Happy New Year! 2025 has arrived and we are 3 for 3 for snow days. The 47 degree days we had for Christmas were last year and history it seems. Good the geese went south when they did and many Montanans are heading south too this weekend. Sit a spell and I will tell you why.

Life on the Ranch

"How do cows stay warm in the winter", was the question. It is common place to see these black northern cattle with a layer of white snow on their backs and they are out grazing. Not seeming to notice they are covered in snow.

Cows are very resilient. They grow thick hair for insulation. Underneath their skin, is a network of blood vessels and capillaries that circulate blood and they also have a layer of fat there. That is all considering they are in good Body Condition in a healthy range. If you are seeing ribs and other bony parts sticking out, they do not have enough fat cover to be healthy and warm.

Then with the 4 stomachs they have to digest the grass and other forage they eat, that also warms them. It requires energy, like running for you or I, to ruminate their food, so they warm up. In fact, cattle are the warmest 6 hours after they eat. It is a good practice in the winter to feed in the afternoon so they are warmer during the night. Rather than feed them first thing in the morning and by night their stomachs are empty and they are looking for something to eat and are chilly.

Right now it is dark here by 4:30, but feeding before dark helps them stay warm.

That is the feeding hay all winter routine.

Another way to keep them warm is to have grass they can graze on at will. Like they behave all summer. So they are not standing by the gate waiting for you to show up with their bale of hay. They are more satisfied eating when they need to and stay warmer.

That is our grazing/feeding plan for our cattle and it is better for the soil too. We still do take them some alfalfa every other day to keep their protein up to the level they require for their stage of gestation. Because all the cows are bred to calve in May and June. And remember 3 are having twins!

I caught a picture of ME2 eating alfalfa today. She is a replacement heifer, a calf we kept to move into our momma cow herd.

Glad You Stopped by

We are happy to share our days on the ranch with you, talk about the great beef we raise, and let you in on our new beef offers first.

We are going to do another survey to find out questions folks have or ideas to make our bulk beef sales easier to understand. And I include a recipe most weeks.

Our oldest son Zach cringes at the new recipe idea. He came in one night for supper, looked at the table, and said "Is this a real recipe, or did you make that up?" He was in high school at the time.

In my defense, we live on a ranch and sometimes you have 7 out of 10 of the ingredients for any recipe, so you just have to improvise.

Or youngest son, Eb, likes to cook now, and both boys are big on smoking meat on their Tragers.

Beef for Your Summer BarBQ

Rib eye steaks have no bone in them, Rib steak does have the bone.
New York steak is 1/2 of the T-bone without the bone and Tenderloins come from the other side of the bone.

We get our beef packaged without the bones in to eliminate the chance of the bones puncturing the wrapping and therefore losing the vacumn seal.

Still the average of packages losing the vacumn seal is 5%. Even handling carefully. That is 5 out of 100 packages. So you eat those first, or put in a ziplock bag.

Bar B Q season is coming up in a few months.
It would be great to have a freezer full of beef at your house, steaks and all, like a brisket or roast, besides ground beef.

Our beef comes as a package deal, freezer and beef with all the dry aging, butcher, vacumn sealed packages and shipping included.

Good Montana ranch raised all-natural beef. Remember all-natural means no hormones or antibiotics, only eating what grows.

Our butcher praises the steers we bring in for you. We have them graded even and they are coming out to be choice, which is a level of marbling they have that is desirable to most folks. And the taste, texture and flavor packed in our beef will wow you.

Remember the 14 days they dry age improves the flavor and tenderness.

And Breaking News:
We have 400# of Ground Beef to sell in 20 and 40 lb, bundles.

This is top round we had made into ground beef along with other pieces they cut off roasts and steaks. All from 1 steer and packaged. 1 young animal, not an old cull cow, and made fresh for you, just in time for backyard parties this spring.

Those will be available starting Monday, until they are gone, and we don't anticipate them to last too long. Our ground beef has a pretty famous reputation for how good it tastes.

Here is the link to get you to the 1/4 and 1/2 beef shares that come with a freezer.

https://tbarjranchbeef.com/pages/bulk-beef-freezer

I will send you the links to the 20 and 40 lb ground beef bundles on Sunday.
Stay tuned for that.

Speaking of Ground Beef:
And heading south.

Did you know the Montana State Bobcats are playing in the Nat'l Football Championship game on Monday the 6th?

5pm Mtn on ESPN from Frisco Texas.
We are all rooting them on as there are some pretty talented home town Montana boys playing on that team.

Here is our T-J Ranch recipe for Chili to go along with the game.

I'm calling it GO Cats Chili and it's good ,especially if you follow it up with cinnamon rolls, the kind with the white frosting on top.

Of course T-J ground beef makes it even more amazing.
Give it a try. Click on the button below to be making Chili.

Click Here