Country Natural Beef

The Hatfield Ranch, Brothers Oregon is only an hour drive from our home in Sisters. Doc and Connie Hatfield and their son Travis and daughter-in-law Cynthia run this 30,000-acre ranch—just the four of them. They specialize in raising healthy, hormone free beef. This huge operation can be run by so few people because the Hatfields have devoted themselves to thoughtful research into bovine genetics—they raise a cross bred cow that is athletic (read lean here), gentle (one guy can open a gate and move the whole herd from field to field with a couple of honks to the truck horn and a special whistle), and fertile—each cow produces one calf per year.

They live on the land, understand it and care about the native grasses and the wildlife. They’ve spent time studying the forage so to not overgraze. With a series of catch dams they help the meadows soak up the early natural spring water. Solar powered pumps pull water from long abandoned early homesteader wells when those seasonal springs run dry. Well water travels through miles of pipe Hatfields have installed to bring water to troughs for cattle and elk to drink when the summer sun has dried up all the natural watering holes. They create what Travis calls “Mosaics”—cutting the invasive Junipers that soak up water and create such an acid environment that the natural grasses can’t grow and using controlled burn to eliminate invasive weed species and encourage healthy native plant growth.

If you’ve ever sent money to the Sierra Club or another organization to help restore and preserve land here’s an alternative—you can buy a steak from these guys and do the same thing-plus get a delicious meal and treat your body right! Your purchase of Country Natural Beef helps conscientious farmers like the Hatfields succeed—a really good thing for Oregon and the planet.