Organic Beef Matters
News from Alderspring Ranch, with an occasional rant about American agriculture
Despite the earth-moving events that would unfold later in the afternoon, this particular August day dawned like any other over the Hat Creek country. It was 1959, and the only witness to the devastation was one Dick McDaniel, who tended his sheep in the lower breaks of the range along the Salmon …
Continue Reading about Restoration Ranching: How Cows Create Canyons
As the trapper climbed up through the thickly needled foliage of the stout fir tree, he couldn't have known that his rear end would be parked there on that rough barked branch for nearly 4 days. Unfortunately, he couldn't take his horses up there with him, and if they were swept away by the brown …
The watercolor azure skies above our little band of cattle and riders were rapidly degenerating into a threatening black of charcoal on this particular August afternoon. Little did we know then what chain of events it would set in motion that would deepen in each of us cowboys a respect for the wild …
Continue Reading about A Near Barbeque of Cowboys and Cattle on Taylor Butte
Dear Friends The Arctic cold has finally subsided on the Ranch. We are enjoying sunny 20 degree days now, and are relishing the balm of breezes that are over 55 degrees warmer than we endured over the last 3 weeks. Amazingly I don't notice any particular difference in the cattle. The only thing I …
Continue Reading about Raising Character and Cattle on the Range
The stately elk were also carrying on an animated conversation in the bottoms, but Jackie wouldn't chase them. She leaves them alone. A bull was bugling his lonesome and ethereal call that echoed across the bottoms; I could clearly pick out the meow-like cow elk talk carry in the thick air across …
Dear Friends Fall sneaks up on the Ranch while we're almost still too busy with summer work to notice. The colors are already in full regalia on the higher elevation ranges and the aspens show off their golden veil as they succumb to the heralding of winter. At our valley location, repeated …
