Learn about the certification of our animals.

Our pastured, free range beef cattle are certified red angus. We pride ourselves on maintaining strict genetic standards, and have carefully honed our herd over the past 100 years to produce the finest premium finished meat possible. We graze our cattle on the Nicholson family central coast ranches, located in Morro Bay and Cayucos. These ranches are comprised of rolling hills, native grasslands, oak woodlands, and views of the Pacific Ocean. Our cattle are always 100% grass-fed and grass-finished, which means they never eat corn, soy, or other grains. They live their entire lives on open pastures and, of course, never see a feedlot. Every beef animal on Nicholson Ranches is born and spends its life entirely in our care, raised to a finished weight of approximately 1,000 lbs. entirely on grass. The grass at Nicholson Rances is seasonal, reaching its apex of nutritive quality in the late spring and summer. Accordingly, the vast majority of our beef cattle are finished within the late spring and summer months.

A conservation easement protects the Nicholson family’s Cayucos ranch. The Nicholson family believes in preserving the ranches working landscape, agricultural productivity, biodiversity, and scenic views, in perpetuity.