Tony Zentgraf
USDA Certified Natural Grass-Fed & Grain Finished
Angus Beef Cross – Hormone Free and Antibiotic Free
I met Peter Salant at the Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Market. Peter was kind enough to give me a tour of his ranch. Located in Ruch, Oregon in the Applegate Valley, he and his family purchased the ranch in 1995. The ranch was formerly a dairy farm and was known as the Circle G.
Watch the video interview at the end of the blog or on YouTube
The Little Applegate River runs through the over 100 acre property. Much of the property is forest land that butts up to BLM property. He has water rights to the Little Applegate River which supplies an offshoot stream into the pasture where the cattle graze and enjoy pure snow melt waters that supply the river.
The river runs not far past the barn in the picture below. The cattle graze the pastures with access to the river and a pasture on the other side of the river as well.
Upon arrival to the ranch I was quickly greeted by his farm dogs, Callie and Yoshi.
Peter currently has 66 cattle on the ranch not counting calves. The calves are not counted as head of cattle until they reach a certain age. Throughout the day the cattle have access to the pastures to graze as well as feed on an Alfalfa Diet that is sourced from the Klamath Basin. The cattle are separated into several pen areas, mothers and calves are in one pen. The one year old males and females are held together in a separate area behind the barn and the two year old steers are grouped together to the pen to the right of the barn. Peter has two breeding steers which are held in their own pen area separate from the two year old steers.
Peter raises cattle that are Angus and Simmental cross breed, the benefit of crossing the two breeds is so they develop the best qualities of both breeds. The Angus breed provide a muscular steer with deep red meat and the Simmental have a mellow temperament, provide a longer body and are good milk producers which is excellent for the calves. These qualities of the cross breeding allows for steer that go to production to have a longer body and a finished weight of 1500-1600 lbs.
The ranch management and animal husbandry Peter uses raising the cattle has definite meaning behind each step. Throughout the year, he will process 12-16 steer. When I asked about the process of getting the cattle to Eugene, Oregon for slaughter and processing, he was quick to point out that he does 3 head of cattle at a time. 4 times a year he makes the trip to Eugene, Oregon. He has a trailer that will only hold 3 head of cattle, which explains why he works to fatten 3 at a time. The cattle will get processed to the cut specifications he requests. Example, New York Strips, Rib Eyes, Brisket, Flat Iron, Filets and different roasts to name a few. He receives the processed cuts of meats back to his ranch where he cold stores the steaks, roasts and ground meat for sale at the markets.
Each year, Peter separates out the two year old steers from the females. This allows him to select which three steer will be the next to go to slaughter and processing. Three that are selected are usually the largest ones, this is to allow them to be the max weight going to processing.
For the next 70-90 days the three selected will get fed a natural grain feed in addition to their normal feeding of alfalfa. The grain feed is made up of barley, oats & corn with a mineral pellet and mixed with molasses. Peter says, “It is like a granola and if we added milk we could probably eat it.” Maybe I will have to give it a try next time I visit the ranch. The grain feed allows the steer to fatten up and gain the much wanted marbling in the meat. On second thought, maybe I won’t give the cattle granola a try, I don’t need to fattened up any more 🙂
2 yr old Steer feeding on the Natural Grain Feed
When I arrived at the ranch, as I said, I was greeted by Callie and Yoshi the ranch dogs. Peter told me that he wanted to show me a day in the life of a cattle rancher. He wasn’t kidding, he told me that a mother and calf that he had penned in the barn had got out. The calf had been born a couple of days prior and he had them penned separate from others to keep an eye on this particular mother and calf.
At that point, I had turned to my right and they were standing outside the pen area of other cattle. I hadn’t seen them on my walk to the barn to meet Peter. There they were just hanging out with the other cattle. Apparently the mother had somehow got the gate open on the pen and slid it open to let themselves out.
While Peter wrangled them toward the barn had me stand in front of the pen which was just inside and to the right of the barn doors. They walked right into the pen like they had done this before. I think Peter had them trained.
As we continued, he toured me around the cattle pens explaining each area and what the reasoning he has for keeping them separate along with the process of breeding the cattle to keep the ranch running. Peter takes a lot of care in the raising of the cattle and he is proud to be a cattle rancher.
When we went into the barn to load the 100 lb hay bales onto his tractor I asked him what his favorite and least favorite part of ranching would be. He was quick to point out, “This is his least favorite part loading the hay.” We had a laugh as he continued to explain why he enjoys the ranching lifestyle.
He said, “It is hard to explain, I like taking care of the cattle. I like selling at the market. I like most of it, I do it voluntarily. It is one of those things, Why? I can’t really explain it. I have been doing it a long time and I really enjoy raising livestock, cattle especially.”
Peter then proceeded to climb up the stacked hay to the top, which had to be 30-40 feet high. There Fernando the barn cat made an appearance. He loves to play in the hay, Peter told me, when the hay is delivered to be barn, Fernando tunnels into the hay and likes to get in the way when they are trying to stack the large cubes of hay. Fernando definitely earns his keep, Peter said he is a great mouse catcher.
Peter proceeded to throw down and load 12 – 100 lb hay bales onto the tractor. He helped Callie get up on the back of the tractor. Callie loves her hayrides around the ranch during feeding time.
I tagged along on the back of the trailer along with Callie for part of the ride. Peter showed how he feeds each pen area, the mother and calf area has two feeding troughs. The smaller cattle and the calves tend to get squeezed out between the larger ones. The calves get fed away from the mothers in a corner of the pen. Many of the older calves were already standing at the corner where he feeds them. (See, I told you Peter has them trained.)
As we proceeded to each pen area to unload hay for feeding, Peter showed me how he stages hay at each feeding area for the evening feeding. Each pen gets fed 3 bales of hay per day, 1 1/2 in the morning and 1 1/2 in the evening. Most of the hard work of moving bales is done in the morning hours to avoid having to load bales in the evening.
As we were feeding the two breeding steer, I asked him if he had ever had any issue with them being held together. He replied, “They are almost like another animal, you have to be careful with them. You can’t trust them all the way. But 99% of the time they are calm and nice. But you just don’t want to turn your back on them. Even when they are out in the pasture you want to keep an eye on them. I have had some that will trigger off of something and will destroy fencing in the pen.”
These breeding steer were very large compared to the 2 year old steer and even larger than the females that were older than 2 years old. I asked Peter why steer are focused on for processing, he explained that the steer grow at more of an even rate. The females will grow slower and most times not as large because they are nursing throughout the year and never make it to a larger size because their bodies are always working.
I asked about how drought years have effect on his ranch, this was not one so far. We have had a wet spring so far in Southern Oregon. He explained that he has water rights to the Little Applegate River as do several others who own land along the river but when there have been dry years it definitely has an impact on the ranch. Along with hay prices rising over the years, many factors play into the difficulties he encounters year to year.
Peter gets 6 shipments of hay per year, he gets 9 cubes of 64 bales delivered at a time. Which costs $60,000 per year, which has tripled over the last 10 years. The struggles that we all have encountered over the last 3 years of pandemic have definitely impacted the farmers and ranchers as well. We have all experienced the rising gas prices at the pump but where the gas prices have fluctuated and given some relief for us, the ranchers who have to transport and the shipping costs of hay and other trucking for the industry has not reduced. Which in turn we all feel when we go to buy groceries.
I asked Peter what does he feel sets his beef apart from commercial ranchers… Quality Alfalfa, Quality Grain and Taking good care of the Cattle.
It shows in his operation and the end result of the beef he produces.
As I concluded the tour of the ranch, Peter pointed out that the second floor of the old milking barn is the Circle G Bunkhouse. The building’s first floor was the dairy farm’s old milking room that had been there before he owned the ranch. The upstairs had been old living spaces for farm hands back when it was a dairy farm. Now it is a two bedroom unit that is rented out on airbnb and other rental sites. You can stay on the ranch and enjoy the quiet valley, if you don’t mind the cows mooing during feeding time.
The Salant Family Ranch is located approximately 10 miles from Medford, Oregon. Minutes away from Jacksonville where the Britt Festival is located if you time it right you can catch a concert at the Britt. About an hour away from the ranch, is Ashland, enjoy a play at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival or enjoy the many outdoor activities and history of the Rogue Valley has to offer.
