Community Engagement in 2024

At Colvin Ranch, our mission is to take care of the land, animals, and people in our community. We accomplish this through conservation practices that enable us to produce healthy, high-quality meat for our community, while helping native plants and animals flourish alongside our livestock.

In 2024, our focus was on community engagement. Here's a quick snapshot of what we accomplished with our small but mighty team.

Donations

One of the things I'm most proud of is that we were able to increase our donations to the Tenino Food Bank in partnership with our customers. We match every package of stew meat donated by our customers to the food bank, and together we were able to donate 84 pounds of beef for those in need. The next time you place an order online, you can add a package of stew meat to donate to the food bank. We'll deliver it to the food bank for you, along with our matching donation. It's an easy way to provide a meal to a local family.

Thanks to one of our loyal customers at the Proctor Farmers' Market, we were able to make a significant donation to the Mason United Methodist Church to support their food assistance program. And we supported other local organizations, including GRuB, Community Farm Land Trust, Thurston County Youth Market Animal Sale, Wolf Haven, and the Thurston County Food Bank with beef and cash donations. 

Education and advocacy

We participated in 15 events this year to talk with kids, fellow ranchers, elected officials, agency folks, and foodies about how we use conservation grazing to raise beef that's both good for you and good for the planet. Some of our favorites:

• Talking with second graders at Parkside Elementary about seasons on a Washington cattle ranch, and supporting 4-H kids at the Thurston County Youth Market Animal Sale.
• Hosting groups from NRCS, the Sentinel Landscape Partnership, and the Southwest Washington Grazing Association to show conservation grazing in action, and how decades of conservation grazing have enhanced native habitat for endangered species like the Mazama pocket gopher. 
• Participating in farm tours in Lewis and Thurston counties to talk about the importance of local agriculture infrastructure to support strong local food systems.
• Speaking at the Climate Change and Food Production conference, the Farms Forever fundraiser, and the Slow Food Greater Olympia annual meeting.   
• Bringing back our popular Open House, with over 300 people coming out to enjoy ranch tours, prairie walks, kids activities, and our grass-fed, grass-finished hamburgers. Plus, we participated in favorite local events like Oregon Trail Days and the Boo-Coda Casket Races, just for fun. 
• Exhibiting at the Thurston Green Business Awards, where we were officially designated as a Thurston Green Business for the first time. 
• Volunteering with the Thurston County Cattlewomen at the Beef on the Hill Day to serve lunch to elected officials and staff at the state capital. 

Conservation

We focused a lot of our conservation efforts on our silvopasture project, restoring a former Christmas tree farm and overgrown prairie in partnership with Ecostudies Institute, NRCS, US Fish & Wildlife, CNLM, and the Thurston Conservation District.

Beyond the ranch, we worked with Thurston County and Washington Fish & Wildlife to bring conservation grazing to their neighboring properties that were originally part of our historic homestead, and are now used for conservation and public recreation. 

Our local WDFW team is pioneering the use of grazing on public lands as a conservation tool our area, working with us to implement their first grazing lease in Western Washington at the Violet Prairie Unit. Thurston County is also leading the way with using conservation grazing to manage critical wildlife habitat as part of the Habitat Conservation Program, and showing how local government and ranchers can work together for the benefit of wildlife and our community. 

In addition, Fred was awarded the Washington Conservation Society Conservation Legacy Award, recognizing his decades of work to protect agricultural lands and promote agriculture in our community.

Eating beef

While our stewardship of the land certainly benefits the environment, it also helps us raise the best grass-fed, grass-finished beef available. And the growing South Sound food scene, made up of farmers, ranchers, chefs, and specialty retailers is taking note.  

This year, we were happy to join the community at the Yelm Food Co-op and add a customer pickup spot at the 507 Taproom to serve our customers in the Yelm area. We also launched our CSA Beef Box subscription, and it was so popular we opened up availability so that you can sign up year-round. 

In the restaurant scene, Ilk Lodge started using our beef for their delicious smash burgers (we provide them with a custom ground beef blend made just for them), and Sandstone Cafe started featuring our tenderloin steaks. One of our other favorites was the special dinner organized by Chicory Restaurant and Finn River Cidery featuring our beef and other local Snail of Approval winners, which sold out in a flash. 

Plus, we now deliver beef to more than a dozen local school districts, where school cooks use our grass-fed, grass-finished beef and pasture-raised pork to make meals from scratch. 

Looking ahead

More good things are in store for 2025. Thanks for your purchases, donations, and support - we couldn't do this work without it.