This is where the magic happens! Even though we have a pig pen and a chicken coop ... you will always find their inhabitants roaming around the pasture. So it must be a good place to hang out!

However .. the main thing you will find here .. the stars of our show .. are the cattle. The horses may think otherwise .. they are always the stars of their own show .. but really we come out here to find the cows!

Our herd has been slowly growing over the past couple of years. We have 2 girls that have been with us the longest and are actually twins. This spring they gave us 2 really nice bull calves and are great moms. Along with them we have a yearling heifer who will be having her first calf next spring. 

When we moved to our current location we decided that wasn't enough. So the search began for what would be the face of Chillo Creek Ranch. We were trying to pair the qualities of cattle that we love and need to be successful cattle farmers .. in a breed that would do it's best on solely a grass diet while still being productive to fill the freezer. 

And then .. we found a breed that we thought would fill our requirements. The British White are a breed that keep their roots in England and are thought to be direct decedents of the ancient, indigenous and wild British cattle of the past. Related to a wild breed we thought they would excel as a foraging pasture cattle. When we set out to find some close to home, we couldn't. The very few herds we did find in Canada were possibly in Manitoba and Ontario. So, we took a trip to the closest herd, which happened to be in Idaho! Still far .. and all kinds of "how to import cattle" issues but we went to look anyways. And .. we loved them. They were everything we had expected and more! We left there with a HUGE question of if and how we could bring cattle across the border. 

Well ..we did it! Coming all the way from Orofino, Idaho we have brought what we consider to be one of the highest quality beef cattle breeds to Western Canada. We have a herd of 8 registered British White heifers who now call Chillo Creek Ranch their home! 

So what's the big deal?

Not all cattle breeds are created equal. They all have different qualities .. those along with personal preference of the farmer is how you land at what breed you want to keep. 

The wild nature of these cattle lend them to be lean pasture experts! They can and will thrive in pasture eating everything from grass and nettles to weeds and bushes. They can use lower grade pasture and still return a 65-70% carcass. The efficiency of the cattle to turn feed into muscle is directly related to the success of the farm, so we like this! More importantly, the quality of the meat they return using lean pasture is excellent. It is tender, lean and full of flavor which meets and often exceeds our expectations and high standards of premium quality. 

British White are known for their docile gentle nature. They are naturally curious and are not easily alarmed. They are excellent mothers and pass these traits to their calves which makes handling them so much easier for us.  Raising our young family on the farm, we need animals that we can trust and they are surely that. 

Having been a wild cattle for 1000+ years, natural selection has made this breed one that is well known as easy calvers. The selection over the years has weeded out the attributes that make calving difficult. The result has been a breed that can quite easily produce 75-80 pound, naturally polled, small headed calves on their own where complications are an extremely rare event.  They have an outstanding mothering ability with excellent maternal instincts. They claim their calves and get them milking in no time! On the topic of milk, the breed was also used as a dairy breed in earlier years in England. They have a high quality milk with lots of cream. This gets those calves a very good start in life and keeps them well nourished. It allows them to grow at an exceptional pace often exceeding the size of similar aged calves of varying breeds. 

Why we chose British White cattle to represent Chillo Creek Ranch?

Quite simply, they are the best we could find. They boast the optimal combination of feed efficient, high quality, best natured, eye pleasing, hands off, finest tasting beef cattle money can buy. And we had to have them!