Rancher Profile
Diamond W Ranch
The Diamond W Ranch can be found on what’s clearly a spectacular 1,900 acres of land between Petaluma and Sebastopol, and not far east of Bodega Bay, in the lush, green hills of Sonoma County, California.
For four generations, the Wilson family has maintained a thriving herd of Holstein dairy cattle, the current generation made up of brothers Ken and Ron Wilson and their families. About five years ago, they started building a herd of mostly Angus beef cattle, an operation that now runs about 200 head annually.
Starting with spring of 2010, the Wilsons and their Diamond W Ranch have begun shipping their cattle Panorama’s way.
The Diamond W is a place where animals can live healthy and unstressed, grazing on native grasslands that grow in profusion on land where the cool fog wafts in daily off the Pacific Ocean. The beef cattle operation runs under a strictly organic, grass-fed regime.
“We’re proud of the fact that our animals aren’t in feedlots,” says Ron Wilson. “All of our beef cattle graze in the open and are never confined.”
The Wilsons are also proud of being on some of America’s choicest grazing land, with some of the nation’s most accomplished ranchers as neighbors. “We’re surrounded by great agriculture and we like being a part of it,” says Ron. “It’s in our family’s heritage.”
Another thing that keeps the Wilsons on their land is a desire to see it remain agricultural, heading off encroachments from the San Francisco Bay Area nearby to their south.
Rancher Profile
Lunny Ranch
Cattle at the Lunny Ranch near Inverness, Marin County, California, live well, nourished by an abundant and constant supply of fresh grass that grows in the moist marine environment of Point Reyes National Seashore, the renowned recreational area of which it is a part.
The Miwok Indians were the original stewards of the land, relying on productive food sources provided both by the land and the sea. Nearly a century ago, the Lunny Family settled into the area. The family has drawn much of its inspiration from the stewards before them, attempting to maintain their same philosophy of sustainability and conservation in what is clearly one of earth’s most precious spots.
As one of Panorama’s newest ranching partners, the Lunnys have been on this land for four generations, first producing milk in a Grade A dairy and then, in the mid-1970s, converting to beef. Embracing an organic, grass-fed regime was “a natural” in this pristine location. The Lunnys were early to experience and share its benefits: better-tasting, more life-giving beef, and grazing that prioritizes natural resource management and protection.
The pastures at the Lunny Ranch were Marin County’s first to be certified organic for livestock production. Today’s 125 head of certified organic, grass-fed, Hereford-Angus crossbred cattle are maintained as a closed herd: all replacement heifers have been born and raised on the ranch since 1970.
“A closed herd has the advantage of protection from outside diseases and allows careful control of genetics through breeding,” says Nancy Lunny.
To continuously improve the quality of their herd, the Lunnys use modern ultrasound techniques to analyze which cattle thrive the most when raised strictly on grass (well, after mother’s milk). This data helps them perfect their herd’s genetics, always with an eye to producing the most tender, great-tasting beef.
Lunny Ranch is also the first to be certified grass-fed through the Marin-Sonoma Counties Grass-Fed Livestock Standards Program, which defined strict standards for sustainable agriculture and management of both land and animals. Additionally, the ranch was the first in California to earn Animal Welfare Institute approval for humane treatment of their animals and to receive Salmon Safe Certification for excellence in watershed management. In 2009, the Lunnys received the Society of Rangeland Managers’ California State section award for Excellence in Rangeland Management.
Rancher Profile
Talbott Ranch
The lives of Talbott Ranch cattle are a veritable moveable feast featuring lush green grass. The cattle summer in Eastern Oregon, then move to the foothills of Northern California during the winter months. This system ensures Talbott Ranch cattle a steady diet of native forage that produces tender, flavorful and healthy organic beef.
By virtue of Talbott Ranch’s association with Panorama Meats, its beef ends up in the meat cases of retail stores in Oregon, Washington and Northern California as Panorama Organic Grass-Fed Beef.
Pete and Pam Talbott live the ranching life at high elevation in Lakeview, Oregon, at the foot of the Warner Mountains bordering the Southeastern Oregon high desert. Since the Talbotts decided to go organic two years ago, they have been adding organic calves to the herd every year. They currently produce about 250 organic cattle yearly.
“We were so close to being an organic operation that we decided it made sense to go ahead and get certified,” says Pete. “We’ve always raised our cattle on grass, because cattle are ruminants—grass is what they’re meant to eat.” Ruminants are animals such as cattle, bison and deer, whose systems make it easy for them to digest grass and other plant-based food, but not corn or other grains.
Required vaccinations are used, but antibiotics and hormones are never administered and no grain or animal byproducts are ever fed to Talbott organic cattle.
Most of the work on the Talbott Ranch is done by Pete and Pam, with occasional marketing help from their daughters. Pete is also a partner in Land & Livestock Advisory Service, which consults with ranchers on business planning, economic analysis and production strategies.
As an experienced land manager, Pete uses different strategies to protect the land depending on the quality and quantity of the forage in each grazing location. His primary objective is to prevent stressing of the cattle or the land. In some areas, cattle are moved daily. In other locations, they’re left to graze for up to 10 days. As they graze, the cattle are helping to spread grass seed, while still preserving a permanent layer of high-quality topsoil.
Raising cattle on grass, rather than on corn in feedlots, makes sense to the Talbotts. Because cattle are eating their intended food, the resulting beef is tasty, healthy and in demand.
“There’s an awful lot of grass out there that can be put to good use. Add clean water and fresh air, and you end up with a great-tasting beef that is one of the healthiest foods you can eat,” says Pete.
Rancher Profile
Alexandre Farms
Rancher Profile
Martinez Ranch
Rancher Profile
Paul & Delene Olson
Rancher Profile
Luscombe Farms
Rancher Profile
Balin Ranch
Scott Balin’s grandfather was among the earliest settlers of Oregon’s Klamath Basin, located in the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Ranchers and farmers first arrived in the area about 1873, drawn by the promise of a mild climate and abundant grazing lands. Both factors make Klamath County a hospitable place for agriculture and livestock production.
It turns out that Scott’s grandfather had good instincts. He operated a thriving ranch in Klamath County and passed the operation on to Scott’s father, Hal. Though he worked full-time as an airline pilot, Hal continued to operate the ranch with the help of a few hired hands. When he retired from flying after 35 years, he joined up with his son Scott to run Balin Ranches full-time.
Today, Scott and his wife live on the 2,100-acre home ranch about 11 miles from Klamath Falls. A second 800-acre leased property is located in nearby Langell. Their work is assisted by seven employees and a herd of well-trained horses.
Balin Ranches’ cattle herd is English breeds, mostly influenced by Hereford and Angus genetics, and raised entirely on Certified Organic pasture. The ranches encompass 3,000 acres in two separate parcels, and also produce organic potatoes and organic hay.
The Balins’ application for organic certification in 2004 went smoothly, in part because the land has been in the Balin family for three generations. It also helped that Hal was a stickler for record-keeping and had meticulously documented all land improvements and processes dating back to the 1970s. Balin Ranches met the rigorous requirements of USDA-certifier Oregon Tilth Certified Organic in 2004 and began supplying organic grass-fed beef to Panorama Meats shortly thereafter.
When winter snows cover the ranch’s high-altitude pastures, its organic hay harvest provides a healthy food source for the cattle, while enabling the Balins to avoid any introduction of outside contaminants. The Balins are also particular about breeding and genetics, so they raise all of their own cattle in a “closed herd,” meaning that no cattle are purchased from outside sources. This practice prevents the introduction of infectious disease and helps maintain the highest quality standard.
Thanks to Balin Ranches’ relationship with Panorama Meats, some very superb beef ends up in the meat cases of Whole Foods Market stores in Portland and Seattle.
Rancher Profile
Double BRC Ranch
Rancher Profile
Wood Cattle, Inc.
Those who say America’s cattle ranchers are a dying breed haven’t met Darrell Wood and his family. Their Wood Ranches in Vina and Susanville, California, now in their sixth generation, have expanded their production of grass-fed beef over the past decade.
In fact, the prospects looked so good that four years ago, the Woods and a small group of rancher friends decided to create a company, Panorama Grass-Fed Meats, to target an emerging consumer market for grass-fed beef.
“With all the news about overcrowded feedlots and factory farms, we thought the time was right to try to build a brand behind our beef, which has always been raised on grass, out in the open, on our ranches,” says Darrell.
The grassy high meadows on the eastern side of the Sierras in Northeastern California were uncharted territory when Darrell and Dennis Wood’s great-great-great grandfather Jeremy arrived in Nevada City after a long cross-country journey from New York City, where he had emigrated from his native Ireland. Jeremy made his living as an innkeeper in Nevada City. He and his wife had a son, Dennis, who family legend has it was the first non-Indian born in the newly settled region.
Dennis decided to try to make his living raising cattle on the valley’s lush green grasses and selling fresh beef to nearby towns. His first herd of cattle, which he drove by horseback to Susanville in 1861, succumbed to lack of forage and harsh winter weather. But his next herd three years later survived.
Six generations later, Darrell, his wife, Callie, their son Ramsey and their daughter Dallice are maintaining the family tradition. In the rainy winter months, they graze their herds on 20,000 acres of owned and leased grasslands at the family ranch in Vina, 40 miles north of Sacramento. When the grasses around Vina start drying up in late spring, they move the herds to 30,000 acres of higher ground at a second family-owned ranch in Susanville, 30 miles to the northeast near the Nevada state line.
Darrell’s father Ed and brother Dennis run another 500 head of cattle on their own 12,000 acres in Susanville during summer. Their herd moves to leased private land near Chico for the winter months.
Darrell’s and Dennis’s grandmother, Verna, now 92, and his mother and father, Ed and Marlene, still live on the Susanville ranch where both men were born.
In their grandfather’s day, moving the herd from Vina to Susanville took about two weeks on horseback. These days the cattle are transported by truck in a few hours.
The Woods also pay closer attention to genetics than their forebears, making sure the cattle are at least 51 percent Angus breed, a formulation that produces tasty, evenly marbled steaks.
In most ways, though, Darrell Wood’s daily routine isn’t much different from his great grandfather’s. A typical day involves saddling up a horse to go out and check the herd, watching for any health problems, mending fences and monitoring the condition of the pastures.
The herds are moved often to prevent overgrazing, thus protecting the grassland for future cattle herds. Over the years, Wood has developed an art of range management based on methods passed down by his father and grandfather.
Wood is Board Chairman for the California Rangeland Trust and past president of the Lassen County Cattleman’s Association. Both groups work closely with rangeland owners to protect and enhance the environmental and economic quality of the land. He has been honored for grassland stewardship by the Society for Range Management.
Wood notes with pride that the California Rangeland Trust now oversees 200,000 acres that will remain rangeland in perpetuity. In the trust’s eight years, its membership has grown to 250 ranchers throughout the state.
“As ranchers, we have an obligation to preserve the rangelands for future generations,” says Wood. “I want my family to be able to stay in the cattle business. I believe it’s a viable business. But none of this would be possible if the rangelands were destroyed.”
Rancher Profile
Pete's Valley Cattle
When Rich Stewart, Kim Timothy and Rick Harrison were kids growing up in Woodland, California, an agricultural community (population 50,000) northwest of Sacramento, cattle ranching was part of life. Though none of them came from ranching families, they participated in 4-H Club and Future Farmers of America groups during grade school and high school, then went on to study agriculture in college.
In the early 1990s, the three took the plunge into running cattle, becoming a grass-fed cow-and-calf operation. The three friends named their company Pete’s Valley Cattle after the valley just northeast of Susanville, California, where their herd grazes during the dry summer months. Their 400 head of cattle winter on 6,000 acres in Yolo County just north of Winters, California.
Their goal for Pete’s Valley has been to raise grass-fed Angus cattle and sell their beef directly to the consumer, rather than follow the traditional “production agriculture” or “commodity” model.
Pete’s Valley sells all of its beef through Panorama Grass-Fed Meats, a company based in Vina, California, that has brought together 43 family ranchers to produce grass-fed beef for its restaurant and retail customers.
“We’re reaching outside the farm gates and connecting with the people who are eating our beef,” says Stewart.
The key to Pete’s Valley’s success is the careful management of the ranch’s natural grassland resources and its Angus genetics to end up with tasty grass-fed beef.
“We never graze more animals on the land than it can handle, which means we won’t grow the size of the herd any faster than our natural resources allow,” said Stewart.
Pete’s Valley Cattle’s grasslands are being studied by the University of Michigan as part of a research project about invasive weed species.
Fifty acres of the ranch is also the subject of a ten-year riparian and rangeland enhancement study being conducted jointly by Audubon California’s Landowner Stewardship Program, the Center for Land-Based Learning’s Student and Landowner Education and Watershed Stewardship (SLEWS) Program, the USDA’s National Conservation Research Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
According to a report published about this project in 2005, the study “has already produced dramatic improvements in riparian condition and forage quality and quantity.”
For the three partners, cattle ranching is “a full-time second job,” jokes Stewart. He and Timothy also own and manage a successful seed company, and Harrison is a partner in a large retail insurance agency. “That doesn’t leave much time for anything else,” Stewart says, but he’s not complaining.
“We’ve created a new model in agriculture. It’s based on adding value to our beef through genetics and raising practices, and selling directly to the consumer through Panorama. This is why we’re passionate about what we do.”
Rancher Profile
Leavitt Lake Ranches
Those who say America’s cattle ranchers are a dying breed haven’t met Darrell Wood and his family. Their Wood Ranches in Vina and Susanville, California, now in their sixth generation, have expanded their production of grass-fed beef over the past decade.
In fact, the prospects looked so good that four years ago, the Woods and a small group of rancher friends decided to create a company, Panorama Grass-Fed Meats, to target an emerging consumer market for grass-fed beef.
“With all the news about overcrowded feedlots and factory farms, we thought the time was right to try to build a brand behind our beef, which has always been raised on grass, out in the open, on our ranches,” says Darrell.
The grassy high meadows on the eastern side of the Sierras in Northeastern California were uncharted territory when Darrell and Dennis Wood’s great-great-great grandfather Jeremy arrived in Nevada City after a long cross-country journey from New York City, where he had emigrated from his native Ireland. Jeremy made his living as an innkeeper in Nevada City. He and his wife had a son, Dennis, who family legend has it was the first non-Indian born in the newly settled region.
Dennis decided to try to make his living raising cattle on the valley’s lush green grasses and selling fresh beef to nearby towns. His first herd of cattle, which he drove by horseback to Susanville in 1861, succumbed to lack of forage and harsh winter weather. But his next herd three years later survived.
Six generations later, Darrell, his wife, Callie, their son Ramsey and their daughter Dallice are maintaining the family tradition. In the rainy winter months, they graze their herds on 20,000 acres of owned and leased grasslands at the family ranch in Vina, 40 miles north of Sacramento. When the grasses around Vina start drying up in late spring, they move the herds to 30,000 acres of higher ground at a second family-owned ranch in Susanville, 30 miles to the northeast near the Nevada state line.
Darrell’s father Ed and brother Dennis run another 500 head of cattle on their own 12,000 acres in Susanville during summer. Their herd moves to leased private land near Chico for the winter months.
Darrell’s and Dennis’s grandmother, Verna, now 92, and his mother and father, Ed and Marlene, still live on the Susanville ranch where both men were born.
In their grandfather’s day, moving the herd from Vina to Susanville took about two weeks on horseback. These days the cattle are transported by truck in a few hours.
The Woods also pay closer attention to genetics than their forebears, making sure the cattle are at least 51 percent Angus breed, a formulation that produces tasty, evenly marbled steaks.
In most ways, though, Darrell Wood’s daily routine isn’t much different from his great grandfather’s. A typical day involves saddling up a horse to go out and check the herd, watching for any health problems, mending fences and monitoring the condition of the pastures.
The herds are moved often to prevent overgrazing, thus protecting the grassland for future cattle herds. Over the years, Wood has developed an art of range management based on methods passed down by his father and grandfather.
Wood is Board Chairman for the California Rangeland Trust and past president of the Lassen County Cattleman’s Association. Both groups work closely with rangeland owners to protect and enhance the environmental and economic quality of the land. He has been honored for grassland stewardship by the Society for Range Management.
Wood notes with pride that the California Rangeland Trust now oversees 200,000 acres that will remain rangeland in perpetuity. In the trust’s eight years, its membership has grown to 250 ranchers throughout the state.
“As ranchers, we have an obligation to preserve the rangelands for future generations,” says Wood. “I want my family to be able to stay in the cattle business. I believe it’s a viable business. But none of this would be possible if the rangelands were destroyed.”
