This is a family farm, established in 1926. Glacier Ridge stretches 169 acres with two ponds which were man made for irrigation. The farm started out with Holstein dairy cattle, we started raising every one of our Holstein bull calves for beef in the 1970’s. Back while there was the dairy operation we maintained about 80 head of cattle. Our herd was crossbred over to beef cattle in the 1990’s and
the last of the milk cows were sold to our neighboring dairy farmers in 1996. After the switch to beef, we now keep about 50 to 60 animals. The herd is made up of “commercial” or crossbred pedigreed cattle. The breeds that primarily build our herd are bloodlines from Belgian Blue, (which is a double muscled naturally lean and tender breed), Limousin, Simmental and Charolais (these three add frame and growth). While we don’t have registered animals, our goal is to use the crossing to grow the best beef possible for quality for taste, tenderness and size of cuts. The double muscled breed heritage has encouraged us for the crossing, as it is difficult to have full bloods of these beef types to naturally give birth to the same. For the welfare of our stock we outcross to take advantage of breed traits. As one can tell from our photos, the results make for impressive animals, not to mention a uniquely mix colored herd. Uniformity won’t be found with hide color but underneath the hide. The cattle eat some quality alfalfa hay, where most feed grass hay to their beef, corn silage and ground corn and barley ration. In the warmer months the cattle even get some opportunity to graze in the pasture, with supplemental feeding to maintain a fleshy condition. We don’t make them solely rely on pasturing as they could loose too much weight (and muscle mass) and it would compromise the tenderness of the meat. We have regular customers but we are interested in expanding our consumer base so that others have the opportunity for this carefully bred and fed beef.
