Rancher Profile
Wood 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.”
