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We "finish" cattle -- select weaned animals from a breeder and raise them to harvest weight -- on certified organic pasture. Last fall we learned that our former breeder changed his farming practices. He previously fed his cattle on pasture and hay raised naturally. When he planted Round-up Ready seeds for this winter’s hay, we sought a new breeder – fast. We felt lucky to get first pick of Methow Valley farmer Deed Fink’s beautiful Angus Cross cattle. Deed’s well-bred animals were born spring 2007 and spent the summer on the backcountry grasses of the Methow Valley with their mothers. Since Deed delivers animals in the fall, as is the typical practice in the valley, we needed enough hay to see our calves through until spring. We were pleased to obtain enough local hay to last until our lush spring pasture grasses are ready.
Our cattle have fresh pasture from spring until they are harvested in the fall. They spend an average of 24 hours on one pasture before moving to the next, consuming a mixture of grasses, legumes, and shrubs, and are rotated over our twenty-one fields with the intent that no field is ever grazed below 3” nor allowed to grow above 12” – the optimal zone for digestible nutrients. At Crown "S" Ranch, we focus on prevention of pests and parasites. We never use insecticidal ear tags, dust our animals with pesticides, or use other toxic treatments. Following our cattle with poultry on our pastures reduces the fly count, since the birds eat the larva of flies and other pest insects. We control the flies that escape our chickens' notice using non-insecticide traps that we build ourselves. Parasites such as liver flukes and intestinal worms are kept in check through rotational grazing, since the steers rarely graze the same pasture more than once in three weeks - a period exceeding the life cycle of the majority of these parasites. Click on the right side of the picture to view cattle photos:
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