Longhorns in Copper?

Recently a herd of Texas Longhorn have moved to the area, embracing a foothill free-range lifestyle, and happily calling Copperopolis home.

J-Bar-H Ranch, located on 1200 acres of rolling hills in SE Copper butting up to the lake, is home to approximately 80 head of Texas Longhorn cattle. While longhorn are most notably utilized for show or ornamentation on Texas style Cadillac’s, up here, they are known for their lean, delicious, healthy meat. Texas Longhorn beef has less calories, less fat and less cholesterol than chicken. For a 3.5 oz serving, Texas Longhorn beef has 114 calories, 3.7 grams of fat (mostly saturated) and 48.0 mgs of cholesterol.

Owner, Jim Hix, never pictured himself as a cattle rancher when he was working in the real estate industry for the better part of his life. Then one day he says he made “the worst decision of my life.” He asked a friend that was traveling to Arizona to bring him home some longhorns because he thought they looked “pretty.” 2  ½ years later he knows each steer, each bull, each cow in his herd. He hand feeds them and walks about among them as if he belonged with them. He points to the ones that he will utilize for beef, and tries not to get too friendly and points to other that he says he will never be able to slaughter, they are his friends. Case in point, his favorite bull ‘Kill Kindly’ (affectionately called Killer) standing 67 ¼ inches at shoulder height and a horn span of almost 6 feet, Killer is anything but a cute puppy dog, but to Jim that’s exactly what he is. Jim stands at just over 6 foot, yet extends his arm fully above his head to hand feed special treats to Killer. He can point to each cow or steer in the herd that was sired by Killer and boasts about Killer's achievements like a proud papa.

At a 90/10 ratio one would expect the meat to possibly lack in flavor; that is absolutely false. Flavor abounds with each cut, each package, and each serving of meat from these cattle.  J-Bar-H, in an effort to stay exclusive, only carries their USDA beef in markets and restaurants geographically separated by many miles, but with plans in the works of special order deliveries to Copper.

Luckily, here in Copper our own Griff’s bbg offers J-Bar-H longhorn on their menu. When asked how the longhorn sells at Griffs, one waitress said, “People always choose the longhorn over regular beef, and when they come back, that is what they will have again and again. People love it!” A package of J-Bar-H Louisiana hot links was delivered to the CFPD firehouse to cook up and sample. Their reaction was, “The sausage is awesome!” At a recent bbq, a sampling of Habanero hot links, Louisiana hot links, hot dogs, and hamburgers, all from J-Bar-H longhorn was bar-b-qued slowly over a low heat and then put out for sampling. There was not a speck of beef left. The comments ranged from, “delicious” to “is this really longhorn” and “where do I get this” to “this is amazing.”

Jim is interested is seeing more people enjoy his longhorn, not just for the amazing taste, but for a healthier cut of meat. If you are interested in longhorn products from sausage to hotdogs, steak to beef jerky, give Jim a call 1-800-473-2550 or visit his website at http://www.allnaturallonghornbeef.com/

For more pictures click HERE

By, Charity Maness