Grass-fed Cattle Ranching

Peak Moment 7: Nevada County, California ranchers David & Barbara Gallino raise their cattle in the traditional way on natural pasture grasses -- healthier for the animals, their land, and the consumer. They discuss their operations and challenges, including transporting animals long distances to winter pasture and for processing.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• local
• grass
• fed
• beef
• cattle
• ranching
• food

[yeosch25i]

Could you please get a news guy who knows how to read? Thanks. :)

[peakmoment]

Hi yeosch25i,

This is one of our first Peak Moment programs, early in 2006. We no longer have a news person...

Janaia

[spurrit]

They're hobbyists with hats, at best.

[peakmoment]

Hobby? Why be denigrating? There are many in our community very glad that they provide grass-fed beef to our local residents and restaurants. Many small efforts like this are needed to counter the huge factory farms and industrial agriculture. When fuel prices are sky-high, and meat trucked in from far away is $40/pound, I'd be glad to be on their short list of loyal customers.

[spurrit]

BTW, 100 head of cows will only make you about $10,000 a year. These are trust fund idiots playing rancher.

[peakmoment]

In our DVD "Come Home to Eat" with a panel of about 12 food producers in our area of the Sierra foothills, these folks and others talk about the realities of trying to make a living. Far from being "trust fund idiots", both of these people work at outside jobs because the land here isn't sufficiently productive (and the cost of importing feed too high) to make a living ranching.

[Prsnsfrms]

@seancarm i like where i live..on an average year including ground to make hay...on atleast a medium sized scale (20 cows or more) it takes roughly 4-5 acres to a pair

[Zoo110986]

another approach is to make due with unfinished meat. Harder to cook, perhaps, but probably closer to wild game than anything, which isn't' a bad thing.

[peakmoment]

This couple are ranchers describing how they go about it in this region. That may not match how it's done elsewhere, but they're certainly not lying about how they approach it.