OUR STORY
Small Family-Owned Business
In 2012 The Double G Cattle Company was started by two long time friends Gary and Graham and their wives Christine and Julie in 150 Mile House/Caribou region British Columbia.
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Our mission was to naturally and humanely raise a true grass fed to grass finished cow using ZERO grains, antibiotics, or growth hormones.
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ABOUT OUR BEEF
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What started out as a small herd of local Angus and Herford cows to feed close family and friends, grew to accommodate requests of extended family, friends, work associates, neighbors etc. for our grass fed-grass finished beef!
Aside from raising free range cattle, we vowed to maintain our cattle on our ranch from start to finish - which means our cattle will never go to a "finishing" feed lot or receive in-humane treatment - ever. Since our cattle ranch is quite small we harvest once a year in November - this is when last years steers (19 -20 months) have reached their best weight. They will have had two natural spring and summer cycles of grazing on our ranches lush caribou range lands and have spent the winters eating hay that we cut the previous summer.
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ABOUT THE OWNERS
While Gary and Christine are the primary owners and caretakers of The XY Ranch, Graham works and lives on his own farm in Chilliwack out in the Fraser Valley where he has raised and sold beef to family and friends in the lower main land for the past 25 years!
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OUR SUSTAINABLE FARMING PRACTICES
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Holistic management describes a systems thinking approach to managing resources that builds biodiversity improves production, generates financial strength, enhances sustainability, and improves the quality of life for those who use it. Developed by Allen Savory, holistic management offers a new decision-making framework that managers in a variety of enterprises, cultures, and countries are using to help ensure that the decisions they take are economically, socially, and environmentally sound, simultaneously—both short and long term.
Sustainable agriculture is the practice of farming using principles of ecology, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment. It has been defined as "an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will last over the long term:
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Satisfy human food and fiber needs
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Enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends
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Make the most efficient use of non-renewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls
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Sustain the economic viability of farm operations
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Enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole Sustainable agriculture in the. More recently, as consumer and retail demand for sustainable products has risen.
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Rotational Grazing
This involves reducing the size of ranges from large to small and limiting the access to these smaller ranges. This system allows the forage to be grazed and then rested for a number of days, allowing the forage to rest and regrow to sufficient heights before being grazed again. This not only provides more nutrients for the cattle, but reduces erosion and creates more organics to the soil through better manure distribution. Since beginning rotational grazing, we have noticed an incredible amount of activity under the soil. The worms and dung beetles compete for the manure as they process the natural fertilizer directly into the ground. This in turn has allowed our ranges to gain organic nutrients, grow more and better grasses, and allow us to produce more and healthier cattle per acre.
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Humanely Raised
This is not just a coined phrase, but a way of farming. We take incredible pride in our animals and provide the best humane care possible. The cattle live in a very low stress and quiet environment where their needs are successfully met. We make every effort to make the cattle's lives free from stress. They are raised in a natural free grazing environment as they are moved from range to fields within our ranch. We check them regularly, as we live on the ranch where they are raised. Our cattle are tame, not flighty or fearful of human contact, and love to come and say hello and see what we are doing as we are checking on them or while we are working in the field. Comparatively to many big ranch operations that use quads to move cattle, we actually still use our horses when moving cattle to different ranges throughout the seasons.
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Water Systems
The cattle have access to fresh, natural spring run creeks and ponds on the range.
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Forage Management
Without the grass, we have no grassfed cattle. We continually sow and over seed various grasses and legumes in our fields that we use for winter feed. The forages include clover, fescue, and ryegrass.
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100% NATURAL, FREE RANGE & GRAIN FREE
WHAT IS NATURAL?
Our cattle are raised naturally on over 2000 acres as nature intended, living outdoors, in a herd, and on pasture and range land.
There is no one definition of natural. At Double G cattle Co. we can tell you that our Natural Beef does not contain any hormones, steroids or antibiotics. Nor do we use any feeds that incorporate rendered ingredients or by-products. Most of our winter feeds are grown on our farm or on that of a nearby neighbour. We feed home grown hay without additives of any kind.
WHY NATURAL?
Natural beef tends to be leaner and tastier than most conventional beef. It only stands to reason that an animal that spends its life walking around and eating natural range grasses would have a stronger texture and flavour than one that is just standing in a feedlot pen. You can expect our natural grass fed beef to have more flavour than conventional beef, but to have less fat.
TRACEABILITY
We can identify every animal from birth through its whole life. A numbered ear tag is attached when each calf is born. From this, we not only know the parentage of that animal and the date of its birth, but also can monitor its growth and health its whole life. Isn’t it nice to know where your food comes from and how it was raised!