LOCAL CHOICES

What a refreshing afternoon it turned into as we visited with Seth Nitschke and toured his beautiful grass fed beef ranch. We hopped on the back of his quad and off we went for a bumpy ride and a first hand view of the ranch.
He did warn us about the rough ride, his energy and knowledge made up for it, we survived!

It was an educating day for us, learning the care of the land and the life of pasture fed cattle. Seth explains the fine line of under grazing and over grazing, believing in slow, easy and natural, not too many cattle and not to long a time. Grazing in moderation helps the reproduction of grass allowing it to replenish its roots, prevents topsoil erosion, keeps a healthy rangeland, maintains clean water, protects against disease that will produce healthy quality beef.

In 1992 Seth spent time as an exchange student in Western Australia. In 1994 he returned to Australia to work on a ranch, then again in 1997 spending 6 weeks on the ground with a chuck wagon rounding up cattle – you don’t hear stories like that anymore. When he returned to the states he was a cattle buyer for larger corporations back east and in this area. After years of not being satisfied with the practices of the industry Open Space Meats was established.

He tells us, “I had enough of feed yards and lots, I’m not bashing them, what they are doing is not bad, we are just doing it better – the way we think it should be done, no steroids or concentrated grains, we raise grass feed cattle because we believe it is the right thing to do. The ranch looks good, the cows look good and it is good for our customers. We take great care of our ground, our animals and people.”

Currently they are renting grazing land in Hornitos and run about 30 head of cattle in a few different locations. They buy their calves from local known sources; people they know and trust then grass feed them until they are about 2 years of age. He does not believe in pushing the cattle past or faster then what nature has intended. Seth loves what he does and respects the land and the spring that runs through it, with plans to plant oak trees along the small creek to help improve the water retention and soil composition.

Seth jokes when he says many of their clients are recovering vegetarians, now enjoying nutritious grass fed meats. He is proud to say they have a 75% reorder rate from their customers. Most people hear about Open Space Meats by word of mouth, with customers located all over California, from San Fransisco to San Diego and a few out of state. In most cases Seth likes to deliver meat himself, wanting his customer to know where their food comes from and wanting to know his customer!

To place your custom beef order visit www.openspacemeats.com,
give Seth an e-mail or call (209) 262-8780.