Richards Family History in Ranching

OUR FAMILY HISTORY

The Richards family involvement in agriculture stems back to 1941, when Thomas H. Richards Sr. purchased the first 680 acre parcel in Yuba County.  Today the Richards Ranch is over 6,600 acres of foothill countryside with beautiful Oaks, Pine and Madrone trees. This location and elevation gives us plenty of rainfall and sun for healthy pasture composition for our grass fed beef.  The Richards Ranch team is constantly working together to improve our land and in turn create better feed and environment for our animals. 

Providing the best quality beef for our customers is our first priority, we love what we do and always follow Thomas H. Richards Sr.'s Advice, "take care of the grass, and the cows will take care of themselves."

A TALE OF TWO FAMILIES

Richards Grassfed Beef has been supported by the efforts of two families.  The Richards Family of Yuba/Sacramento County and the Flournoy Family in Modoc County California.  Our two families were bound together during the 1940’s when Warren Flournoy met Tom Richards III during World War II and he later married Tom’s sister Beverly Richards.  Warren and Beverly’s 2 children, Claudia and Rodney have continued with this family ranching operation. Claudia and Roy MacKintosh’s son Gregory and his wife Chloe are the next generation to have an interest in this large ranch in a beautiful part of Modoc County called the Jess Valley.  Combined with the Richards Ranch near Oregon House in Yuba County, we run thousands of cattle.

The two properties are very complimentary, with Modoc getting snow in the late fall and winter while Yuba’s grass season is just starting.  Similarly, as the grass dries up in Yuba around June, the Modoc grazing season is just beginning and will run through October. Richards Grassfed Beef works with both ranches as we “chase the green grass” between the two properties in order to keep our cattle truly “grass fed”.

The Flournoy Family came to America from Switzerland in 1700.   Jacob Flournoy was a goldsmith and farmer. He and his son Frances started the Flournoy cattle brand in Virginia where their descendants remained until 1838, when a large tribe of Flournoy’s and their children moved from Virginia to Linn County Missouri and took their herds of cattle with them.  One of Daniel’s sons, William Spencer Flournoy raised his cattle in Missouri but wanted to move further west. After 3 trips to California, the first being in 1849, he and his business partner David Hershey gathered up their families, cattle & horses and joined a wagon train heading west in the spring of 1853.  They drove their herd of 300 Durham cattle (now called Short Horn) west, over the Carson Pass and into Yolo County. Later in 1871, W.S Fournoy’s son John Daniel Flournoy moved north from Yolo into Modoc county, where he and his descendants put together a ranching operation that survives to this day.

Rodney Flournoy, son of Beverly (Richards) & Warren Flournoy, has managed the families Jess Valley Ranch since the mid 1980’s.  Greg MacIntosh and wife Chloe, joined Rodney three years ago to help him. The family runs their herd of Angus / Hereford / Short Horn mother cows in Jess Valley and the adjacent BLM & Forest Service acreage of the Warner Mountains.  Rodney’s herd is what he calls “uncertified organic”. They haven’t ever sprayed pesticides and the last chemical fertilizer was used prior to 1997. Their operation bales it’s own grass hay and feeds that all winter long. In the summers, the cattle move into the nearby mountains to graze.  The native, high elevation grasses have fine strength due to such long winter dormancy on the mountain meadows. It’s a stunning valley property and a great family partner for Richards Grassfed Beef.

RICHARDS LAND AND CATTLE COMPANY 

Thomas H. Richards immigrated from Cornwall, England in 1882 with his two brothers.   He settled in San Francisco and worked as a machinist.  He later moved to Oroville and worked as a miner and blacksmith.  He and his wife Lucille A Maack married in 1896 and had three children, Thomas Jr born in 1897, Vivian born in 1902 and Lionel in 1904.  Tom Sr died in 1909 of pneumonia and it was Tom Jr, the eldest, who with his mother helped forge ahead.  Tom Jr would go on to start Bercuit-Richards Packing Company in 1935, marketers of Sacramento Brand Tomato Juice and other products.  He also purchased in 1941 the the first parcels of what is today the Richards Land & Cattle Company ranch in Yuba County.  Tom first ran cattle and raised prize hereford bulls which he sold at markets all over California under the name Sacramento Herefords.  Warren and Beverly Flournoy later partnered with Tom III in expanding the Richards Ranch to what it is today.

Richards Land & Cattle 6,600 acre ranch operation is run by Tom IV, his daughter Carrie and her husband Daniel Prelip.  They run a herd of Angus / Murray Grey cross cattle on the foothill property just above the Sacramento Valley fog and below the Sierra snow line.  Like the Flournoy property, the Richards Ranch has not been sprayed or had chemical fertilizers used in decades.  Other than grazing on the land, we feed the cattle AGA approved supplements to help finish cattle in the winter months and late summer.  

Richards Grassfed Beef has enabled our families partnership to continue and extend in meeting the demand for great tasting beef that is produced with care while considering the improvement of the environment.