River Valley Ranch

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Fort Steele, BC
River Valley Ranch

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 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 an

d 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.

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.

07/11/2026

These two were star crossed this week. Mary Rose is a 2024 heifer that has grown out amazingly well. We recently moved her to our main pasture to breed with Mars (also a first timer). He seems to have figured out what to do pretty quickly for a newbie! We love Mars’ fiery red coat. After all it’s the Highland colour noted by Queen Victoria as her favourite when visiting Scotland. Mars is descended from a Balmoral Castle line himself. While we have a soft spot for a well built classic red, we also appreciate all the other colours and surprises that Highland pairings can bring! We will be looking forward to next spring to see the results of Mars’ hard work in the herd.

07/09/2026

A lovely July evening was spent with the Highland calves on River Valley Ranch. Gratitude along with little Poppy have the alpenglow backdrop of the western slopes Rocky Mountains “Steeples Range” behind them. Classical red Mars, this year’s prime breeding bull, stands in the middle of the daycare. This grouping of calves was sired by Harris.

07/01/2026

Happy Canada Day from River Valley Ranch!
Gem is loving up her little boy. Parker is now ten days old and full of s***k. He’s busy these days cavorting with his buddies and spending plenty of time at the milk bar with mom.

06/04/2026

Kassidy of River Valley is looking after her twelve-hour old boy calf. Patrick was born during a near inundation of the Kootenay River. The mighty Kootenay River arises way, way north of us in the Rocky Mountains of Yoho National Park and begins life as a trickle. It flows down through the Kootenay National Park, gathering mightily from its tributaries along the way. This week we have been nervously watching the levels of the river as they got closer to the 2013 high water spill-over levels. We were just about to do an old-fashioned cattle drive across the tracks to higher ground when the river level turned and started dropping. The rain continued on though through little Patrick’s birth. With his Highland Cow double coat his mom just had to lick him off with no intervention required. He dried off fully from the inside out using his own body heat, helped out by a good nursing from mom.

Address

1575 Fenwick Road
Fort Steele, BC
V0B1N0

Telephone

+12503338807

Website

http://www.rivervalleyranch.ca/

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