Back Valley Ranch

FARMING LIFE THROUGH THE EYES OF A NEWBIE RANCHER – February 23/2012

Hello fellow natural beef lovers, welcome to Suzannas Blog. I’ve been trying to think of ways to spread the word about the benefits of eating grass-fed beef and also I want to give everyone a chance to share our life on the ranch. One of our very dedicated customers suggested a blog and although I’ve never done this before I figure it will be a good idea.

We’re not certified organic or anything like that. We just raise our animals naturally the way it was done 100 years ago before the conventional feedlots and big corporations came into play. We keep a very open book policy with everyone. We have the facebook site that posts lots of pictures and updates. Plus we love getting emails and answering any questions that anyone has. Now you get a chance to follow us as we live day by day and get to know how our animals live.

I have titled this blog “Farming Life Through the Eyes of a Newbie Rancher” as unlike Jerry who comes from a long line of ranchers, I’m still quite new to this. Not that I grew up as a city girl, far from it. I grew up in Haida Gwaii and always loved living with open land all around me. I moved to the Kamloops area about 8 years ago to learn how to train horses and have been doing that and helping out with some ranching over the years. Jerry and I met in May of 2010 and soon after that I was living on this beautiful ranch surrounded by these truly amazing cattle.

The ranch can be found on Back Valley in a place called Deadmans, which is in between Savona and Cache Creek. Being 10kms away from the nearest power lines we live completely off the grid. Just solar power and a propane generator. To water the animals we have alleyways built leading into the lake. Everything is sectioned off so no one can walk onto the ice and hurt themselves. Of course during the winter months we only have the bulls and horses home as the girls and yearlings go to a winter pasture. The pregnant ones come home at the end of February so we can watch them closely to make sure everyone calves out ok.

I’ve worked with cattle throughout the years and I’ve seen the odd tame one here and there. But I’ve never met an entire herd of easy going cattle. They don’t live in fear of anything. Here at Back Valley Ranch we don’t use stock dogs, cattle prods or anything like that. If an animals needs something done with them we usually just walk up to them, put a rope around them and do what we need to do instead of running them through metal chutes.

Every animal also comes with their own name. We’re asked all the time why we name them. As naming them means we recognize each individual personality and there always is that attachment that comes along with naming. The answer is yes, it’s hard to name them, get attached and then send them to butcher. However, that being said, these animals are going to become our food regardless of what we do. I’d rather have one that’s named and get to live there lives as happy pets, then animals that are raised in feedlots and just shuffled around with no space to move until the day they are butchered. all of our cattle get treated with the highest respect and we believe set the standards high for the definition of a “Happy Cow”. Just because they are going to be our food doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a great life.

Through this blog you will be introduced to some of our breeding girls and our bulls. We have quite a few girls that are older than 15 years old, still thriving and producing great calves. The oldest one is Panda who is 20 years old and still doing great. We don’t cull as most ranchers do when the cows are still fairly young. We go by the calf. As soon as the momma starts producing small calves that means she’s getting to old to produce sufficient milk for raising a baby. Just a side note: these cows are not what we make steaks and roasts out of. They go for strictly ground and stew beef, as well as sausages and speciality orders.

You will hear current stories as well as some ones from the past couple of years. There will also be information on healthy eating and the benefits of grass fed cattle. So there will be quite a few entries in the beginning as I share stories from the past to catch up with everything that’s going on now. With birthing season just a week or so around the corner there will be lots of stories to share.

Enjoy getting to share our lives on the ranch.