Mother cows spend the year being moved to where the food and water is good. This is generally December to April in the hills above Capay Valley, May to October on irrigated pastrue and November in the feed lot waiting for the hills to have enough grass and water. In June a registered Angus Bull is put with the herd of cows.

This calf was conceved in the summer of 2024 and was birthed in the hills northwest of Winters, CA in spring of 2025

When the calf is a few months old it receives basic vacinations to preserve herd health, worm medication, an ear tag, a brand and if it is male, a tight rubber band around its testicles – stopping the flow to them and casuing them to eventually fall off.

During the summer the water in the hills dries up, requiring the animals to be moved. In the case of this animal they were moved to the irrigated pastrue on the same property.

When the calf is about 5 months old and about 500 lb, it is seperated from its mother. The males are castrated and turn in to “feeder steers” the females “heifers” (a female who has not yet had a baby) are kept or sold as breeding stock.

It is too cold for pastrures to grow enough to feed the steer. While we wait for the grass on the hill to grow and for enough rain water to fill the streams the steer goes to a holding facility where it is fed a mix of hay, almond hulls and grains. By December the hills have enough grass and water to sustain the herd and they are moved to Smith Flat Ranch were they will stay until the grass and water dry out in the Spring of 2026

Now is when we start finishing the animal, what they eat and how they are cared for this period of time determines the quality of the meat they produce. In the conventional food system this is when they are crammed into feed lots, fed GMO Corn laced with anti-biotics and kept just barey alive until they are harvested – yuck. For me, I appricate why the animal is here and it seems like a fair trade to let it live respectfully on green grass with grain until the end. No yuck factor with all the quality and taste.

When the animals are appropriatlly finished they are loaded into a trailer and hauled to the USDA processing facility

The good and respected life of the animal comes to an end, facing the reality of why it was brought to life – to recipricate the healthy and nourishment to respectful customers.

Yolo Fill Co. has developed a “best cut list” which focuses on the most widley used roasts and steaks, usinging about half of the yield for ground beef. There is no mixing with other animals, all the meat comes from the animal you own. With notice, we can accomodate uses of other items including: tounge, bones, intestine, heart, liver.

With the animal, cut, protioned, vacume sealed and frozed, Yolo Fill Co. picks up your quarter and transports it to a 0 degrees Farenheight feezer (where beef, from a saftey point of view, can be stored indefiently but after several years the quality will begin to decline).