4T% Ranch

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4T% Ranch We are the 'Third Finish' for beef. Not grass. Not grain.

Rather, we designed our feed to create remarkable beef that promotes longevity and health in our customers.

When a top predator is (re) introduced to a landscape, their effect is called a 'trophic cascade'. What a grand sounding...
10/15/2026

When a top predator is (re) introduced to a landscape, their effect is called a 'trophic cascade'.

What a grand sounding term.

Introducing a herbivore is called a 'bottom-up cascade'- the exact inverse. Herbivores can drastically increase the rate of nutrient cycling and soil disturbance.

Both are subject to political affiliation.

Liberals, broadly speaking, love wolves and think cows are ruining the planet.

Conservatives, broadly speaking, hate wolves and love cattle.

As for me?

The vineyard ruined this land.

It's a moonscape with 'soil' as fine as pastry flour.

There is zero organic matter.

So here come the cows.

With manure and urine and spilled feed.

Of course the cows need water. Water is life in a place that hasn't seen rain in 6 months. And now it flows.

So, I see more birds every day.

More insects- and not just flies. Butterflies. Honey bees. Wasps.

I see s**t from c***s. I see fox. Squirrels. Hawks.

Sure, some of this existed before.

In a vineyard spraying poison- they left some behind and I assure you they were trying to kill everything- SOME life found a way.

I've removed the poison. Not some of it. All of it.

But it is the cows who have caused a cascade of life.

I don't give a s**t if your politics have you thinking cows are ruining the place.

I see this place return to life because of cows.

Cows are magic. I've said it before and I'll say it now.

So here is a dilemma you folks can help solve with your opinion. I sent a truck for sweet potatoes yesterday and it came...
10/13/2026

So here is a dilemma you folks can help solve with your opinion.

I sent a truck for sweet potatoes yesterday and it came back with a metric s**t ton.

Last time they spoiled in a week.

I can make silage but it is an ever bigger s**t ton of work.

The potatoes have to be sorted and chopped (if too big) by hand into 5 gallon buckets.

Carried up stairs to the hammer mill.

Ground slowly. They are hard bastards and take force to push through.

Then mixed with alfalfa and an inoculate.

Then loaded by hand into a 55 gallon drum, stopping every few inches to tamp with a heavy metal tamper.

No, I don't have a silage pit. It's this way or no way this year. Just go with that for this question.

I can't prove the sweet potatoes will add to the beef quality. The fermented feed should be easier on the rumen but I can't prove that either.

A few cents of corn would likely give me the same energy.

I already have the potatoes but does the story- the idea- of fermented sweet potatoes sit better?

This is what it looks like after a few weeks. It smells good.

If you were a potential customer of a premium beef would you care?

Or should I feed the worms?

I had a s**t day yesterday. I won't bore you with the details. Some of it was just standard ranching BS and other parts...
10/13/2026

I had a s**t day yesterday.

I won't bore you with the details. Some of it was just standard ranching BS and other parts an extra twist.

The lab I sent my feed samples to- with results I was NOT happy with- called me yesterday.

My sample was mixed up. AND they had a problem with their instruments. AND they did their calculations wrong.

So the results are trash.

It was deflating to work that hard on a ration just to be told it was garbage.

I'll fix it but a weekend of (unnecessary) angst resulted.

There were major mechanical problems where I had to drive 4 hours to rescue my vehicle- which thankfully died for good 1.5 miles away and I could tow it home.

Coughing cows. The dust is incessant and grating.

Just a bunch of s**t. Quite standard, really.

Regardless, I was irritated last night. On edge.

I was speaking to my oldest daughter about my day.

She is a ranchers daughter and an Alaskan. Smart as a whip and a mind as fast as lightning.

So she's heard it all- and much worse- before.

She listened patiently. Carefully.

A pause.

'Well Dad. At least all that s**t didn't happen to you this time in 20 below'.

Well done.

At least.....

So to solve problems I ordered a truckload of hay yesterday and had them bring some double chopped rice straw (for dust control).

It arrived this morning.

I hope as long as I'm ranching I'm still amazed by the fact I can get green, dry hay just delivered with a text.

Like it's nothing at all...

One thing I considered was offering a large finders fee to anyone who found a buyer for my ranch. This is outside, and...
10/11/2026

One thing I considered was offering a large finders fee to anyone who found a buyer for my ranch. This is outside, and on top of, the real estate commissions.

$25,000?

But I just learned that such an offer is illegal in Alaska.

My ranch.

My money.

But the government says I'm too unsophisticated to manage either.

Whew! That was a close call.

And, if you know me, you know I have a slavish devotion to the rules and hurdles presented by politicians and bureaucrats.

So I WON'T offer a $25,000 finders fee.

Full stop. It's unequivocally off the table.

It would be wrong, wrong, wrong of me to offer a full beef, fully processed and delivered for two years.

It would be more wrong to offer cash.

So I absolutely will not offer $25,000 in beef or cash to someone who did me an unbelievable solid and helped me sell my ranch.

No sir.

I sit and sip good wh***ey. My Claire is curled beside me. It is raining ferociously. The house I built from the forest...
10/11/2026

I sit and sip good wh***ey. My Claire is curled beside me.

It is raining ferociously.

The house I built from the forest surrounds us.

But my heart trembled all day from the ghosts lying in ambush.

The faces of my young children. The names of long gone calves scrawled on a barn wall. A spot I had s**ttered some barley, now golden and frayed, a mocking tribute to a land devoid of cows.

I have decided that I must pour more of myself into making sure this wonderful spot is full of life again.

It deserves so much more than tears and wh***ey and a sense of loss so profound it carves pieces off of me.

It needs calves, tails up. The push of green sprouts. Smoke curling against the great northern sky.

Alaska really is the last, best place. This property is such a remarkable farm.

I know I can't stay. But I won't feel good again until this thing I have done- I have built- is purged and scoured of the ghosts that haunt me.

It is simply time for me to sell my ranch.

I can't live in yesterday. But Alaska is a part of me. I am listening to the rain as the sun creeps over the Kenai range...
10/10/2026

I can't live in yesterday.

But Alaska is a part of me.

I am listening to the rain as the sun creeps over the Kenai range.

And so I've decided to keep one foot in the past.

George was the best bull ever.

I miss my old life on this busy little farm sometimes. But I will dig deep to move into the next season of my life gracefully.

The memory of this grand animal helps.

If you have never wandered back to an abandoned farm, don't rush towards the experience. A place that hummed and throbbe...
10/10/2026

If you have never wandered back to an abandoned farm, don't rush towards the experience.

A place that hummed and throbbed and flowed with life now grows nothing but weeds and whispers.

I sit and hold my breath so the feeling of loss doesn't wash me away.

So just because hay is green and smells good, doesn't mean it's useful. I got almost 50 tons of an alfalfa/orchard grass...
10/10/2026

So just because hay is green and smells good, doesn't mean it's useful.

I got almost 50 tons of an alfalfa/orchard grass mix delivered. It LOOKS like wonderful hay.

For some reason, it's dragging down my ration.

This is not a fantastic testing result.

If anyone is interested in the science- and my subsequent thought process- it works like this:

The low quality AO mix is adding too much fiber, which is dragging down the energy levels.

The rumen can only hold so much volume. When a big portion of that volume is the slow fermenting, high fiber AO mix, there's less room for the energy dense ingredients that actually drive gain.

The low quality grass is physically crowding out the productive part of the ration.

So I'm taking it out of my ration and replacing it with straight alfalfa. The mix will be given free choice for additional roughage if they need it.

However, despite being available, the cattle are licking the feed wagon with the ration in it clean and ignoring the hay.

Monday, when I return from Alaska, I'll send off more samples of the alfalfa and the new ration.

Testing is my best tool for getting this right.

I'm getting a significant number of ads in my feed for premium beef. I'm sure it's all lovely. Wagyu and all that. Som...
10/09/2026

I'm getting a significant number of ads in my feed for premium beef.

I'm sure it's all lovely. Wagyu and all that.

Some of it is $60 a lb or more for mixed boxes.

But I've yet to see one ad for anyone coming even close to what I'm doing:

This is me.

These are my struggles. And my wins.

Here is where your cattle live.

Here is what I feed them. Here's the lab reports on the feed.

Here's the lab results on the beef.

Here is how and when ( if you want to know) it was harvested.

Here is who cut it up.

No mysteries. No secrets.

Let alone deliberately feeding with animal health- and subsequently human health- at the very top of the priority list.

I'd like to see more ads with this information.

My evening was spent reading "Nutritional composition of beef: a comparison of commercial North American grass- and grai...
10/08/2026

My evening was spent reading "Nutritional composition of beef: a comparison of commercial North American grass- and grain-finishing systems" in the Journal of Animal Science.

Since I doubt most of you prefer to spend your spare time reading about how to feed cattle, I'll sum it up.

The study, of which I was a participant, concluded that "production practices, rather than finishing label alone, are the primary drivers of beef nutrient density".

As I read it, the more diverse the diet, the more nutrition in the beef.

And the more nutrition, the better it tastes.

The scientific name is alliesthesia: the taste of food changes depending on your body's internal state.

So here's my variety. I think it matches any good pasture full of grasses, legumes and forbs.

Alfalfa-Orchard Grass Mix
Alfalfa
Teff Grass
Rolled Barley
Cracked Peas
Almond Hulls
Molasses
Beet Pulp Shreds
Grape Pomace — White
Grape Pomace — Red
Olive Pomace
Blood Orange Pomace
Meyer Lemon Pomace
Pears
Sweet potatoes
Sunflower Oil
Macadamia Oil
Rice Syrup
Yacon Syrup
Kelp
Coconut Milk
King Oyster Mushroom Powder
Rosemary
Oregano
Thyme
Cinnamon
Açaí
Garlic
Echinacea.

Address

2200 McNab Ranch Road
Ukiah, CA
95482

Telephone

+19073945619

Website

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