P Bar Ranch –Focusing on Grassfed Beef Flavor and Nutritional Quality
- Jul 15
- 6 min read
The Patterson family started purchasing various properties in 1998 for what would become the 5,000-acre P Bar Ranch in Sweet Grass County, Montana near Livingston. Approximately 1,000 acres of the ranch is irrigated pasture and the other 4,000 acres is rangeland. About 10 years ago Kristi and Tom started hearing about the concept of sustainable ranching from a number of sources, including her friend Lil Erickson the founder of the Western Sustainability Exchange.
“We started as a traditional cow/calf operation for many years,” says Kristi. “Then we began finishing cattle and selling them as grassfed and finished beef. All along our mission was focused on how could we improve our part of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.”
While the Patterson’s were making steady progress toward their mission, 2020 was a pivotal year for the ranch because Jaimie and Austin Stoltzfus came on to help the Pattersons and were able to help improve grazing management and take the ranch to the next level in ecosystem function. A few years earlier, Nicole Master came to consult with them and influenced the team’s understanding of soil health and how improved grazing practices could improve soil health which would increase the nutrient density of the cattle. From those principles, a new business model was born.
From Passion to Practice
Jaimie did not grow up in agriculture, but was introduced to ranching when she married Austin. Early years in their career was spent on ranches not focused on Holistic Management. “But, these practices didn’t feel good to me,” says Jaimie. “Then I started listening to podcasts and going to conferences about regenerative grazing and Austin and I got interested in finding a better way to raise animals and take care of the land. We met with the Pattersons about coming to work at the P Bar, and it seemed like the right place where we could put these ideas we had been learning about into practice. That’s what we’ve done the last 5 years. What we’ve learned the most is from observing how the land responds. It’s been amazing how quickly the landscape has changed and how these grazing practices have impacted the land.”
Austin and Jaimie do have a written grazing plan, but they are constantly adapting it. They look at the larger scale when making grazing management decisions like making sure they are grazing pastures in different seasons. On the sub-irrigated ground, they are moving the cattle more frequently than on native rangeland areas where there are usually longer grazing periods and longer recovery. They look at the land and animals daily to see if it is time to move the cattle either because of how the grass looks or what the cattle behavior is telling them. “We watch how restless they are getting,” says Jaimie.
“The cattle let us know what they need,” says Kristi. “It’s like Fred Provenza’s analogy of the salad bar. They are telling it’s time to move to another buffet. They are saying, ‘There is something over there that I need.’ We are paying attention to that because of our interest in the nutrient density of the forage and of the animals and how that all impacts the flavor profile of the beef.
P Bar Ranch is engaged in a nutrient density study with Dr. Stephan von Vliet at Utah State University. The results from the meat testing show higher levels of minerals like magnesium, iron, and calcium, as well as antioxidants like quercetin, hippuric acid, and p-cresol sulfate than conventionally raised corn finished beef. They are also seeing improvement on Omega3:6 ratios- measuring a 1:1 ratio compared with commodity beef which has a ratio of 1:16 typically. The last 2 months in finishing is really what drives the flavor profile and nutrient density. P Bar’s irrigated pastures have 8-10 varieties of forage so it is a much richer diet for finishing and really helps with those better ratios. The alfalfa hay they feed also has a good flavor profile. "All of this information has made us much more intentional about our grazing planning and where the cattle end up being on the ranch for that finishing window. That information helps us prioritize along with the response of the land and what it needs,” says Jaimie.
So, what has been the results on the land? “You can see a tangible difference with more forage,” says Jaimie. “The forage is denser and we have less bare ground. We have increased the carrying capacity by 25%. Last year we ran 350 yearlings and this year we have been able to run 500 yearlings. We really need those 500 yearlings up on the rangeland as one big herd to improve land health, but right now water is our limiting factor. On our irrigated pastures we are definitely seeing more animal impact and a consistent graze.” However, despite still needing more stock density, Jaimie has noted that even on their rangeland they are seeing improved mineral cycling with more trampling of gray, oxidized plants turning into composting litter.
“We also see the water holding better in many of the pastures,” says Kristi. “From mid-2000 to 2015, when we were not doing as intense regenerative grazing, those pastures were much drier. Now those pastures are lush and keeping green later in the season. We have over 100 different species in our native prairie area but the predominant forage is bluebunch wheatgrass, rough fescue, Idaho fescue, prairie June grass, Sandberg bluegrass, basin wildrye, arrowleaf balsamroot, and sagebrush. In our meadows we have orchard grass, meadow bromegrass, tall fescue, ryegrass, and clover, with some volunteers from a cover crop we planted 5 years ago that included sweet potatoes, flax, and kale.”
In an effort to create even more diversity the P Bar Ranch team also added 700 goats this summer, following up on an experiment they tried last year with a contract goat grazing business. The goats are able graze 18 acres/day and they are focused on critical areas where there is greater weed pressure, particularly leafy spurge and hounds tongue. The P Bar team feels like this is a much better alternative than spraying and pulling weeds which they have done in the past.
From Cow/Calf to Yearlings
Given the focus of the ranch is for direct-to-consumer sales and increasing land health in this environment, they moved away from a cow/calf enterprise and the year-round demand of such an enterprise, to a yearling and finishing operation. They partnered with a ranch in eastern Montana that has a group of mother cows and the P Bar sources their cattle from this herd. This partnership has worked well with Jaimie developing her beef and pork business called Cowgirl Meat Company.
“We get weaned calves from them every fall and feed them through the winter along with our yearlings,” says Jaimie. “Then, in the spring we have two groups and any additional grass we have we can contract graze some yearlings from the partner ranch. We also artificially inseminate the heifers that then are used as replacement heifers at our partner ranch. The cattle that do not get bred go into Cowgirl Meat Company.”
Cowgirl Meat Co processes their beef at Pioneer Meats, just 21 miles away from the ranch. They focus on online sales and sell into the surrounding local communities. “We’ve worked really hard to simplify the business and provide better margins while striving to have the highest quality, most nutrient dense meat,” says Jaimie.
They are Audubon Conservation Ranching Bird Friendly certified, Western Sustainability Exchange certified, and American Grass Fed Association certified 100% grass fed. “We are constantly wanting better flavor and nutritional quality, so that is our focus with our beef,” says Jaimie. “From what we are seeing on the land, we believe we are on the right trajectory that we started 5 years ago, leaving the land better than we found it.”