The Road’s End Ranch 2018 End-of-Year Newsletter

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Season’s greetings from the Road’s End Ranch! We are so appreciative of all of the support we receive for our
venture in growing grass-fed beef that we use this newsletter as a “thank you,” to all of you. We want you to
feel a part of it in more ways than simply cooking up the meat.
This year was marked with multiple alarming national and international reports of climate change, which rein-
vigorates our effort of producing grass-fed beef, marketed locally. There are times where the concept of eating
locally for sustainability feels like it has plateaued or faded, when it, in fact, is becoming increasingly important.
Our top goals for 2019 are to promote the growing local food system and boost the output of our own farm. We
are now on the lookout for restaurant sales and are considering other alternative marketing strategies.

So, is grass-fed beef good for the climate or not?

The studies of the carbon impact of grass-fed beef can be con-
flicting. Our take is that rotationally grazed, grass-finished beef
is likely still a net carbon emitter, though certainly an im-
provement from conventional beef. Rotational grazing stimu-
lates the grasses to pull in carbon through photosynthesis.
Once grazed, leaving no less than ~4 inches of plant height, the
root system dies back sequestering carbon to the soil. Further-
more, we are using poorer quality land that would not be suit-
able for crop production AND our product is all sold to local
consumers, resulting in less energy spent on transportation..
So yes, I feel confident we are doing the right thing but I do
agree that we need to reduce the total amount of meat we eat.

This year was what I would deem more of a maintenance year. The commitments of off-the-farm employment,
raising two little girls, and Brooke being enrolled in graduate school can tap out a lot of time and energy. We
are still slowly trying to rehab our barn, a project, that is admittedly much more about preservation of history
than growing food. Currently the 32’x 40’ barn does little more than house 8 laying hens for the family. Howev-
er, once finished, we hope to use it for lambing or farrowing. We would very much like to add a second species
to the farm. All in good time.
More on next page
 The Road’s End Ranch — 2018 End-of-Year Newsletter

Celia, our four-year-old, is growing in her farm abilities by being an egg collector as well as pounding the odd
nail here and there with lots of encouragement. Evelyn, our two-year-old, is maturing ,as she can now walk
independently through tallish-grassed pastures. Though we are relishing in the cuteness years, I do look for-
ward to farm time and kid time working better in tandem.
Though less time has been devoted to farm projects in the last year, we have been able to continue to grow our
herd, which is exciting. We are now at a point where I anticipate having a more consistent supply of beef year-
round. This challenges us to now think about new and broader marketing strategies beyond what we’ve been
doing the past few years. We invite you to like us on our new facebook page as we strive to get the word out
about our carbon -sequestering, grass-fed beef.
Happy New Year!
The Andersons

Evelyn sports her fitness for trekking through

tall grass.

These are our pastures. The red lines indicate fencing. The blue line indi-
cates an above ground water line used to provide water at all of the pad-
docks. The area labeled, “1,” shows where are beginning strip graze Celia reveals early signs of pyromania during
(further divide) our paddocks with temporary fencing. This results in better some brush pile burns.
utilization of all pasture species and provides more rest to the pastures
before re-grazing. The area labeled, “2” shows white spots, which are re-
sidual hay bale spots where we have been winter feeding hay as a soil fer-
tility practice.