Double O Ranch: Merging Meat and AgroTourism

Double O Ranch is located near Concrete, WA, on 480 acres of land. The ranch, which sits on the Skagit River with 360 degree sweeping views of Mount Baker and the North Cascades, offers custom all-natural grain-fed beef and grass-fed USDA packaged beef. In addition, Double O has guest cabins and camp sites for visitors, and sells show steers, as well as breeding females and bulls, to youth for their 4-H or FFA project animals. 

Kleinhuizen and her husband purchased the cattle herd from Kleinhuizen’s mother in 2011. She also partners with her four sisters – Karin Carter, Helen Ovenell, Kathy Roy and Kris Hansen – to run the guest lodging at the ranch and the on-site homemade item market. 

The ranch has Maine-Anjou and Angus cattle, in both full blood and cross-breads. Cattle numbers include about 100 cow calf pairs, 20 replacement heifers, 10-12 feedlot steers and 4-5 bulls. 

They sell custom quarter, half and whole butchered grain-fed beef, and butcher about 10-12 customer head each year. Additionally, they sell USDA certified grass-fed beef by the package.

“Customers really like the grass-fed stuff,” Kleinhuizen said. “We’ve been able to keep the good quality grass-fed stuff, because we’ve been concentrating on carcass quality for a long time.” 

She added that Maine-Anjou cattle are known for their marbling and cutability.  

At one time, Double O Ranch did sell some of their packaged USDA certified meat in stores, but now all sales are direct to customer. Kleinhuizen said she has a lot of local customers, and people who stay in the guest lodging can – and often do – purchase meat when they book their stay. 

It’s not uncommon for the ranch to run out between butchering. Kleinhuizen said she hopes in the future, another USDA beef butcher will open, allowing them to do more meat and increase their butchered supply to meet the demand. 

“People come from all over to buy beef from us,” Kleinhuizen said. “Once they try it, they’ll come back.” 

Additionally, the ranch sells at least two head of cattle to the Concrete School District each year. 

Double O Ranch is a customer of Skagit Farmers Supply, which does soil samples and fertilizers for all the ranch’s fields, as well as supplies propane to the home and guest houses on the property.     

A PIONEER FAMILY’S HISTORY 
The cattle ranch in its current form came to be in 1947, when James T. Ovenell and Harold Pierson combined two local parcels of land to create P&O Ranch. During the subsequent years, the Ovenells cleared more than 700 acres of river bottom, timber and stumps to build the ranch, following a conservation plan which determined which land would be cleared and which crops would be planted. 

The ranch’s cattle were kept in Burlington during the winter and moved to Concrete in the summer, totaling 371 head by 1949. Crops on the ranch included peas, flax, corn and hay. 

By the late 1950s, Jim and Mary Ovenell were the sole owners of the ranch. When they retired, they passed management of the Burlington location to son, Lyle, and the Concrete location to son, Norman, Kleinhuizen’s father. 

In 1965, Norman married Eleanor Jungbluth; the couple later had five daughters who own and operate the ranch, guest houses and land today. 

“It’s cool to be a part of the history of the area, and preserving it,” Kleinhuizen said. “That’s a big part of the agro-tourism as well – it’s a way to keep the land and be able to share it with people.” 

In 1997, the ranch opened four rooms in the main home as a bed and breakfast. In 2000, it added four log cabins and three guest houses, which are still operational today. Most recently, Double O Ranch added six Harvest Host sites, which are camp spots for self-contained campers which the camper can book through an app. 

The ranch is also available for events and weddings. 

Kleinhuizen said the on-site guest lodging has been a great way to connect with people who may not normally see the farm. 

“There’s a loss of connection to ranching and how we work with wildlife,” she said. ““Our guests can come see that and see the interaction and see that you can do both at the same time and see that one doesn’t take away from the other.”

She added that it is important for people in today’s world to see how meat is produced, and how humane it can be to raise animals. 

To access the cabins and Harvest Host sites, a camper drives down a gravel road through the fields where cattle are grazing with a full view of Mount Baker and Sauk Mountain. The road ends at the Skagit River, where guests can take a dip. 

Kleinhuizen said having guests has been beneficial for the ranch owners as well, as they get an outsider’s point of view on what they do. 

“We’re always seeing everything we’re behind on – that field didn’t get harrowed, and the fence didn’t get fixed, and the lawn didn’t get mowed,” Kleinhuizen said. “But [guests] don’t care. They see the beauty of everything. They’re just in awe”

For more information about Double O Ranch, visit www.doubleoranchllc.com. For more information about Ovenell’s Heritage In Log Cabins, Guesthouses and Historic Ranch, visit www.ovenells-inn.com. 

Published in agricultural industry quarterly newsletter
Summer 2023