We like to call it old-fashioned. It's really so much more than that. In the ripening afternoon light, the huge barn is nothing if not soothing. Coming and going as they like, several hundred stately steers seem unfazed by our presence. Tackling the awkward but inevitable question, Bill Niman doesn't apologize for making a living from land-intensive livestock at the top of the food chain.
Ruminants convert roughage into usable foodstuff.
Most of what they consume is unusable and our ranches are on land that's not tillable. On the Bolinas land where his breeding stock graze, herds are moved from field to field so as not to exhaust the land. Native grasses, rye and clover are replenished by seeding, and Bill's wife, Sandra, has begun experimenting with hedgerows to maintain the healthy wildlife population on the coastal ranchlands that includes fox, falcon and quail. It's not perfect yet. Pampered Bovines Shaded in summer, warm and dry in winter, with water and Nevada hay on offer around the clock, the steers are pampered.