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This Week’s Story: The Chemical Roundup

The field was curiously brown in the height of the green season. It was early August, and the stand of dead-looking meadow grass stood in grim contrast to the verdant fields all around it. Despite its tawny complexion, my neighbor Tom swung the gate open, and 96 head of his hungry cows and their calves took off…..

Store News

Next Shipping Date: Monday, April 21st

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, April 23rd

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

This Week’s Reader-Only Deals

Use the code “FLATIRON” at checkout to get 10% off grass fed regenerative (non-certified) flatiron steaks.

Use the code “LEANERRIBEYE” at checkout to get 5% off grass fed regenerative (non-certified) leaner ribeye steaks and organic grass fed regenerative leaner ribeye steaks.

Use the code “FAMILYBOX” to get 5% off grass fed regenerative (non-certified) #4: family box sixteenths.

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

Ranch News

The lambs are coming! We have the first of many “hitting the ground” on the ranch. They are the cutest of cute offspring we are starting to see with the onset of spring. Photo credit Abby Kelly.

Ethan and Abby are the official Alderspring Shepherds. Their four little kids of their own are much more comfortable working around sheep than those big Angus mama cows! Here, Ethan is feeding some green grass hay from last summer to supplement the sheep’s never ending search for green grass. It’s coming soon with some heat in the forecast. Photo credit Abby Kelly.

It’s Webb, one of our horsemen trainers on the ranch. He’s here working one of his many charges getting them tuned up for a summer herding cattle on the range. At this time of year, our focus tends to shift to horses; there’s shoes to put on, first rides of spring, and even first ever rides of young colts. On Alderspring, it’s not about “breaking” colts. It’s more about respecting them, and earning their respect. When we do that, we have partners. Photo credit Annie Elzinga.

It’s time to get the cowherd moving off the home place, by “trailing” them down valley to the lower valley Madsen lease ranch. Idaho law allows cattle “trailing” to have right of way, and ranchers all over the state often use county, state and federal highways to “trail” their cattle to spring pasture. There’s usually frustrated motorists on US highway 93, but more often than not, there’s enough Idaho natives on the highway keeping the peace…because they know the law. There’s a little more grass down there, and it is halfway to the start of the high ranges along the Salmon River. We’ll ease our mother cows, getting large with pregnancy, the rest of the way in a little over a week. This photo shows Josh on one of our “solid” veteran mounts, while Melanie rides a colt in the “drag” position while moving the herd (“drag” is the cowboy term for keeping the end of the herd moving, and does the important job of making certain calves stay with their moms, rather than run back to the point where mom was last seen). We always mix young colts who know nothing of cattle or even having a rider on their back with veterans. They’ll cue off the seasoned older horses and find that life with a job to do is actually a good thing. Photo credit Annie Elzinga.

Here’s Jed, our expert farrier (horseshoer) and horseman. He and Milo (Australian kelpie/border collie cross) are running “lead.” Lead is opposed to “drag;” Jed’s and Justice’s (the photographer) job is to keep the herd from getting stretched out too far. There’s a couple of hundred here, and when they get strung out, sometimes the middlers in the herd will start going sideways. This keeps everyone together, and directed as they trail to their destination. Photo credit Justice Mitchell.

Josh grabbed this pic of Rose that looks a little uneventful, but actually means everything. For our grass fed beeves to do well, they have to always have access to windowpane clear water. It’s because they are running a “fermentation vat” in their gut, and if you know anything about fermentation, as with beer and bread, water and copious amounts of it are always critical. Here, Rose is setting up a temporary tank setup for all the cattle on foot traveling to the low country ranch. She’s smiling with the joy of making that all happen–not grimacing in pain and anquish from having to move a heavy tank while her team worker, Josh, snaps a quick pic! Photo credit Josh Whitling.

Stock tanks and dogs are a marriage made in heaven. It’s not that hot out, but cow dogs can’t resist jumping over the stock tank wall and getting a crystal clear drink! Photo credit Rose Morris.

This little girl is only 2 years old, and is looking really lovely after the woes of winter have finally subsided. Melanie takes these little colts and literally winters them in our backyard. They always have a buddy, and here, they get used to us as part of their “herd,” and get used to cowdogs, cats and just us doing the everyday–picking up firewood, mowing the lawn, taking care of the flowerbeds, hauling out the trash. The best thing is that we get to wake up to the whinny of the little guys when we step out in the chill of the morning and pitch them a fork of hay. Photo credit Melanie Elzinga.

It’s our riding string, with over 30 head scattered out on a 100 acre pasture. Rather than eat hay, these guys and gals will start working that green grass. They’ve been watching for it all winter, and it is coming slowly! They didn’t even want to look up at the new snow in the peaks yesterday behind them. I think after a life outside, nothing fazes them…especially when spring green surrounds them. Photo credit Melanie Elzinga.

Melanie works a 3-year old with a gentle hand. Melanie is the head of horse on Alderspring, and deserves to be so. She’s started almost all of our colts on the ranch, and has more first rides than anyone. It’s a testament to her ability to build trust that virtually none of them bucked under her tutelage. That doesn’t mean they won’t–many a cowhand has gotten launched off a horse that she started. Horses will indeed escalate without a calm and quiet hand correcting the trajectory of their mind, and a sense of timing is what it is all about. I think Melanie would agree with me that keeping a horse from bucking or escalating in the loss of trust is all about timing. When a rider has timing, they’ll make a partner. When they don’t, they lose one. Photo credit Melanie Elzinga.

This is a long time coming for me (Glenn). I really dislike lean beef, and it has always been a quest to have at least a good share of our offering to be highly marbled. The key about marbling, for it to make a great eating experience, is that the cattle must be young as well–no more than 24 months of age. After 24 months, beef can get tough because of muscle fiber maturation. It’s why feedlot beef is often markedly more tender than grass fed. Most feedlot beef averages 18 months old. Grass fed, on the other hand, if it is marbled, often averages 30 months of age. And that is too old. Now, by changing our management and genetics, we are able to get our grass fed organic to marble at as little as 16 months of age. These ribeyes are from this week and are from a steer only 19 months of age. We’re turning a highly sought after “corner” in grass fed beef quality, and it has taken most of our lives to find out how to succeed. I would submit to you that we are one of maybe ten raisers of grass fed beef in the world today that has succeeded in this realm. Photo credit Melanie Elzinga.

Out on the Town. It’s Linnaea, Annie, Webb and Melanie dressed up to attend the Salmon Select Horse Sale in nearby Salmon, Idaho. It’s Idaho’s premier horse sale, and buyers come from all over the West to bid. These young people got their own line on colts and horses to raise–they didn’t come to buy–that’s for certain. Instead, they’re doing market research as I know they are well aware that the horses they raise with real world range and ranch experience are highly sought after. Photo credit Melanie Elzinga.

Because we are not farmers, we don’t use a lot of equipment, but we do need it. This John Deere is a jack of all trades–it handles 1 ton bales of hay and pulls heavy wagons across the ranch. And those tires–well, they do go bad. Tire shops are a long ways away, and on our remote ranch, all tires get mounted by the ranch crew, whether it be a pickup or a 140 horsepower tractor. Photo credit Rose Morris.

Spring can go any direction. This shot from Scott on the Tendoy ranch shows what the weather delivered just yesterday. It’s a welcome dusting over 250 acres of newly seeded perennial grasses after 2 years of cover cropping to regenerate the land from being extractively used as a potato farm. We are excited to see what this summer brings! Photo credit Scott Rains.

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