Support Nevada County Free Range Beef!!!

The Beef is Here

written by Anna Reynolds
reprinted by permission from BriarPatch Co-op News & Review, October/November 2006 issue

Local rancher Jim Gates is preparing to provide the new BriarPatch store with fresh cuts of his free-range beef. Sounds pretty straightforward, doesn't it? But you wouldn't believe the amount of effort and tenacity required just to get this far. To provide beef at a resale outlet, two crucial and difficult tasks must be accomplished: raising a quality product, and getting USDA certification to be allowed to sell that product. Jim Gates, owner of Nevada County Free Range Beef, has been slogging at both tasks for years while holding a second full-time, off-ranch job. He's had a lot of help, but it's been tough.

First, the beef. Calling upon a lifetime of ranching experience and generations of his relatives before him, Jim has developed a herd of 125 mother cows. A cow raises one calf yearly. Ideally it will be born small for ease of calving, grow fast on mother's milk and later free-range forage, and reach an appropriate slaughter weight and condition in ten to twelve months. Other than vaccines required for protection against endemic diseases, animals receive no injections. If one gets sick and needs antibiotics for recovery, it's out of the program. Because the herd roams over more than 1,000 acres, crowding and the associated disease and need for antibiotics do not exist. No hormones are given, ever. There's no need for such stuff when animals are allowed to grow on their natural food, grass.

This all seems pretty simple, but it requires profound knowledge of genetics, obstetrics, native forage management, coping with annual weather and feed conditions, and gentle animal-handling techniques. it also requires large amounts of land, water, fencing, insurance, safe transport ... and patience.

This last quality has been much called upon as Jim struggled through seemingly interminable amounts of regulation, paperwork, and waiting - two and a half years! - to get a USDA label. There are still obstacles to surmount, such as the only certified slaughter facility being 120 miles away, but Jim's objective is to be able to offer the full range of beef cuts at the new store. Imagine being able to purchase succulent steaks, robust roasts, ribs, and stewmeat in addition to the scrumptious hamburger you already love. And all this righteous red meat comes to you from a local rancher supported by local landowners working very hard to keep our precious rural land functioning to feed local folks like you. Salute!

Anna Reynolds and Bill Trabucco lease range land off Bitney Springs Road to Nevada County Free Range Beef. They are active with the Nevada County Land Trust and Nevada County Local Food Coalition.

 

This article was copied from http://www.localfoodcoalition.org/biographies.htm on March 14, 2007