River Valley Ranch

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River Valley Ranch

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River Valley Ranch lies in the idyllic Kootenay River valley in the south east corner of British Columbia, Canada. Ranch with agri-tourism accommodation.

Certified organic grass fed and grass finished Highland beef, registered Highland cattle. We grow nutrient dense local food and offer Farm Stays and Eco-tours for visitors. River Valley Ranch is an old world mixed farm applying bio-dynamic farming practices to the individual and the whole. The farm and household are off-grid and run on alternative energy. The farm is nestled in the Rocky Mountain Trench and is bounded by the Kootenay River and Crown Land. A small vineyard is sited on a sunny south west slope. The permaculture vineyard hosts an understory guild of wild and farmed crops, and is a refuge for wild bees. We have an orchard and other mixed fruit and nut trees at the farmhouse site. The farmland, vineyard, eggs, meat, vegetables and fruit are all permaculture based. An example of our closed circle farming practice is the use of our own raw goat milk to produce our vineyard and orchard sprays. Raw milk contains wonderful antiseptic properties and enzymes that act as fungal control and give foliar nutrition to the plant. We do the same for our pasture and hayfields with no petrochemical fertilizers or inputs added to our land. Our livestock includes farm reared poultry (meat and heritage egg layers), heritage breed cattle, dairy goats and heritage breed pigs. Lassa, Max and Maya, our rare breed English Shepherd herding farm dogs oversee the farm. (Lassa and Max have been published in COABC magazine article.) River Valley Ranch is a farm where animals freely range on grass pasture, herb filled meadows, and our own forest land. Animals forage for themselves supplemented with farm grown produce, grains and hay (Certified Organic only grains). Cattle are strictly grass fed (no grain). No GMO or industrial by-products are used on the farm. Farm stays and Eco-tours.

10/13/2026

A lovely mid October day in the Rocky Mountain Trench. The young bulls Lars of River Valley (dark brindled) and Lancelot of River Valley (white) are showing off their “don’t kick sand in my face” bodies. Well muscled, they have thrived on a great summer of grass. The lush river bottom paddock and rough pasture was kept pretty green without irrigation. The boys have never had any protein supplements or grain. They are ambassadors to show what a healthy rumen can accomplish with a native grass and wild forbs diet.
Not to leave the girls out, Misty of River Valley (added at the end) shows how lovely it is this time of year in Ponderosa Pine country with Hoodoos and the snow blanketed Steeples Range in the background.
(To find out more about our farm, check out our website (www.rivervalleyranch.ca) to see what’s available and sign up to receive advance notices.)

10/02/2026

Anyone interested in adding Registered grass-fed and hardy Highland genetics, our "Jump Start Your Farm" online auction is starting tomorrow morning. It's open Saturday October 3rd at 8 AM MDT to Sunday October 4th at 7:30 PM MDT. Here's the link to preview and, if you would like, to register for the Auction: https://airauctioneer.com/river-valley-ranch-jump-start-your-farm-fall-2026-highland-auction
We are hoping some new people will receive this, please share. Thank you so much!

09/10/2026

Cattle enjoying the certified organic hay.

09/08/2026

In Praise of Older Women!
Yseult is the older woman in our fold. She was our first Highland cow, arriving here from Tatlayoko Lake on a clear December day, delivering her first calf on our farm the following spring. She is now 15 years old, and her condition just gets better every year. She still has a nice tight high-up udder displaying superior attachment for an older cow. This makes it easier for a calf to nurse and is a very important Highland attribute for rough and bushy pastures.
This year Yseult treated us to a parallel plot of the scandalous 1965 Hungarian Canadian novel of the same title. It seems she got bored of the old man and she waited for the first-timer two-year-old junior clean up bull to arrive and do the job. Hence, she has now produced a later but lovely purebred Highland heifer calf we’ve named Polly of River Valley.
Like the entire rest of our fold, Yseult delivered unassisted in her home pasture. Her girl Polly is a strong calf, bunting her mom and nursing with abandon. Polly has brindles showing in her yellow undercoat and charcoal shading on her nose. This makes her classified as a light brindle Highland.
Yseult and Polly are inseparable and we are enjoying watching Yseult’s maturity of experience that shines through in her care of baby Polly.
We are planning an on-line “Jump Start Your Farm” auction Saturday October 3rd and Sunday October 4th, 2026 with a limited number of well grown two-year-old registered Highland heifers. These heifers have been in-pasture exposed to our bull Mars since July 1st. Included in this auction is one of Yseult’s granddaughters! Please visit our website (www.rivervalleyranch.ca) for more information.

09/01/2026

A little slo-mo in honour of Tongue Out Tuesdays😝 This shows just how far a Highland cow can extend her tongue! Parker is the lucky recipient.

(PS watching a cow grazing is a fun thing to do and will show another use of that long tongue. They wrap their long tongue around a bunch of green grass and rip it off sideways. They leave the roots intact and bring the broken-off bunch of green grass into their mouth for some tasty nutrition. Amazing feat - leaving the roots intact allows the grass to grow back for future meals.)

08/23/2026

❤ Meet Princess Patricia of River Valley!! She is our brand-new purebred Highland heifer and her mother Grenadine thinks she’s the cat’s meow. This was an extra sweet little bonus after four bull calves in a row for her. As usual, before giving birth, Grenadine left the herd and went to the woods to give birth unassisted. The next day she came back with her little heifer. This is the norm for our farm where our mother Highland cows give birth in the field and it’s always been unassisted. Good genetics and giving them lots of wandering space is key.

Being a late calf and born in 30 degrees C weather, Patricia’s had her little bottom, the underside of her tail and the back of her rear legs shaved with doggy clippers and she’s had some herbal fly repellent treatment applied to prevent fly strike. Baby Highlands with their furry coats can fall victim to fly strike if their sticky baby poo becomes glued to their long back side fur. This scenario provides a perfect breeding ground for these nasty seasonal pests.

Patricia is busy running around today with a nice cool and clean bottom! The older calves are in love with this new addition at River Valley Ranch.

To find out more about how we raise our animals and what we offer, please visit our farm website. www.rivervalleyranch.ca

08/21/2026

Calf Communication
Two calves pose for a beauty shot. The lighter coloured calf is Parker. In the video Parker says a big hello and tells his friend to step back!

08/04/2026

The appearance of Lady Bugs brings cheer, especially in this time of wildfire.
Here we have a pair of Convergent lady bugs (Hippodamia convergens). These are our own native North American lady bugs. They have a limited territory in BC and are found only in a swath covering our SE corner and then eastward into the Prairies.
These lady bugs are noted for the two white lines that make a convergence on their thorax. The female is larger than the male.
The entire mating process can last a long time with the male remaining attached for a couple of hours, thereby reducing the chances of another male undoing his work. The female can store the s***m and generate and place her fertilized spindle shaped eggs at a time and place of her choosing. She may generate up to a thousand eggs over a season. She will lay each batch of fertilized eggs on the underside of a leaf and near a good food source (like a colony of aphids) for the hatchlings.
Did you know that lady bugs also use “stinky feet” to aid in their survival? The backs of their legs secrete a stinky pyrazine chemical that is useful for deterring predators. The female also uses this feature to mark her nursery leaf thereby discouraging other lady bugs from laying eggs there. The pyrazine chemical is tracked in a circle via her feet to make a barrier around her egg clutch. Her job is done and she moves on.
What amazing little creatures!

07/28/2026

Last week was Walmart, this week we’ll lead with Costco. Yes, the organic ground beef offered at Costco is not Canadian, it is sourced from the US. The bulk ground is primarily Canadian but can have scraps of meat of other origin added during the processing. Depending on the location the product is primarily sourced from the Cargill plant in Guelph, Ontario or the JBS Foods plant in Brooks, Alberta. In any case, just how many cows are in it and how were the animals raised?
We can guarantee you that we have just one cow in ours and it is an animal we’ve personally raised to maturity. It’s fully traceable. At River Valley Ranch, we keep a herd of thirty-five purebred Scottish Highland Cattle. Every year we sell registered breeding stock (heifers) and a limited number of registered bulls to mostly BC and Alberta buyers. The rest we raise to full maturity of at least 36 months. This means the meat is more of a European style with a fuller flavour profile. Our website will tell you more about how we raise them and what we don’t do to the cows, what we don’t add to their bodies or feed them and what we do that’s good for the local environment. We encourage you to take the time to peruse the website pages and enjoy your visits there.
We are hoping that while on the website you will take the time to sign up for our limited newsletters, consider placing an order for meat and share this post.
Here’s what we had on the ranch yesterday - a white pizza! It’s a simple twist on pizza when the tomatoes are yet to come in. It has a sourdough crust, a half layer of cheesy garlicky bechamel sauce, ten ounces of chopped fresh Swiss Chard/Spinach from the garden, the rest of the sauce, whole animal ground beef pan fried with onion, crumbled on, and lastly, it’s topped with a favourite cheese shred. It bakes in 25 minutes and goes well with a garden salad. And a bonus, being a super deep-dish pizza, the quantity is huge and leftovers freeze well. Healthy eating comes from this kind of life. Buying from your neighbours supports the community.
We are planning to do a Dry-Aged Whole Animal Ground again soon, please go to the website www.rivervalleyranch.ca, scroll down, click through and do your pre-ordering to get early delivery.
This is a very easy way to buy a manageable quantity for the freezer and get introduced to a local grass-fed/grass-finished certified organic producer. With your order you will get a Ranch cookbook.

07/21/2026

Did you know that on-line Walmart advertises a Quarter of Beef? You may be surprised to hear that, we sure were. The price attracted our attention too at $1,399.95 USD ($1,971.01 CAD). It’s advertised as a “Quarter Beef Bundle” with the product weighing 80 pounds. Product yield from a hanging quarter is usually around 60%, so this would work out to being priced at $10.50 USD ($14.78 CAD) per pound of hanging weight. The order includes some pepper infused salt, but the beef is sourced from a conventional feedlot system. It’s not organic, or grass-fed, or local and is it even packaged from one cow? And this is much more expensive than buying from a local farm.
Please support local and share this with family and friends.
Our Highland beef products can be found here: www.rivervalleyranch.ca
We are taking orders now for processing and delivery this Fall.

Address

1575 Fenwick Road
Fort Steele, BC
V0B1N0

Telephone

+12503338807

Website

http://www.rivervalleyranch.ca/

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