Swanton Pacific Ranch - Raising Beef 'Old School'
Written by Maria Gaura
DAVENPORT (March 2010) – The mother cow lowed and shifted her hooves nervously as Gordon Claassen stepped carefully toward the calf who curled, sleeping, in a clump of fresh grass beneath a low-slung oak tree.
"Looks like a male, to me, judging from the size of the head," Claassen murmured, crouching a few feet away from the drowsy calf. "He's just a few hours old, brand-new." The calf raised his head briefly, blinked his milky blue eyes, then settled down to resume his nap.
March is the beginning of calf season at Swanton Pacific Ranch, a 3,200-acre teaching ranch located in the coastal hills just north of the town of Davenport. The ranch is owned by Cal Poly State University, and the sleepy newborn under the tree was one of 50 calves expected to be born this spring to a herd managed by the school's natural grass-fed beef production program.
SUPER NATURAL
Students enrolled in the program help produce about 50 head of free-range, grass-fed beef cattle per year without the hormones, antibiotics, growth accelerants or supplemental feed used in conventional beef production.
Except for the 50 cows in the program's breeding herd, the cattle raised here are destined for slaughter at about 25 months of age. But until that fateful day, they enjoy a tranquil routine of free movement, fresh pasture, spring water and ocean views.
"Basically, we produce what we call "natural, grass-fed beef"," said Claassen, Swanton Pacific's livestock manager. "It’s a small herd of about 150 animals total, they’re calved here on the ranch, and we know everything that goes into them.
“They're not organic, because we do use worming compounds as needed to minimize parasites, but they are about that close to organic," Claassen laughed, holding his thumb and forefinger an inch apart.
Beef produced by Swanton Pacific is considered “natural”, a term which is also used, legally, to describe cattle confined in crowded feedlots and dosed with an array of growth-altering pharmaceuticals.
"I think it's good to check out what (companies) mean, specifically, when they use the term “natural”," Claassen said. “The USDA has not yet defined that term.”
PLANNED GRAZING
Legal definitions aside, the cattle raised on Swanton Pacific live their lives in synch with the natural cycles of the seasons, rainfall and pasture.
The Swanton Pacific herd is constantly on the move, grazing intensively on one pasture before moving to the next. Pasture rests at least 30 days between visits by the herd, allowing the grasses to regenerate, and giving the cattle’s manure time to break down and fertilize the soil.
“Cattle naturally don’t want to remain and eat in an area where they have defecated and urinated,” Claassen said. “We call it the “zone of repugnance”, they will naturally move out of an area after a period of grazing.”
HELPFUL FLIES
Planned grazing also provides some natural protection against parasite infestations, as fly larvae attracted to the cattle manure are allowed to hatch and perish after the cattle have moved on. While the animals are treated periodically for parasites, care is taken not to completely wipe out insect populations. As it turns out, flies are beneficial to the natural cycle.
"We specifically choose worming products with very little residual value," Classen said. "We want some fly population to survive, so the manure gets broken down. Flies are part of the natural chain of breaking down and recycling nutrients."
The herd’s two-year-olds usually go to slaughter in mid-May, a date that works not only with the academic calendar, but that coincides with the seasonal maturation of pasture grasses in the coastal area. Grasses are most nutritious when they set their seed in late spring, allowing the grass-fed animals to fatten naturally.
OLD SCHOOL
Swanton Pacific Ranch was donated to Cal Poly in 1993 by alumnus Al Smith, the founder of Orchard Supply Hardware. Cal Poly, which is known for its strong agriculture curriculum, uses the ranch as a classroom and laboratory for crops, forestry and orchard science, as well as meat production.
Some 1,600 of the ranch’s 3,200 acres serve as grazing land not only to Claassen’s “natural” herd, but also to another 500 or so “stocker” cattle brought in yearly from Hawaii and allowed to fatten for six or seven months on the ranch’s lush pasture.
The stocker cattle herd is also cared for and studied by students, but those animals are mostly moved into feedlots and conventional beef production after they leave the ranch.
Cattle from the “natural” herd are currently taken to a slaughterhouse in Los Banos, and the carcasses are butchered and packed by students in the meat program at Cal Poly’s San Luis Obispo campus. The university is currently working on a plan to build its own abattoir, which will allow students to gain hands-on learning in every step of beef production.
LOCAL FOOD
Beef from Swanton Pacific is packed in 30 lb. boxes of assorted steaks, roasts and ground beef, and is sold for about $6 per pound to on a first-come, first-served basis until the annual supply runs out. Last year’s supply is sold out, and this year’s harvest will become available in June or July.
To reserve a box of beef, or request a special order, call Cal Poly’s Meats Lab at (805) 756-2114.
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