Last month I introduced you to one of our suppliers of beef for Country Natural Beef, Mark and Tami Rietman; just as I toured their ranch, I have also toured our lamb supplier Anderson Ranch.

Anderson Ranch is located in Brownsville, Oregon. The Anderson’s are a fifth generation sheep ranching family. Reed, Robin, Jake, and Travis are the Andersons. Since they have been ranching in this area for quite some time, this affords them access to grass farming families, and the grazing privileges on their fields. This sets them apart from many sheep ranchers, because their lambs are raised on fresh ground all the time. Twenty to 50 head are put in a field, depending on size, and they crop the grass being moved every two weeks or so. This means that the grass farmers don’t have to run machinery on the fields to keep the grass mowed down. The annual and perennial grasses are only allowed to go to seed at certain times of the year. This is a win-win situation.

They also swap the fields with ovine (sheep), and bovine (cattle), because the two animals have different diseases and parasites, which are exclusive to that breed. So the ground is cleaner and there is no need for the antibiotics and the like. The lambs are taken at 6 – 10 months to the processor, Mohawk, which the Andersons have been doing business with for a very long time. The facility is 30 minutes from the ranch, so the animals go from fields of grass to process, with no lot time, and no stress. The weather in Brownsville helps with the raising of sheep, since there is 365 days of the year with grass growing in the fields. No making hay for this troop.

Anderson ranch chooses the lambs it wants to market under its own label and the rest are sold to superior lamb. I am not a big fan of lamb, since my grandmother used to make it every Sunday, but at Robin Anderson’s repeated request, I finally tried some. The flavor is very mild, and not at all what I was expecting. I liked the lamb. Don’t tell Robin- I’ll never hear the end of it.