McPherson's
Red Heart Ranch
100% grass-fed, grass-finished, high-quality beef — raised with a whole lot of heart and hard work.
Elmira, Idaho · Bonner County · featured on the 2025 Bonner County Farm Tour
100% grass-fed, grass-finished, high-quality beef — raised with a whole lot of heart and hard work.
Elmira, Idaho · Bonner County · featured on the 2025 Bonner County Farm Tour
Day-to-day pictures and news land on our Facebook page — the website keeps the essentials.
About the ranch
Red Heart Ranch is part of a growing trend of small family farms and ranches in the Bonner County community — proof that with diversified activities, sustainable practices, and a whole lot of hard work, a successful farm lifestyle can be achieved.
Farms like ours add something important to the local food supply: healthy, high-quality beef, poultry, eggs, and produce raised right here in Bonner County, by neighbors you can text.
Our beef
The ranch was founded in 2014 with just a few cow–calf pairs — two American Aberdeen cows with Hereford influence and a full-blood American Aberdeen bull shared with a neighbor. Today we run 30–45 head on our 80-acre ranch.
We still use a full-blood American Aberdeen bull, which keeps calf size small and calving easy. These gentle, smaller cows make efficient use of our pastures — the beef is excellent, and we have a loyal customer base to prove it.
Gentle, smaller-framed cattle that thrive on pasture and turn our forage into excellent beef, year after year.
Five Black Wagyu breeding cows of the Tajima bloodline, a subspecies of Kuroge — the line known best for the highest percentage of top-quality marbling.
Known as the “Emperor's Breed.” All Akaushi are Wagyu, but not all Wagyu are Akaushi — famous for marbling that gives the beef a melt-in-your-mouth texture and rich, buttery flavor. Our four bottle calves are the newest arrivals.
Our beef cattle are born here, raised naturally, and grass-fed — American Aberdeen as the backbone, with Japanese breeds and genetics on the way up.
Beef sales & butcher dates
We sell our beef by the whole, half, or quarter animal, custom-cut to your order. Here's how it works:
Text Gail to claim a whole, half, or quarter for the next butcher date. A share of grass-fed beef fills a freezer and feeds a family for months.
Your share comes with a custom cut sheet — steaks thick or thin, roasts big or small, ground beef the way you want it.
When the butcher date arrives we'll let you know, and you pick up your custom-cut, freezer-wrapped beef.
Butcher dates are announced on the board above and on Facebook. Not sure how much beef a quarter is? Ask — Gail is happy to talk you through your first share.
Around the ranch
We practice regenerative farming — building soils and rotating the herd between pastures to prevent overgrazing, let plants recover, and keep pastures and animals healthy.
Our 30×70-foot high tunnel stretches the growing season by months — vegetables up until Christmas, and early starts that outsmart our famous spring frosts.
A flock of about 20 Pekin ducks and 12–18 chickens of several varieties. Spring chicks free-range all summer — which keeps the insect count down — and the eggs are for sale.
Our newest venture: short farm stays for families who want to trade the urban environment for a taste of ranch living, nature, and where food really comes from.
Contact
Texts only, please
(208) 920-1331Text Gail about butcher dates, beef shares, eggs, or anything ranch. She'll get back to you — no calls needed, and no robocalls wanted.