Centennial Stewardship
Nestled between dense forest and rich oyster beds, Rose Ranch has been a family beef ranch along the coast of Washington State since 1923. For 100 years, each generation of the Rose family has come back home to South Bend to play their part in producing high-quality beef, protecting the land and maintaining the family legacy.
A Centennial Ranch
On the coast of Washington each generation of the Rose family has returned to South Bend to contribute to their family ranch's success, sustainable practices and environmental stewardship. For brothers Sean, Drew and Brett it's their turn to work together, ensuring the ranch will be in operation for another 100 years. Watch the video below to learn more about Rose Ranch and their dedication to their ranch and the ecosystem.
Legacy OF the land
For a century the Rose family has tended to their cattle and cared for their land. Located on the coast of Washington, their ranch is uniquely surrounded by dense timber and Willapa Bay oyster beds. Their dedication to sustainability and responsibly raising beef cattle for generations has built a legacy of pride and quality in this small town on the "wet coast" of Washington. For the Roses, raising high-quality beef and taking care of the ecosystem go hand in hand.
"To be sustainable you've got to take care of the ground. And you've got to take care of the cows," said Jim Rose. "Sustainability has a lot of different facets."
One of the ways this ranch is different from the typical beef ranch is its location. South Bend is known for its rich oyster beds and, like much of the Washington coast, its excess rainfall which totals more than double the annual rainfall in Seattle.
Folks don't often think of beef and seafood together, unless it's in the form of surf and turf, but raising these two crops near each other proves there is opportunity for shared resources. Through the process of timber thinning that takes place on their ranch, the Roses provide long whips that the local oystermen use to mark their oyster beds. In exchange, they provide the Roses oyster shells. With the area's heavy rainfall, the oyster shells help provide filler for rough patchers in the ground, stabilize the pastures, and also serve as a soil fertilizer providing nutrients like calcium that enrich the forage.
"We care about our cows and we care about the ground they're on. If we didn't, we wouldn't be here. We've been here for 100 years and we plan to be here for 100 more," said Jim Rose.
Through the utilization of local resources, practices like rotational grazing, and careful land and water management, the Roses are continually successful.
"Stewardship of our land and the water, we take great pride in. We want our grass to be green. We want our cows to be healthy. And we want our water to be clean."
-Shaun Rose, Rose Ranch
There's more to the story
Learn more about how this family is ensuring another 100 years of stewardship on their land.
Protecting Habitats
STudying Beef Sustainability
To the beef community, sustainability involves more than environmental considerations. A sustainable food supply balances efficient production with environmental, social and economic impacts with Beef Quality Assurance protocols.
FROM PASTURE TO PLATE
Get a better understanding of how beef is raised through the stories of a few of the roughly 9,000 family farmers and ranchers who raise beef here in Washington.
Beef In a Healthy Sustainable Diet
Learn how beef promotes health and helps prevent nutrient deficiencies, and the ways in which cattle play a unique role in our food system by upcycling inedible plants to high-quality protein.