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This Week’s Story: Safely Gather In

Roxy and Bobby returned home this week. For Christmas, you might say. And indeed, they have, although they likely haven’t a clue about the significance of the 25^th of December…..

Store News

Next Shipping Date: Monday, December 1st

We generally ship every Monday, holiday weeks excepting (see calendar). You’ll get a tracking number when we ship your order. UPS may initially show an extra day of transit time, but will correct late Monday night when orders hit the Salt Lake hub.

Next Restock Date: Wednesday, December 3rd

We restock every Wednesday and send out a sale flyer on Wednesday in the early evening with the week’s deals.

Back In Stock

Holiday roasts are back! Top sirloin roasts (organic and non-certified) and tenderloin roasts (organic and non-certified) are available.

This Week’s Reader-Only Deals

Use the code “ALLSIXTEENTHS” to get 5% off all sixteenths in stock!

Use the code “BEEFROASTS” to get 10% off grass fed regenerative (non-certified) rump roasts.

To access these sale items, and for more deals and products, you can click the button below!

Ranch News

It’s the fall calving herd on the Home Ranch. Behind them is the high Lemhi, which has been slowly but surely taking the brunt of early winter storms. On many days, it’s pretty calm and relatively warm on the ranch, but just up these mountain canyons winter has set in with whiteout conditions. Photo by Glenn.

I’m smiling because of the chocolate cake. It’s not thanksgiving leftovers–just some of the highest organic matter soils on the ranch. This particular field last tested at 17.7 % organic matter, and the crumble of aggregated soil in my hand shows it! If you look beyond me in the shot, you’ll see orchardgrass green stockpile (taken today) ready for yearling grazing in the next month. Because of the high organic matter, there is high “brix,” and those cattle will gain nearly as much as they could on corn! See below on brix… -Glenn

It’s really nice to have our soil digging animals on the ranch–it sure saves some shovel time when you want to see what the soil profile looks like! And it is NOT the border collie Bonnie. She’s smiling in this picture because this is a BIG pocket gopher pile. These handy rodents do a lot on Alderspring to turn over the soil. They’re vegans, and they do eat roots from underneath plants, but I’ve never seen their subterranean grazing to have ill effects on our above soil production. The fact is, I think they do more good than harm! Photo by Glenn.

This is a short-leaved phlox, and it is native to our high summer grazing ranges. We’ve had a wonderful fall, with abundant sunshine and rains, and Caryl spotted some blooming at 6500 feet elevation! We’ve never seen that before! It takes a good eye to spot them–they are only 1 to 2 cm tall (Caryl has such an eye…). Photo by Glenn.

 I couldn’t pass up this shot of our broad valley–the High Pahsimeroi–as seen from 6000 feet on our summer range. It’s our home, and Alderspring Ranch is just below that low peak in the Valley in the upper middle of the pic. That’s Papa Bear, by the way. I’ll grab a pic from the top of that in the next few days so you can see what the view from that looks like in the fall. -Glenn

Brix! It’s a measure of the percent solute concentration in plant sap. Most of those solutes are sugars. And they cause cattle to gain weight. Along with the sugars, there is all kinds of plant chemicals in that sap–things even we need to thrive. Researchers have measured over 700 plant compounds in our beef. That chemical diversity is good for the cattle, but super good for us. This measurement was taken this week on one of our stockpile pastures. Very few farms or ranches can get brix this high, especially in the fall. It’s the gift that high organic matter soils can give us. A brix of 17.5, like this one, can be higher than that of sweet corn. Photo by Glenn.

Sunrise over the old barn. It’s right in our front yard. As near as we can tell, the barn dates from around 1885–that’s 140 years old. We still use it to milk cows and shelter our “bottle babies.” Those are twins born on the range that we raised instead of mom, as on the range, she’ll likely not keep track of 2 calves, and they might just become wolf food. Photo by Glenn.

Melanie and Jed pulled the gather this week of sorting beeves. They picked out 11 beeves that were ready to ship to our friends in Montana for process. I think the cattle like the chance to get out and walk, and Jed and Melanie got to get some horses out to trail them to the scales to handpick them and weigh. Photo by Melanie.

I can’t remember the name of Jed’s new pup, but he is a cutie. The way he’s looking at Melanie while she’s building fence tells it all: absolute devotion. He’ll be a great range dog next summer. Photo by Melanie.

Here’s those beeves back on grass. It’s not all green, but there is still plenty to gain weight like crazy, as most of our cattle do in the fall. How would you feel if you gained 4 pounds a day? Some of us feel like that after Thanksgiving dinner, but for a 1000 pound steer, I’m sure they are feeling pretty good about themselves. If anything, they are content. And warm, with the winter cold approaching. Photo by Melanie.

Your purchase supports our regenerative work. For more information go to https://www.alderspring.com/regenerative/.