Cattle

Rancho San Julian has been a working cattle ranch for over 200 years. Originally serving as a beef supplier to the Spanish presidio at Santa Barbara, where Jose de la Guerra was comandante in the early 1800's, the ranch's cattle operations continue to evolve as we approach our third century of operation.

Rancho San Julian was one of the first organic beef producers in California. As president of the South Coast Chapter of the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) in 1990, Jose de la Guerra's great-great-great-grandson Jim Poett helped write the first California Organic Food Act and has continued to support an array of environmental programs in the region. In the late 1990s Rancho San Julian stopped selling beef commercially in order to focus on improving and expanding our herd. In just a few years we have succeeded by bringing in superior Angus bulls from the mid-west, enabling a breeding program that more efficiently produces premium beef. Through a decade of tough challenges including drought and floods, we have been able to build a herd of 600 high quality cows and calves. In the summer of 2007, at the Santa Barbara County Fair, Rancho San Julian Cattle was awarded the Champion Breeder in the Market Beef Carcass class.

In 1999, Rancho San Julian began a partnership with the National Resource Conservation Service to renovate the ranch’s environmental infrastructure by building better fences and water sources in order to provide the best possible grazing for our cattle while protecting our natural resources.