Our Cattle and Hogs are raised on our 2700-acre property of beautiful rolling hills on the Northern California Bay Area Coast in San Gregorio.

No, we do not process on our ranch, our cattle are processed in Petaluma, Ca by JMF slaughter. They process our Angus cattle using their certified USDA humane, mobile processing unit. All of our beef is aged for a minimum of 14-days and is then butchered to our specifications. Our Heritage hogs are also processed at in Petaluma, Ca by JMF slaughter. Both our cattle and hogs are butchers by Lepe's Meat Co. in Santa Rosa.

In order to ensure the consistency of the great flavor and texture of our meat, we raise our cattle on grass pastures their entire lives and choose to include the supplement of oats and brewers grains all year long. This supplement is a key component that allows us to provide you with our unique and delicious tasting meat. It also enables us to consistently produce high quality beef and pork all year, instead of just once a year.  Labeling our meat “Grass Fed” would prevent us from doing this.

While they may sound the same, the difference is that “Pasture Raised” means all of our cattle live on pastures 100% of their lives.  Additionally, as stated previously, we supplement with oats and brewers grains while finishing on grass pastures. “Grass Fed” does NOT necessarily mean they live on pastures for their whole lives but requires that they finish on “Forage” alone.

For Instance:

Below are three examples of labels that state “Grass Fed” and satisfy the requirements for meat to labeled as such:

The animal may have lived in a feed lot and been fed “Forage” for their whole life, or The animal could be fed corn or soy in a feedlot, as long as it has been “finished” for the last 120 days on grass, or The animal could be raised in pasture with some grass and some grain such as corn or soy, and then “finished” for its last 120 days in a feed lot with just grass.

Thus, if you want truly grass fed cattle, the label should say “Grass Fed, Grass Finished”, which would mean the animals are raised in grass pastures for 100% of their lives; never in a feedlot!

We use holistic grazing practices for our Angus Cattle. This means that we rotate our cattle every couple of days to make sure they have fresh grass all year round. Our “finishing” cattle are split up into small groups and then placed onto small pastures. We allow them to continue to graze luscious grass while supplementing them with hydroponic sprouted barley “fodder”, home grown oats, and spent brewers grain from Barebottle Brewing Company in San Francisco, CA. This is a key component that sets Pomponio Ranch Meat apart from others and results in that unique and great tasting flavor that you enjoy!

We pride ourselves in having cattle that are free from corn, soy GMO’s, and hormones. We instead only utilize our grass pastures, hydroponic sprouted barley “fodder”, home grown oats, and spent brewers grain. We strive to provide high quality beef for all of our local customers.

We are not open to the public but we do partner with local groups such as the Farms, Fish, and Flowers Tours to host small events pertaining to regenerative agriculture.

Our goal for 2024 is to add some events at the ranch for our loyal customers to come out and see how the ranch works. Keep your eyes out for more updates!

We purposely chose a 70/30 mix for our ground chuck. We have discovered that because of the way we age our product, the 70/30 ground mix provides the most optimal balance that results in the best flavor. We have found that it cooks up very similarly to an 85/15 grind. Remember, we are using a 14- day dry aged beef, which allows you to retain a greater yield when cooking our ground beef.