SISTERS, Ore. (AP) — Doc Hatfield, a founder of a family ranchers beef cooperative headquartered in Oregon that became a champion of sustainable range management, has died of pancreatic cancer at 74.
Hatfield and his wife, Connie, founded Oregon Country Beef in 1986 with 14 ranch families who were out to get higher prices for beef that wasn’t raised on growth hormones or antibiotics. The Capital Press (http://bit.ly/GG6OcT ) reports the co-op, now called Country Natural Beef, has grown to more than 100 ranch families in 13 states.
Hatfield was an advocate of such practices as high-intensity, short-duration grazing that allows pastures to recover, and restoring springs by thinning out juniper trees that were overgrown and sucking up groundwater.
He died Tuesday in Sisters and is survived by his wife and two children.
