Frequently Asked Questions

This is the best option. By picking up your beef at our ranch, you get to see us in action and hand-pick your beef — plus, we’ll give you a 5% discount.

Free within Siskiyou County! We will arrange delivery to several locations throughout the county up to once every week at no additional cost. Our normal delivery day is Tuesday. Call for details!

Ship Days: Wednesday

Carrier: FedEx two day air

Shipping cost is based on weight and is calculated by our online shopping cart at checkout.

We ship our beef on Wednesday in order to guarantee delivery by Friday. This ensures that your beef doesn't spend the weekend thawing in a FedEx warehouse.

We ship our beef in an insulated container with dry ice* or frozen gel packs. If your meat is cool to the touch when it arrives, it is safe to cook or put in the freezer, even if the dry ice or gel packs have melted. If the meat is warm or at room temperature, please give us a call.

*warning: Do not touch the dry ice

We have confidence in all of the beef we sell and we believe you will too! If for any reason, you are unsatisfied with your purchase, we will gladly replace your product or refund your money, whichever you prefer. Simply send us a message with the details at any time, or drop by the ranch in person!

Phone :: (530) 467-4006

Email :: customerservice@scottriverranch.com

Some ranchers will graze their cows on grass for the last few months of their lives while feeding them other products up until then. Grass-finished cows have been eating grass for the final stage of their lives before going to market.

Our beef is certified by the American Grass-fed Association so that we can guarantee that our cows consumed a grass-only diet from birth to market.

Most people do not know the facts regarding grass-fed versus grain-fed beef. In short, these ads are taking advantage of our ignorance.

Don't just trust us! Visit the American Grass-fed Associations's website to see us listed as a certified producer, and Oregon Tilth's website to see our organic certification listing... Or better yet, come out to the ranch and see our cattle grazing our pastures all day long.

1. Lower in total fat

2. Higher in beta carotene

3. Higher in vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)

4. Higher in B-vitamins thiamin and riboflavin

5. Higher in the minerals calcium, magnesium, and potassium

6. Higher in total omega-3s

7. A healthier ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids (1.65 vs 4.84)

8. Higher CLA a potential cancer fighter

9. Higher in vaccenic acid (which can be transformed into CLA)

10. Lower in saturated fats linked with heart disease

Source »

Most meat in your local supermarket comes from facilities called “Confined/Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations” or CAFOs. The purpose of a CAFO is to produce large quantities of inexpensive meat. While the meat is available year-around at a low price, we are starting to recognize many of the consequences directly linked to factory farming, such as:

- Stressful and abusive environments for animals

- Detrimental environmental effects and pollution

- Decreased nutritional value in the beef

- Local family farm decline

- Unethical farm labor and work conditions

- Hormone, antibiotic, and other unnecessary drug use on livestock

While in the CAFOs, cows are typically fed a diet of grain, soy, and corn. This is an unnatural food source for cows who are supposed to eat fibrous grass and plants. Switching to high starch, low-fiber diets commonly causes disorders, including a condition called “subacute acidosis” where cows develop diarrhea, stop eating their feed, kick at their bellies, and eat dirt.

As with everything, there are some upstanding and honest feedlots and there are others that abuse and mistreat their cattle. There are extreme examples where cows have been fed “byproduct feedstuffs” and repeatedly shocked with electricity.

In contrast, our cows spend their entire lives in wide open pastures. They eat organic grass—the food that they were naturally intended to eat, in the environment where they are naturally found. Because of their low-stress lifestyle, our cows are rarely sick, and grow at a natural rate. The result is the most nutritious, best tasting beef for you and your family.

When cows are at home on the range, they live in their natural environment—wide open green pastures, plenty of room to enjoy, and fresh grass to eat all day long. They naturally spread their manure across the pasture as they walk and nature keeps everything in balance.

At the feedlot, cows live in dirt, manure, and mud and are fed an unnatural diet of corn, soy, and grain twice daily. Here are some of the detriments to the cow’s health that often result.

- Dust Pneumonia: the deadly condition developed when cows are confined in dirt feedlots.

- Shipping Fever: The most common cattle killer in the industry. The onset of this disease is about one week after their arrival on the feedlot. The shipping process causes so much stress that the cow’s immune system is severely weakened upon arrival. Being thrown in with other cows exposes her to a multitude of foreign viruses that attack the weak immune system and kill the cow. This disease costs the US and Canada an estimated $1,000,000,000 annually.

- Subacute Acidosis: the painful condition that results after cows shift from a grass to a grain diet where cows develop diarrhea, stop eating their feed, kick at their bellies, and eat dirt.

- Rumenitis: the inflammation of the rumen wall which is caused by a lack of roughage in the feedlot diet. Ulcers follow and the rumen fails to absorb nutrients as it should.

- Feedlot Polio: a direct consequence of the foreign diet of grain. The imbalance of acid in the rumen causes the release of “thiaminase” which causes paralysis in the cow.

All of these conditions and diseases are virtually absent in pasture cows. While feedlot managers treat these conditions with many different drugs and antibiotics, we choose instead to keep our cattle on the range, in their natural environment and allow our cows to live healthy, “drug free” lives.

Antibiotics are used to treat a variety of diseases and conditions that easily develop when cows are removed from their natural environment and placed in CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations). The very fact that our cattle enjoy life in the pasture eliminates our need for antibiotics almost entirely.

On the rare occasion that a cow becomes seriously ill and needs antibiotics, we remove that cow from the herd, treat it according to best medical practices, and sell that cow as non-organic beef.

Growth hormones are used to stimulate growth and expedite the weight gaining process. We simply choose to let cows gain weight at a natural pace in a low-stress natural environment. We never use growth hormones.

There are many different ways to wean calves from their mothers. We choose to allow the mothers and calves to decide when to wean. In our rural setting we see many different animals walk across our ranch with their young. Just as we do not instruct the baby fawn to wean from the mother deer, or the bear cub to wean from the sow, we choose not to interfere with nature’s way of weaning our calves.

We are always trying to decrease stress levels in our cows. Lower stress is better for the cow, and it makes the meat tender. One simple way to lower stress is by eliminating the practice of branding and roping. We tag our cows instead of branding them, which is much less stressful and surprisingly more fashionable. The females seem to view them as “accessories” and they like to show them off to the bulls.

After a natural, healthy life of enjoying the warm sun and green pastures on our ranch, we take our cows to an Animal Welfare Approved abattoir in Roseburg, Oregon. There are closer facilities to our ranch, but the drive through Oregon is cooler in temperature which is less stressful for the cows. We personally transport them just seven at a time in a clean trailer that leaves early in the morning. This is comforting to the cow, it lowers stress, and in our opinion, it is the most decent way to bid our friends farewell.

We have placed our entire ranch (6 square miles) under a conservation easement that does not allow the land to be subdivided or developed. This will ensure that the land stays in a natural state for generations to come, no matter who owns the title.
In addition to the conservation easement, all 4,000 acres are USDA certified organic, not just the farmable land. Every hill, shrub, tree, and blade of grass is up to the organic standard.

The Scott River runs through our ranch for 2 miles and is a very contentious issue in our valley. We have become certified by an organization called Salmon Safe to demonstrate our safe practice in and around the river for all marine life, vegetation, and water quality. We are the largest producer with the Salmon Safe certification.

We are constantly improving the riparian corridor on our land by planting native trees and shrubs, and implementing safeguards to prevent sediment from entering the waterway. We have also reintroduced a natural meander to our ditches and have planted cover that will harbor beneficial insects and provide a safe passageway for wildlife coming from the hills down to the river for water.

We have installed escape routes on all of our stock tanks and ditch diversions to protect critters that might fall inside. For the birds, we have installed perches across the ranch, and we have changed the bottom wire on our fencing from barbed to smooth to prevent wildlife from getting snagged.

Over our 2 mile stretch of river, the water temperature decreases by 4 degrees. According to California Department of Fish and Game, over 95% of Salmon “reds” (Salmon spawning) occurs on our stretch of the river, and every year we host several new and natural beaver dams.

It is true that cows emit methane gas which is on the list of greenhouse gases. However, cows naturally living in the pasture are not a threat.

In their natural environment, eating their natural food source, cows contribute to the balance of the environment. It is only when cows are confined into feedlots and their manure is piled up, hauled off, and dumped that the imbalance occurs. According to the USDA, grazed land stores more carbon in the soil. This increases soil fertility and slows global warming.

In a feedlot, cattle are often confined in a small area standing inches deep in dirt and their own manure. In the absence of a pasture, the manure piles up and needs to be hauled off. When it is dumped, it pollutes the air with methane gas and can contaminate ground water supplies.

When cows graze in an open, well-managed pasture, their manure is spread evenly over the field, naturally fertilizing the grass. Much of the methane and carbon are absorbed by the grass, reducing greenhouse gas emission and returning them to the soil where they naturally encourage plant growth. Not to mention, the cows love it.

We're glad you asked! For starters, you can take a look at the stringent certifications that we hold: USDA organic and Salmon Safe. But we still believe that the best way to know for sure is to see for yourself... So what are you waiting for?!