1859_Nov_Dec_2017_final

home farm to + table design
Farm to Table
Rosse Posse Acres
Taking elk farming to heart
written by Sophia McDonald
photography by Anthony Castro
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT A female elk poses for a
portrait. A herd of elk trot to the feeder. A male elk
stands ready for mealtime.
THE ANIMALS GRAZING at Brenda
Ross’s 52-acre Molalla property looked
peaceful enough. Then out of nowhere,
one of the 9-foot-tall ruminants reared
up on its hind legs. A sweat gland near
its eye flared open, and its nose and
towering antlers pointed to the sky.
The pale brown elk began punching its
neighbor—now also on two feet—with its
powerful hooves.
Ross was unmoved. “Elk are wicked
mean,” she said, gazing through the fence
at her ranch and petting zoo, Rosse Posse
Acres. “They’re so aggressive during
mating season that they’ll kill each other.”
This wild behavior does nothing to
diminish her obvious affection for her
eighty permanent residents. Later on, as
she reached her hand through the fence
to groom a bottle-fed elk named J.J., she
explained that she loves nearly every
aspect of raising elk for meat. “There’s not
a day I don’t pull into the driveway and say,
‘Thank you, God.’”
She used to pass by the ranch on
her frequent walks around town and
think, “Please God, one day can I have
a property like that?” When a
for-sale sign showed up, she
mentioned it to her husband,
40 1859 OREGON’S MAGAZINE NOVEMBER | DECEMBER 2017