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One of our proudest moments, signaling that we were doing a good job maintaining the health of our ranch ecosystem, was the moment the Bald Eagles arrived to start nest building on our ranch. The Bald Eagles raise their chicks just above our bridge over South Willow Creek.

The first eagles arrived in 2005, stealing the original nest from a pair of Red-tailed Hawks. The displaced hawks graciously moved farther upstream near our barn and nested again.

The first pair of eagles raised a single chick in 2005 and then a chick that perished in 2006. Unfortunately one of the adults died in 2007, although the juvenile and other adult remained nearby.

This year the remaining adult found a new mate. This new pair successfully raised two chicks who fledged in July 2008. Fledging two chicks in one year is a quite unusual feat for eagles.

Riley, ever the pragmatist, digs for earthworms to feed the baby chicks we raise each spring in our solar heated greenhouse.

The earthworms love the compost, kelp meal, and minerals we add to the soils for the newly planted peppers here.

The chicks love the extra protein, and it teaches them the flavor, and the foraging techniques they will need once they head outside at three weeks of age.

We raise our baby chicks for three weeks in our solar heated greenhouse before they head outdoors to forage on pasture for the rest of their lives.

Kiril, age 5, loves to play with them in the extra spring warmth of the greenhouse.

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The well shaded, clear waters of South Willow Creek run through our ranch, fresh from the Tobacco Root mountains three miles away. Mark and the boys often fish there in the summer, and occasionally bring home some fresh trout for breakfast!

Here, Kiril, age 5, and Riley, age 8, show off the first catch of the summer, caught with grasshoppers for the grassy banks of the stream.

Riley Sabo, age 8, holds his own Jersey heifer calf, Sabo’s Faline, born March 2008.

Riley currently helps his mother Jenny with milking. When Faline gives birth to her first calf in 2011, Riley will be old enough, 11, to manage her himself.

Kiril, age 5, gets ready to help his parents Mark and Jenny check for new calves in the rain.

We had an unusually wet, cold, May this year, and the children learned that “We weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not!”

Our baby dairy calves live with their mothers for at least three months (longer if they will be replacement females in our grassfed Jersey dairy herd). This gives them the benefit of learning proper herd behavior, which plants are best to eat, and provides each calf with the crucial nutrients for lifelong good health.

We host many different visitors at our ranch, year round. Here, Kiril, Zach, and Keats learn the particulars about where milk originates.

Photo: Harriette McPherson

Our cattle are 100% grassfed, and also consume apple cider vinegar, kelp meal, and a cultured yeast , free choice, for greater health. We use fencing and management of our livestock to keep our watercourses clean and our land welcoming to wildlife.

Our Devon beef cattle herd is a mixture bred from our North Devon bull and Red Angus cows. We continue to select over time for gourmet, tender, flavorful 100% grassfed beef. We use no hormones or backgrounded antibiotics, and have no feedlots of any kind.

Our calves are born in the spring on green grass, in May and June, and are not weaned until they are at least 9 months old. North Devon cattle, in particular the Rotokawa Devon herd that sired our bull, are well known for tender, gourmet 100% grassfed beef.

Our Jersey influence herd of cattle is also 100% grassfed, grazing out in the fields all summer, and supplemented in the winter months with the most nutritious hay we can grow. Our breeding program seeks out the most adapted genetics for 100% grassfed Jerseys, slowly building a top quality herd for creamy milk and tender gourmet meat.

We milk our cows only once a day, and calves live with their mothers at least part time until they are 4 months old, then nurse once daily until they are at least 9 months old. Each Jersey cow, depending on her conformation, is given at least 2 months rest from lactation before she calves again, allowing her to dedicate her energies to the healthiest calf possible.

For more information about our grassfed beef, see the Guidelines and Philosophies page.

Kiril’s grandmother gave him a camera to photograph the world around him. She said the photos would tell a lot about how he sees the world.

We see what this wise lady meant when we look at this photo of a cow!

Photo by Kiril, age 5

With gentle grassfed Jersey dairy cows comes the fun of introducing tiny baby calves to small children! Here, Jenny Sabo (and mother cow Lena) share day-old baby heifer calf Sabo’s Ladine with Keats, Kiril, and Zach.

Photo: Harriette McPherson