Belted Galloway cows graze the ranch’s insides near Highway 29 Continued from previous page Another unique feature of the Stewart Ranch is they specialize in top quality hamburger, made from meat cut from head to toe, and then dry-aged. That’s all they sell. “I don’t know of anyone else who uses the whole cow to make their ground beef,” said Paul. “It’s drawing the attention of the top restaurants in the valley, especially now that sliders are so popular. We offer the best burger you can possibly buy.” Stewart Ranch Beef can be purchased locally at Browns Valley Market and is served on the Napa Valley Wine Train and at Silverado Resort’s Royal Oak Restaurant, to name a few. “The cows are born here and die here,” said Paul. “We get attached to them.” He uses a computer program to track pasture rotations, heat cycles, weaning weights and calving weights as well as bloodlines. Though many cows are named, each cow is tagged with a number. The male Belties are the only ones slaughtered. The steers graze on the pasture off Jamieson Canyon Road until thirty days before they are slaughtered; then they are brought to the Stewart Ranch, where they can hang calmly with the heifers to reduce any stress. “We spoil our cows,” said Ailene, who has taken care of animals all her life. “We make sure they have shade and the water troughs are always clean. When cows don’t moo, that means they are happy.” Besides raising beef cattle, Paul and Ailene raise national champion heifers. Our cover girl, two-year-old Sunnybrook Symphony, is the 2011 National Commercial Heifer Champion. She was just a few days away from giving birth to her first calf when the photo was taken. Besides a myriad of other animals on the ranch, another love is a four-week-old orphan calf named Lucky, who is hand fed eight quarts of whole milk a day. The Stewart Ranch folks are not the only ones who love the “Oreo cows”—people love to photograph and paint them. Ailene said she doesn’t mind people wanting to see the cows, but they did have to install a gate so they could control the number of visitors for safety reasons. “We have had tour buses just show up,” she said. “Having too many people around can stress the animals, but the cows do like to pose for a few people at a time.” Paul and Ailene have six kids between them, and they all have been active in 4-H. Stewart Farms is a big supporter of the Town & Country Fair, which is coming up in August. You may just see a Belted Galloway in the show. For more information about Stewart “Lucky,” a Belted Galloway Ranch, visit www.oreocows.net or email them at info@oreocows.net calf, follows visitors around the ranch 16 w w w . n A P A V A L L E Y L I F E m A G A z I n E . c o m
NVLife_JulyAug_2012
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