Happy cows come from Roseville

While the "farm-to-table" concept is increasing in popularity, one local cattle ranch is looking to join the movement. Wintun Ranch, a 225-acre urban ranch on the outskirts of Roseville, has been raising purebred Polled Hereford cattle since 1977. To keep up with recent consumer trends, ranch manager Don Shrieve said he made the decision to raise the English breed of cattle on a diet of grass about two years ago."The traditional beef that we buy in supermarkets is grain fed," Shrieve said. "They are usually fed at such a high rate and in close confinement, it is necessary to feed them antibiotics and other supplements to get them growing as fast as they can."Shrieve raises his cattle in a pasture-based system, periodically rotating the cattle into different pastures, allowing them to roam freely and feeding them only grass. This method, Shrieve says, has much less of an impact on the environment and puts less stress on the cattle."Cattle were intended to forage grass and natural feed rather than processed grains," Shrieve said. "We find that the customers for grass-fed beef like the concept of the open range rather than close confinement feeding."The farm-to-table trend are means consumers and restaurateurs are seeking out locally grown products for their kitchens, Shrieve said."I think that one of the draws for our product is people do like to know where their food is coming from," Shrieve said. "The closer the food source is to where they live, the less impact there is on the environment."For now, Wintun Ranch primarily sells its beef to private parties, and the product is sealed in such a way that it will keep in a freezer for more than one year without losing its quality, Shrieve said. Shrieve's son, Jeremy, said the ranch is going to be launching a new marketing plan, along with a new website, in the next two weeks and he hopes to be selling beef to local restaurants looking for a local product. Wintun Ranch owners Cal and Jo Ann Setzer hired Shrieve in 1971 to run their ranch, even though at the time, Shrieve admits he had no experience with ranching.After agreeing to take on the job, Shrieve earned a degree in agriculture from Sierra College and learned as much about the Polled Hereford breed, the ranching industry and the trade as he could.He has lived on the ranch, raising his family and his cattle, since taking on the job.Running the ranch is a family affair, and his son Jeremy, a junior herdsman, lends a helping hand on a daily basis. "I think one of the biggest challenges is running a full cattle operation pretty much in the middle of an urban setting," Jeremy Shrieve said. "It didn't used to be like this, but that is definitely an issue these days because we're being encroached by so many housing developments and families moving in."His father, Don, agreed that as Roseville has grown up around the ranch, keeping the cattle in line and the neighbors educated about what they do is an ongoing process. "It used to be no big deal if a few cows got out on the road 30 years ago," Don Shrieve said. "Now it's a major incident."Don Shrieve said the ranch has an open-door policy for anybody who wants to come and see what they do."We are an old Roseville family," Jeremy Shrieve said. "We've lived here all of our lives, so we want to put back into our community what we've gotten out of it."Toby Lewis can be reached at tobyl@goldcountrymedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TobyLewis_RsvPT.