.  They simply wanted to be together as a herd, fence or not. You can see this in the photo above - our Bulls have 15 acres, the Cows have 40 and they are all grouped up next to eachother at the edge of each acrage.

SonRise Ranch Grass fed and finished beef shank is particularly good for the following reasons;

• Shanks contain bone marrow, something the ancients called “bone brains”. Archeologists have discovered that peoples of antiquity actually broke bones in order to acquire the marrow. With such primitive tools and limited time, they expelled the energy to gather this valuable nutrient – why? Could it be because it was a rich resource of nutritional density?
• Bone marrow from grass-fed and finished beef has higher density of CLAs, Omega-3 fats and Beta-carotene. Cattle given grain for as little as two days had up to 50% less of these beneficial compounds than truly grass-fed and finished beef.
• Bone marrow has exception flavor and adds to the delightful taste of the beef shanks.

             ​Prep time – 15 mins                                    Cook time – 4 to 6 hours

• We generally recommend at least one beef shank per person.
• Plenty of root vegetables such as carrots, parsnip, potatoes, tomatoes and beans that tend to soak in most of the broth and in exchange add flavor to the sauce.
• Beef bone broth made with SonRise Ranch Bones, you can add a splash wine as well. Whatever you choose you need enough to cover the beef shanks by at least two-thirds. 
• Garlic, Onion, Spices such as smoked Spanish paprika, mild Chile powder, curry powder. Be cautious of salt content as the sauce reduces the concentration of salt will become more intense.
• A good high quality, unfiltered, organic olive oil.

I can't tell you how many times I've been asked, "So, what do I get in my CSA?"

The has answer is always the same... I don't know - until now!

Let me explain,

When we butcher a beef, we receive a certain distribution of various cuts of meat. I won't go into detail, but you can be sure I get plenty of ground beef and very few filet mignon steaks. I have always joked that I would someday love to raise a steer that is nothing but steaks, but I assure you that animal would be a hideous looking, non-functioning creature.

​God designed them a certain way for a good reason. ​

Not having a ton of steaks is a blessing in disguise, as it forces me to explore cuts that our grandparents enjoyed. 

Some years ago, I had the privilege of personally meeting a great chef. He introduced me to the world of "other cuts" in a dish made with beef shank. I had no idea this cut of meat (which we used to just boil because it was so tough) could be so flavorful if cooked properly. This was a turning point in my life, when a Rancher began to really appreciate the ART of cooking and the talent of a good chef, dedicated to his trade.

Here at SonRise we evenly distribute the cuts in each CSA from an entire beef - thus the share sizes of 7 and 14 lbs respectively. Each pre-made CSA, the ones where we choose the items, is a fractional, even distribution of ground, sausage, roasts, steaks and other ancillary cuts from a whole beef.

So, the other day, I had a thought. Couldn’t some of our customers, who want to choose their CSA items do so, based upon our current inventory - thus creating their own, self designed CSA?

And so began our latest creation - the Custom CSA. 

After hours of programming and work, we are now able to offer a CSA monthly shipment to our subscribers that allows them to choose the items they want in their CSA. This is an amazing feat for a small ranch, but we did it! 

The custom CSA is available in Full or Half Share, and requires a 6 month commitment, but, the consumer saves a ton of money, and runs no risk of being disappointed - since each item in the box is chosen by them.

When the customer signs up, we send them an email notification each month that opens their CSA fulfillment period during which they have a one week window to customize their order. If they don't change your order we will send them the same selection as the previous month (or as near as possible). 
​
It’s a match made in Grass-fed heaven! Come check it out.

   As SonRise Ranch has grown, so have our customer needs. We have been innovative in Farming/Ranching, Feed profiles and we assume our customers expect nothing less than the best modus operandi in delivering our outstanding product each week.
    My chief complaint has always been that the USDA required packaging our product in plastic. I wanted to wrap it in white butcher paper, but they wouldn’t have it.

A side effect of having no true competition in the San Diego area is that everyone wants our product. This means we drive from kingdom come and back to service our customers making delivery. Sometimes our customer density doesn’t grow in correlation with customer breadth – meaning we have a few customers over a large geographical distance.
To keep environmental impact at a minimum I have always discouraging shipping our products in exchange for hand delivering to the customer.
​
Why?

A founding principle that I’ve insisted on from the beginning of our little company was an unwavering commitment to environmentally conscious principles of operation. Overnight shipping has been off the list for many years now – it was never the fuel consumption, Gas was being used in a FEDEX van if we had a box onboard or not (and we had to use petrol to get product to our customers anyway).

No, the main issue was contributing to our carbon footprint by using tons of non-biodegradable products to insulate our frozen meat during shipment only to shoulder our customers with the burden of guilt by tossing everything in landfills after their shipment arrived. Over the years we looked at Styrofoam, Glass-Packs and just about everything else you can imagine – but none of it fit the bill. So, I stuck to my guns and discouraged shipping as much as possible.


​​
​Recently, Marcia (our awesome Office Manager – shameless plug here!) ordered a frozen, free-range Turkey from a small farm back east. When it arrived the shipping instructions said the insulated foam inside was made from Corn Starch and was environmentally biodegradable. And could be rapidly dissolved in water!

Our house here at the Ranch has a front and back yard. We love having a really nice grass stand and a well trimmed lawn – it looks nice, and feels great. Each year we take care to make sure the grass is nice and neat for the fun of the summer season.  Usually, about Spring time, we get real serious about it, trimming, edging – all the things normal “city folk” do to their yards to make them look neat and pretty. During the winter months, we let it get ragged and overgrown. 

Overgrown, that is, until I break out my lawn mowers. Yes, I said mowers with an “s”. I have a bunch of them. My mowers don’t take gas, do not require oil changes and never need their blades sharpened. I never have to empty the grass bag where the clippings are collected – they do that on their own. I don’t have to push them – they have “power assist”.  My kids don’t complain when I ask them to mow the lawn, on the contrary, they rather enjoy it.

It usually takes me about a day to mow the entire yard, and both sides of our 1/8 mile long driveway. When I am done, the place looks nice and clean.  All the weeds are gone, the grass is tidy, and my mowers are very happy.  I run them until I find them standing all day. I can tell the mower bags are full when the Cows sit down and chew cud. If I find them standing all day looking for grass, they are not getting enough. When you drive by Cattle and see them lying down, they are full and have plenty of feed. If they are standing all the time, they are underfed and the grass is usually overgrazed – you can tell when you see them in the same spot each day that they are not managed very well. Cattle need to rotate from one setting to the next to keep themselves and the grass healthy.

So, I don't sweat very much doing my lawn care... oh and my Cows are happy too.

If you own a milk cow, you always have Milk Calves around. I ran into a guy the other day who bought a Milk Cow. He wasn’t sure what he should do next, so he just put her out to pasture. She was not in lactation, so his goal was to get her bred again then calf, then milk.  Cows gestate for 9 months, like humans, and then 83 days after birth are re-bred to have another calf. This makes for a nice 12 month cycle. 

Anyway, we've been there... the romantic thought of having your own milk source. I had a rude awakening years ago when we got our first Milk Cow - I was absolutely amazed at how much work they were. I remember coming back from the barn after milking at 5 AM, before heading off to work that day. I had 8 gallons in my bucket (from one Cow!) and told the kids to start drinking... 

"Yep, Dad, we had a few cups, we made Hot Coco", they replied.  
So, I went to Eve and asked, "Hey honey, did you get some milk?" 
"Yes", she replied, "it tastes great, I even made butter".
"Ok, uh, what are we going to do with this?", as I held up the 8 gallons of fresh milk.
"Just put it in the fridge", she blurted out...
"Sure, sweetie, I will, but the fridge already has 25 gallons of milk in it", I replied.

By the end of that week we had 85 gallons.  It was time to call all our friends, and get some pigs (milk fed Pork is really awesome). I learned quickly - Milk Cows are bred to produce!



A few days before Christmas this year, one of our Jerseys had a real nice heifer (female) calf. You can see her in the video above.  The Cow in the background is not the calf’s mother. The heifer’s mother approached right after I stopped shooting the video to check me out. She is an excellent mom, and a great producer to boot (about 9 gallons per day).

A few things about calves – first and foremost, Mother Milk Cows cannot keep their calves. Our average Jersey produces between six and ten gallons per day. A calf needs about 1-2 gallons to be healthy, so within a few days of birth, a young calf will be die because it cannot stop drinking her mother’s milk and mama won’t tell them to stop either (she likes the relief).  The Calf gets "Scours", or diarrhea, and actually dehydrates as it just can’t process that much liquid.


Our management technique is to separate mother and calf for a portion day and all of the night. Milk calves get a nice warm stall with a heat lamp, during the night, and time with their mothers while mom grazes during the day. Time with mama is limited to a few hours at a time - so as to prevent over-drinking.  I tell Eve those darn calves need to join "MA", or, Milk-Anonymous, as they all clearly have a drinking problem. 

In the winter, Mother and Calf are together from after morning milking (at about 10 AM) until sundown. It works really well, we end up with a very friendly, easy to lead calf (she is led out and in by us via her halter) and a happy Mom who gets to look after her calf all day. Our Calves also learn herd behavior as the Mother and baby forage with others in the group. Grazing is a learned behavior and calves watch what their Moms eat  as they slowly transition from Milk to Grass over about 3 months time.  These elements are missing from most Dairy Cows as they are conditioned to live in confinement and only eat grain.  We need to have efficient grass-to-milk converters who have heard and grazing skills. This is only the case for our dairy heifers, not our bull calves – bull calves are fed enough milk to grow up and are quickly put on a grazing rotation, so they can be of use as a feeder steers or sold at market.

In theory, it's pretty simple, but in practice, it can be quite challenging.  This is something we will teach to each of our apprentice and interns during their time here at SonRise (beginning in 2016). They must know how to manage Milk Cows as they are the center of the sustainable farm operation. Here is a brief summary of how it works…

• 40% of the earth’s surface is grass
• Cows eat grass
• Man cannot eat grass
• Chickens and Pigs can eat grass, but in very small quantities
• Other farm animals eat milk and milk by-products (Chickens, Pigs)
• By correlation Chickens and Pigs eat grass
• Man eats Cows and milk, milk by-products, Chickens and Pigs
• So by correlation, Man eats grass

The pro-GMO world’s talking points include the argument that we can’t feed the world without the large production levels that GMO’s with immunity to pesticides allow.  However, I propose that we just use the worlds grass supply, that is, if we can get to the grass before desertification can. 

Howdy, folks!

I would like to share with you an incredible TED talk from Allan Savory—an elephant lover and an environmentalist extraordinaire!  It's short, jaw-dropping, and it's the kind of video that could change the world if everyone saw it! 

I hope you have a chance to give it a view, but here is a short summary for those with busy schedules:

• Grass and ruminants (Cows, Sheep, and other grazing animals) have a powerful symbiotic relationship that is foundational to our planet's health—the survival of every person and animal on the planet depends on this relationship.
  
  
• Land in the absence of grazing animals naturally tends towards desertification—Allan has some pretty sad photos of American national parks which are turning into deserts due to “unknown reasons” (unknown apparently to the government that poorly manages these national treasures).
  
  
• Reconnecting ruminants to the land actually reverses desertification and restores a lush green landscape by rebuilding topsoil and improving water retention after rain fall.  In short, it restores a natural cycle that can turn deserts into incredibly productive and beautiful land.
  
  
• Lush growing grass sequesters CO2 from the atmosphere, taking it from the air and putting it back where it belongs—into a rich, diverse, living layer of soil and plant life.
  
  
• Proper land management—specifically, rotational grazing (which is what we do here at SonRise) is not only necessary, but is actually the most powerful step we can take towards healing our planet.

By supporting your grass-fed rancher, you are doing wonders for the environment!  Many folks understand that eating healthy animals is good for their health.  But most people are still under the impression that eating meat is environmentally unfriendly.  Well...it all depends on what animals you eat....

When you take Cattle off of grass and put it in a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation), it poisons the land (and water) with overly concentrated fecal matter.  The subsidized mono-crops (corn, wheat, soy) that are fed in CAFOs are incredibly energy intensive to produce and result in desertification (thank you, MONSANTO).

At SonRise, we follow a different model.  Our beef are solar powered!  Instead of killing the land, they restore and rebuild the land and the soil.  Not only do our beef not contribute to greenhouse gasses, they are actually net-negative!  This model of rotational grazing that we use here on the ranch is not new.  It is simply a return to a healthy and normal relationship with our planet and our environment.  Once upon a time, there were millions of buffalo roaming the American landscape.  Tragically, I don't think they will be returning anytime soon.  This means it is us, a handful of ranchers doing what we do, and a few visionaries like Allan Savory (and Joel Salatin) who are on the cutting edge of environmental progress—feeding people and having a positive impact on our planet at the same time.  As our customers, you are the most important link in this chain.

When you spend your hard earned dollars on grass-fed beef, lamb, pastured pork and fowl, you are supporting ranchers like us—we can't do it without you!  You are also supporting sustainable and profoundly necessary change in the way we interact with the environment.  Here at SonRise Ranch, we are proud to be a part of positive change, and we are extremely thankful to our customers who make it all possible.  Hope for the future, and I hope to see you at the market!