Petaluma couple living on ‘cow time’

Dave and Kristine Beck raise Texas longhorns on their Bloomfield ranch|

Look south when you drive past the intersection where Bloomfield Road joins the Petaluma-Valley Ford Road and you will see Rocky, the one-ton Texas Longhorn whose curving horns stretch almost 7 feet in length. He’s the star attraction on Dave and Kristine Beck’s Twisted Horn Ranch.

Running 40 longhorns for meat production, the ranch includes 27 acres in Bloomfield and another 50 acres leased on the Bodega Coastline. Kristine calls Dave her “ranch manager,” and lets him decide when the Longhorns need to be moved from place to place. Holes in the roof of Dave’s livestock trailer are proof that moving animals with long, sharp horns can pose some problems.

“Which is why,” Dave explains, “we selectively breed for temperament.”

Longhorns developed in the wild from cattle Spaniards brought to America nearly 500 years ago. As Dave says, “Every part of a longhorn is a survival-of-the-fittest adaptation to the natural western environment. For Kristine and me, the best thing is that Rocky and our other Longhorns are intelligent and easy to work with.”

“Dave fell in love with Longhorns on a trip to the Grand Canyon,” Kristine recalls, “so I secretly bought a pair of steers for the ranch. When they arrived, I named them [for the cartoon characters] Rocky and Bullwinkle.”

When asked what happened to Bullwinkle, the 4-H and SRJC agricultural science graduate Dave answers, “We ate him. When I served a steak to my 85-year-old father, he said that the meat tasted like beef used to taste. Now grass-fed Longhorns are the only cattle we raise and sell.”

Dave’s roots are in this landscape.

“At Rancho [Cotati High School] I worked nights and summers as a hay lumper -putting hay in stacks,” he says. “Then I had my own business hauling hay to Sonoma County from Central Valley fields.”

Now Dave is a Vector Control Technician for the Marin/Sonoma Mosquito & Vector Control District. With that full-time outside job, plus the time he spends with the cows, Dave says he’s pretty much always got something to do.

“The cows are on cow time,” he allows. “I wake up with a list of things to do and continue with those things until it gets dark - under lights in the winter.”

Kristine takes care of the ranch’s B&B business.

“The Studio is perfect for a couple,” she notes. “We’ve had honeymooners and a few marriage proposals made there, so it must be pretty romantic.”

The two-bedroom Bunkhouse draws people from across the U.S.A., Canada, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain and Australia - including people on bike tours or with their horses.

Outside, Dave whistles and Rocky carefully makes his way to the fence.

He’s huge up close, and his immense curving horns are like fossils from prehistoric beasts. But he’s obviously very gentle too.

“They follow better than herd and prefer seeing things face-to-face,” Dave explains. “So we need to use our body language to talk with the cows in their language.”

Twisted Horn Ranch grass-fed beef is served at the Estero Cafe in Valley Ford. As you enjoy your meal, be sure to remember Dave and Kristine’s philosophy: “When our cows are on your plate, they’ve given everything they can - so we give them all we can.”

(Email Gil at gilmansergh@comcast.net)

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