Raised Better Taste Better
Raised Better Taste Better
Pasture-Raised Using Holistic Grazing Practices
For 10 years, we at Pomponio Ranch have been working on restoring healthy grazing lands using the Holistic Grazing practices advocated by Alan Savory. We group our cattle in 17-acre pastures for a day to eat the grass. After 1 day and before they can eat all available grass, we move them to the adjacent pasture. And we keep doing this day after day. A fresh pasture every day! The previously grazed pastures get about 100 days of rest before the cattle return to graze. These holistic grazing practices restore our land, help our pastures grow a wider variety of nutritious perennial grasses which are fertilized naturally and hold water much longer before drying out between rains. These sustainable grazing practices result in better tasting meat.
Abundant Grass
During the rainy season at our coastal Northern California ranch, we grow abundant, lush, healthy, tasty grass in many varieties. After our perennial grasses have completed their seasonal growth cycle, we supplement our cattle and pigs in the pastures with grass hay grown on our ranch and also from neighboring ranches.
Hydroponic Barley Fodder
Plus, our cattle and pigs get a healthy ration of Barley fodder or sprouts. Fodder? Sprouts? What’s that all about? We thickly layer large seed trays with barley seeds. After light misting, the seeds sprout and in about 6 days the lush green barley is about 4” tall and ready to be fed to our cows and pigs. Seed to feed in only 6 days! Pretty cool!! In fact, living sprouts are extremely high in nutrients, enzymes and essential amino acids. Plus, growing sprouts uses less than 3% of the water needed for standard forage while it increases the beneficial Omega 3 levels in animals.
Local Microbreweries Help
Our cattle and pigs also get the spent malted barley mash from microbreweries to add additional weight just before harvest. This leftover material is of no further use to the breweries, but our cows and pigs love it! And we think it adds a delicious finishing taste to our beef and pork.
Pomponio Ranch Promise
We will always treat our animals with respect in a healthy and sustainable environment.
We will never use growth hormones.We will never use antibiotics to prevent diseases.
We will always put our cattle and hogs on green pastures.
We will feed our animals with feed produced on our ranch and also from local suppliers.
We practice holistic grazing and regenerative agriculture so our animals actually improve our soil and water.
