This is the time of year when typically you might expect to hear an announcement of our upcoming season and a report on the health of our Audubon/AWA/AGA certified grassfed/grassfinished herd.

Today I am bringing you the sad news that the 2019 season was our last.  The time has come for our family to make some changes and we will no longer be offering beef for sale.

We have been proud to be part of the local food movement for the last eighteen years and to have been able to offer healthy, humanely raised beef from our regeneratively managed rangelands.  We have seen our grasslands flourish and biodiversity increase markedly in our soils, in our grasses and in our wildlife, including our bird population, as well as been able to raise such healthy and fine tasting beef.

We are profoundly grateful to our customers for supporting us over the years and for communicating to us the importance of finding wholesome, locally raised food products.  We thank you for your words of appreciation and gratitude.

A silver lining at this time of challenge as we face the Coronavirus may be that more of us turn to local producers for their food.  I am hearing from many rancher and farmer friends that this is so.  Our challenge will be to design the supply chains to continue after the crisis has passed.

My recommendation for those looking for healthy beef is to visit the Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance (SWGLA) website.   grassfedlivestock.org    All of the meat producers listed are members of SWGLA, of which I was president for many years, and are fully grassfed/grassfinished, many certified by independent organizations such as Animal Welfare Approved and the American Grassfed Association.  They are doing good work on the land and raising healthy animals. We are happy to answer any questions you may have as we know many of the ranchers listed.

Needless to say, our work would not have been possible without the help of many hands.  I take this opportunity to thank Melvin Johnson, our manager of 35 years, our three processors (Darrin Burns at Fort Sumner Processing, Steve Cordova at Mathews Meats,   Mickey Minifie at Western Way), Kirk Gadzia, our rangeland consultant, my son and daughter-in-law, Joseph Ranney and Hilaree Levi, for online marketing and sales, Jim Burke, for masterminding our shipments, Sara Ranney for handling our bookkeeping and our three Quivira Coalition apprentices, Jessi Adcock, Ben Vanderhoof and Mitchell Robert.

My heartfelt appreciation again for the support of many over the years.  It means so much that you care about the quality of your food and the health of the land on which we all depend, especially in these challenging times.

Sincerely,

Nancy Ranney