About
Chinook Ranch Ltd
Our Ranch
Stewards of the Land Since 1950
James Hughes Sr. arrived in Canada from England in 1928. From there throughout the 40's, he gradually began putting together parcels of land to then eventually establish Chinook Ranch around 1950. The ranch was eventually passed onto the second generation Jim Hughes who is currently one of the owner and operator's of Chinook ranch. Alongside, partnered with him is his son Stephen Hughes who is the third generation. The ranch is also currently helped out by Stephens's daughters; Kayla, Josie and Erin Hughes.
Over the years the ranch has made many changes to the way it used to operate. By the Fall of 1996, Stephen and his father decided to change the way they ranched by switching to grazing the cows year-round.
​By 2003 Chinook Ranch was awarded the Alberta Beef Producers' environmental stewardship award partly becuase of their changes in their grazing style that utilize the land. Ever since then Stephen has been working to continually be improving their practices to ensure they are as sustainable as possible, which can be learned more about below.
Chinook Ranch
Local Family Ranch
@Elizabeth Homerosky
Chinook Ranch has worked with various different organizations. Firstly, Chinook Ranch became certified as a VBP+ operation back in 2013 to be able to publicly demonstrate our commitment to responsible stewardship of both the environment and our cattle. In addition to this Chinook Ranch also became certified by the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB) as a sustainable ranch, as another way to verify the sustainable practices that Stephen has been working to implement overtime. You can learn more about Chinook Ranch being CRSB certified here. In addition to this back in 2018 Stephen was selected as the first Canadian beef producer in McDonald's flagship farmer program. As well, you can see Stephen and Chinook Ranch featured on McDonald's Canada TV commercial talking about sustainability. Lastly, you can read more about Stephen being selected as one of the top 50 in Canadian Agriculture here.
Chinook Ranch is committed to raising their beef in the most sustainable way possible. They have been constantly improving their practices to ensure that it remains this way. Some of these practices include things such as rotational grazing which allows the grass time to rest in between use, and the development of water sources that allows Chinook Ranch to graze their cattle year round. In addition, Chinook Ranch prides themselves on their animal welfare handling practices that result in calm cattle, which in turn results in high quality beef.
One thing Stephen wants the public to know is "I'm a consumer as well, so I take pride in producing a good product. My livelihood depends on the health of the animals, and healthy land. My passion is to send out a good product raised with integrity". Overall, Chinook Ranch is extremely committed to continuing on improving their sustainable practices
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