Rancher Profile
Peter Bussman Ranches
After college and completing his military service in Vietnam, Peter Bussman returned to his family’s land in Northern California to carry on its ranching tradition. More than 25 years later, he is a prominent member of the Humboldt County ranching community, running 550 head of cattle on 1,000 acres of leased and owned grasslands.
Through the years, he’s become evangelical about protecting the rangelands that have sustained his family’s cattle for four generations.
“I tell people, the only thing we ranchers have is sunlight, soil and water, so it’s our duty to manage for healthy soil conditions and to maximize water saturation on our land. It is also our responsibility to continually educate ourselves about managing the land with sustainability in mind,” says Pete, who carries out this mission by continually educating himself about working with Mother Nature.
“Sometimes, this education means going back to the way our forefathers did things and getting away from technology,” he says.
On his ranch, Bussman practices rotational grazing and low-stress stockmanship, a management style that eliminates the need to protect any sensitive areas. The cattle are moved through the ranch at a rate that allows most of the ranch to be in a “resting” stage with no grazing impact. During the rapid-growth season, cattle are rotated more often and, as the growth diminishes, the grazing rotation is slowed. This allows a longer rest period for the grasses during the slow-growth periods. Peter is also the Chairman of the Buckeye Conservancy, an organization of family farms, ranchers and forest landowners in California’s North Coast region that promotes communication and implementation of ideals and policies that support the ecologic and economic sustainability of natural resources and open space in family ownership.
It’s a natural for ranchers to care about being responsible stewards of the land, says Bussman, because they depend on it for their livelihoods. Founded in 1999, the organization now has 200 family, individual, and commercial memberships representing over 300,000 acres of forests and ranchland in the county.
In addition to promoting sound land management practices, the Buckeye Conservancy works to maintain the integrity of the North Coast’s rural landscape by encouraging the preservation of family-owned farms, ranches and forest lands.
Bussman’s ranch is also certified by the Food Alliance, a non-profit organization that certifies farmers and ranchers for using sustainable agriculture practices.
