• About Hearst Ranch
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What We Do

Hearst Ranch Beef – Free Range, Sustainable, Grass-fed

At the Hearst Ranches, we produce free-range, sustainable grass-fed beef. Our cattle live a natural existence as free-range foragers, roaming the 150,000 acres comprised by our two ranches grazing on a diet of both native grasses, like rye, soft chess, filaree, clovers, brassicas, purple needlegrass and birdsfoot trefoil, and irrigated pastures. We also raise cows to produce calves in order to sustain our herd and to provide safe and healthy grass-fed beef for our customers.

The Grazing Animal

The grazing animal is the key to a healthy working landscape because well-managed grazing will increase the biodiversity of the grassland by fostering competition among a wide grange of grass species, this sustaining not only our herd but also our precious land resource.

The Human Element

Our role in this is simple: using what nature provides in the way of rainfall, solar energy, and plant growth, we are grass farmers and cowboys. First we let nature provide food for our cattle. Then we balance the number of cattle on a particular working landscape with the amount of available feed in order to harvest plant growth at a rate that is beneficial to both the animal and the land. Cattle movement is the key to maintaining the balance of animal resources and natural resources.

When We Do It….

The production cycle

Breeding

Bulls are turned out with cows in the breeding season, the winter, in order to produce calves in the fall. Cows are paired with bulls based on their genetic profiles. The eventual goal is to produce cattle that are predisposed to live well on grass and to produce tender meat. Cows are placed in fields with bulls and the bulls engage in their natural behavior as breeders. One breeding bull will breed up to 40 head of cows in a breeding season

Gestation

Cows have a nine-month gestation period, which means that they, like humans, have a nine month pregnancy term. Cows bred in the winter will produce calves in the fall. Thus, the gestation period lasts through the spring and summer. We do our pregnancy checks in the sixth month of the gestation cycle.

Calving

The cow will either give birth to a male (bull) or female (heifer) calf. Cows do not usually need help giving birth. However, we are vigilant at this time to ensure that any mothers that need assistance are tended to during this critical period.

Branding
At 2-3 months after calving, the calves are rounded up for the annual branding season. The brand is the historic, permanent method of identifying a ranch’s ownership of their herd. As long as there are rustlers in this world, and there still are, branding will be the only way to permanently identify ownership of live cattle.

In addition to the physical brand, we also use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Tag and a color-coded numbered visual tag. The RFID tag can be used to store information regarding vaccinations and the medical history of the animal, while the visual tag makes it easier to identify cattle from a distance in the field. We use a given color tag for the animals in each year’s calf crop.

At branding, the calf will need a vaccination to support their immune system that is weakening as the colostrum level in the mother’s milk diminishes. Herd bull prospects are selected from the bull calves and the remainder are castrated to become steer calves. This process is done in accordance with Humane Farm Animal Care’s Certified Humane standards. Heifer calves are retained either for breeding or for the beef program herd.

During this annual branding event we also take time to imprint our calves with human interaction. Cattle raised on that size of land aren’t accustomed to seeing man on foot. We want our animals stress free and make extra effort to make them calm and comfortable. At opportune times like this when we have the calves separated, we walk through them gently, letting them know we are neither a predator nor a threat to maintain a low stress environment for them.

Grazing

As soon as the calves are branded, they are reunited with their moms to limit the stress of separation time. From that point, they are moved in a low-stress slow and easy method of pasture rotation to the best available feed to sustain the cow’s milk production in order that her calf can continue to grow. In general, their rotationally graze the inland areas of the ranch while the remaining pastures are rested to promote growth and store forages for summer and fall use.

Weaning

We wean our calves at 9 months of age. This is when they would naturally wean themselves, which makes weaning a low-stress event for both the cow and its calf. We practice fence line weaning, which means that separate the cows from the calves with a fence so that the mother and the calf can smell each other and communicate while they separate.

Weaning is another opportunity to let the calves know we are ok. So we get off our horses and walk through them until they are relaxed with our presence on the ground. This positive imprinting is the key to low-stress handling. If you never get off your horse the cattle on the ranch never see anyone on foot. When they finally do encounter a human on foot, when they get shipped or arrive at the sale yard or the harvest facility, it stresses them. Stress before harvest can lead to lesser quality meat. Our entire production methodology is built around low-stress handling, which means that we always strive to minimize stress and strain on our animals.

Grazing

After weaning the calves, steers and heifers are pastured together on fields with good, strong feed, which we have reserve for them in our grazing rotation in order that they can maintain their health and their growth through the critical post-weaning period. Prior to their birthday as yearlings, we administer their annual vaccination boosters to protect them from common diseases and keep them healthy.

By this time, heifers are sexually mature and will begin their estrus cycle (heat). This will distract the steers from eating if they commingle, so we separate the calves by sex and place them in different fields.

Finishing

If nature cooperates, we start to get rainfall by the late fall which in turn starts the green grass season. We will observe pasture growth to determine which fields need to be grazed and which need to be rested to ensure that we allow the ranch to produce as much grass as possible. We reserve the best pastures for finishing our branded beef cattle as they will achieve the highest gains and will be of the highest quality when they are able to top-graze our best fields at the height of nature’s bounty. We graze rotationally back to the shipping point at headquarters.

When our cattle have reached our desired finishing weight of between 1000-1100 pounds, we take them to harvest. A member of our ranch team accompanies the cattle to harvest to ensure that they are handled in a low-stress fashion, that they are harvested in accordance with our standards, and for quality assurance purposes.

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The Annual Cycle

Winter

• Bull turnout and breeding
• Branding

Spring

• Cows and Calves Graze in pairs
• Bulls are separated from the cows and brought in to the bull fields
• Calves are allocated to either our branded program or our calf sales program

Summer

• Weaning (starts in late spring)
• Branded Beef calf selection
• Harvest of previous season’s branded cattle begins
• Pregnancy checking of bred cattle
• Assessment of winter feed store and determination of winter grazing plan

Fall

• Calving season