saboranch.com

Come meet the Sabo Family and some of their Devon and Jersey cattle at the MONTANA FARM and RANCH FAIR, Friday April 27-Sunday April 29.  Gallatin County Fairgrounds, Bozeman, MT.

Friday 5-8pm     Saturday 10am-8pm     Sunday 10am-4pm

There are loads of exciting exhibitors and great local food, and activities for the family.

Riley, Kiril, and Jenny Sabo will be having Milking Demonstrations, with a chance for kids to participate, at 11:00am, and 4:00pm, on Saturday at the Show.

We’ll be bringing a baby Devon bull, just 10 months old, and a 2 year old Devon/Red Angus steers, to share how excited we are about meat quality and QUANTITY on the 100% grassfed Devon cross cattle!

Photo below, SABO DANIEL, registered Rotokawa Devon bull at 2 years old in May, 2011.

Come see mother cows with their cute NEW calves at the Sabo Ranch Field Day, 6/14/12. Reserve your place by emailing us at saboranch1@gmail.com. Adults $15.-, Children under 12 FREE.

See how a Devon bull can put some extra BEEF on your Devon cross calves! We raise these Devons for their docility, easy calving, easy fleshing, and meat quality. Come see what all the fuss is about!

11:00–Welcome and Wander

11:30– Jersey Milking Demonstration

Noon–Tour of Ranch with Mark, Jenny, Riley, and Kiril Sabo, and Kim Keller and David Maxfield, new Market Gardeners for Pony Produce at Sabo Ranch.

1:00– Lunch: Sabo Grassfed Beef, Fresh Heritage Cornbread, Pony Produce Salad, Tapioca(Sabo pastured eggs and milk), Rhubarb, Lacto-fermented Drinks, Delicious Water!

After Lunch, there will be time to enjoy the creek, stroll through a field, ask Jenny and Mark, Riley and Kiril Sabo any questions,  look at the new Market Garden, pat a pig,  look for the bald eagle nest, soak up sun (we hope) or rain!

Come prepared for any weather.  $15.00/Adult, Children 12 and under free.  RESERVE YOUR PLACE NOW (only 100 places available) by emailing to saboranch1@gmail.com, then mailing a check to Sabo Ranch, P.OBox 65, Harrison, MT 59735.  Directions to SABO RANCH are posted on the home page of our website.  Please leave your dogs at home.

See our new Jersey baby calf, and the pastured pigs that Riley Sabo, age 12, is raising this year.

Check out our Four Season greenhouse, self heated by sun and chickens. This photo was taken in February, in June the greenhouse will be filled with tomatoes and peaches!

Just last week, April 17th, the Kindergarteners, First Graders, Second Graders and their teachers from Harrison School all visited Sabo Ranch to view the Bald Eagles nesting here for their 11th year.  Kiril Sabo, now in second grade, guided the group and helped everyone see the  nest.  The eagles obligingly took a few test flights around the nest for all of us!

The eagles first appeared soon after we stopped all toxic agriculture on the ranch and allowed the beavers to create dams.  Although the beavers’ flooding did kill some of the cottonwoods, a population of woodpeckers appeared son thereafter to benefit from the dead trees, and the creekside willows provide terrific summer habitat for moose and whitetail deer, shading the creek for trout.  The eagles even returned after a huge winter windstorm blew down their nest tree further up the creek!  We are pleased to host sandhill cranes, redtail hawks, eagles, and numerous small birds every year all over the ranch.  We have counted the nests of 11 species of birds, just around our house.

Kiril Sabo(age 9), the strawberry blond in the back row holding the binoculars, guided his classmates to the bald eagle nest on April 17. Notice the eagle nest between Kiril's two teachers! (Photo: Riley Sabo, age 11)

Kiril Sabo and Jules Feeney start a snow fort on a winter afternoon

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

This is my first day on the Sabo Ranch and these are a few of my first impressions. Only some things are consistent. The cows and chickens need to be watched on a daily basis. The way in which the runts interact with the other animals effects the way the feeding is done. The overall rhythm of things is considerably consistent, every morning the cows and chickens are fed and checked on.

            The family is very much just a family with a significant amount of chores that need to be done. Kiril (age six) and Riley (age nine) help, play or work all the time. Riley seems to know everything there is to know about his ranch. Kiril is still learning the way things work from his brother. Both boys have their own set of things to do around the house. Every evening someone goes out to the chicken coup to collect the eggs.

The family could not have been more welcoming or better teachers. I look forward to more days of work and learning with this kind family.

This nice, full bodied bull calf is an example of the Rotokawa bulls Sabo Ranch will have for sale in winter 2010.  These bulls are Embryo Transplant calves from the Rotokawa Devon herd now living in Massachusetts.  933 is of moderate frame, gentle, 100% grassfed, and easy keeping, a great example of the Devon breed’s ability to thrive on sustainable, ranch grown forages.

Some of the Sabo yearlings exploring a beautiful table set in preparation for the new “Zone 4″ magazine photo shoot. “Cinnamon”, the horned Jersey steer, nearly pulled off the tablecloth (and everything else!), as he tried tasting this new addition to his pasture.

Jenny Sabo will be writing an column for this new magazine titled “You Are What You Eat”. The column will explore the connections between healthy soil, healthy foods, and human and livestock health, all in relation to growing food in USDA Zone 4 of the northern Rocky Mountain states.

Once we usurped the yearlings’ table, the Sabos (Kiril, Jenny, Mark and Riley) and several other families sat down for a real autumn feast, all produced here on the ranch (except the wheat).

Menu:

100% Grassfed Beef Chili

Lacto-Fermented crackers, from Cherilyn DeVries

“Goatzarella” Cheese, from Rae Orhai

Sauteed Kale and Chard Salad with Cherry Tomatoes

Challa Bread with fresh Raw Grassfed Butter

Lacto-Fermented Corn Relish

Fresh Creamy Grassfed Raw Milk

Photo: Steve Simpson

This slightly blurry photo, taken at dusk, shows a newly grazed, now resting area of pasture on the right, and a yet-ungrazed section on the left. We use these electic fence ribbons in much of our grazing management, allowing us to quickly graze, then rest, our pastures, allowing for maximum grass growth and pasture regeneration.

We only wanted to cows to graze the right hand portion, which they did over a two day period. This area is full of common tansy, a plant whose tea can cause abortions in humans.

However, it is also a natural cattle wormer, and high in calcium. Previous to this, the cows grazed sections of our hayfield (back portion of this photo), a mixture of grasses and clovers. Upon introduction to the “weedy” area here along the irrigation ditch, they consumed every tansy plant in sight.

Within several days, as they moved along the ditch, their tansy consumption was down to nearly nil. They had their fill, consumed the minerals and medicinals they needed, and passed back, free choice, to primarily grass consumption.