​Short History of Bianchi Ranches:
Bianchi Ranches, located in the foothills of Gilroy Calif.  is a family owned and operated cattle ranch. The family has run cattle on this location for over 40 years. A very central location just an hour or so away from the beach and the Silicon Valley the family finds it the perfect place to call home. 
Meet the Cattle
At Bianchi Ranches we run a variety of purebred and commercial cattle. The operation consists of over 125 purebred Charolais cows, 50 purebred Polled and Horned Hereford cows and 50 purebred Red Angus cows. We have also begun to raise Black Angus and Simmental seedstock, which we plan to be very selective in, in order to produce only top-quality herd bulls and show females. We focus on producing purebred cattle that will excel in the showring and then be an excellent breeding piece to anyone’s herd.
We also run over 350 commercial cattle. Our commercial herd consists of primarily Charolais and Red Angus cross females. When choosing replacement females look for those that will be a great addition to our herd. We then breed all first calf heifers to our own Red Angus bulls to insure for a successful first calf. We then use Charolais, Red Angus, and Hereford bulls for yearly coverage of our cow herd. We believe in using our own seed stock to ensure that the bulls we sell to fellow cattlemen will turn out.
Although all of our commercial cows calf in the fall, we breed our purebreds to calve in both the spring and fall. The reason for this is that we have a variety of bull buyers that purchase bulls to use at different times of the year.  Typically, buyers from California turn out bulls in the fall and buyers from Oregon and Nevada turn their bulls out in the spring, we like to be able to meet all their needs. 
We market our bulls at a variety of bull sales throughout the year, focusing on sales in California and Oregon. We also sell several bulls of the ranch each year to repeat customers. We focus on selling in consignment sales such as Red Bluff Bull and Gelding Sale, Klamath Falls Bull Sale, and the California Breeders Bull Sale in order to grow our customer base and meet new cattlemen. Years ago we chose to start feeding all of our bulls at home. This gives us more control over the feeding process. We are also able to track our bulls progress much better to ensure we are happy with how they are looking come sale season.
We market our purebred heifer calves in our annual California Girls Female Sale each fall. In the sale we sell a number of show heifers to breeders and juniors throughout the country. We love to sell cattle to juniors and watch them grow and develop as they learn in their projects. We consider all of our customers family and love to spend time with them helping them with their projects. We also sell show and replacement females privately year-round.
All of our commercial calves are marketed with Turlock Livestock Auction Yard and we truly appreciate their friendship and guidance throughout the years. 
Meet the People
Robert and Chris Bianchi are the founders of Bianchi Ranches and are still the hardest workers on the place. Robert is involved in the day to day operations of feeding, fixing fence, and working on numerous projects around the ranch. Chris is involved deeply in the records keeping that is required with this many breeds of cattle. Chris also helps with everything around the ranch including taking care of her small boar goat herd.
Robert and Chris believe in giving back and being involved in making the cattle industry better. Robert is a past president and current officer of the local cattleman’s association, Santa Clara County Cattlemen’s. He works closely with the association to fight issues facing our industry. If you show cattle, you might have also seen Robert at one of the many shows held in Reno at the Livestock Event Center. Robert currently manages the barns operations for all the purebred cattle events held in Reno. Robert is also the president of the California Charolais Association. Chris is involved with many different breed associations including serving the Hereford breeders of the West Coast. Chris is currently the Vice President of the California/ Nevada Hereford Association. She also works as the head sponsorship director of the Western States Hereford Association, where she works to give the Hereford breeders of the Western US a great experience in Reno each year. Robert and Chris are also involved in many other shows and bull sales throughout the year where they give back to juniors and fellow cattlemen. Chris also enjoys spending time working for fellow breeders at shows throughout the United States at shows and national events.
Their daughter, Erica, graduated from California State University, Fresno, with a degree in Agricultural Business, she has returned to the ranch to expand her own cow herd. Erica is currently running around 160 black cross commercial cows and many purebreds. She works for the ranch to run our immensely large show string and feedlot, along with assisting with day to day operations at the ranch. Erica works hard to make sure our female sale is a success each year, along with working with juniors throughout the year to make sure their projects are going well. Erica can be seen at many cow shows including local jackpots and many national shows. Erica is very involved in making sure juniors have the opportunities that they deserve within the cattle industry. She currently serves as the Junior Advisor for the California Charolais Association and the Western States Red Angus Association. She also serves as a director of the California Nevada Hereford Association and Western States Red Angus Association. Erica’s main focus is the juniors and helping them grow and develop into outstanding young individuals.
Erica and her husband Steven are working hard to ensure the ranch continues to be successful. Steven helps around the ranch to clean up the property and maintaining all of the ranch vehicles. We thank him for all of his help.
Meet the Ranch
We are located just outside of Gilroy, Calif. Where we live in the rolling foothills. Bianchi Ranches is a four-generation cattle ranch ran at this location. We are very fortunate because we live in California’s great weather, with our location being only 40 minutes from the coast we usually experience coastal fog daily. While we do get hot during the summer months, we have a much more desirable climate then some of the other parts of the state.
We operate on approximately 5200 acres at our Gilroy location. With most of the ranch crossed fenced so that we have many separate fields to move the cattle into which allows us to implement rotational grazing.  We also rent two other ranches located in San Benito and Monterey counties that 8100 acres. We are very grateful to work with wonderful landlords that have allowed our operation to grow.
The purebred cows are wintered in the hills along with our commercial herd. In the summer the cows are run on dry land hayfields that we plant in late fall with a forage mix that consists of oat, wheat, and barley seed.  We plant approximately 250 acres with this forage mix.  In the summer months we supplement hay that has been cut with cull bell peppers, which we obtain from local growers. California has been in a severe drought for the past 4-5 years so this helps us to lengthen the time it takes for the cattle to consume the hay crop that was planted.   
We work very hard to be able to get the most out of our land and cattle. We have partnered with the Nature Conversancy many times to implement water projects on our land. Through their partnership we can develop natural springs that help us not only ensure our water have safe, clean water but also help in ensure that the immense amount of wildlife on our ranches have water to drink.  We also work with our landlords to clean and fix rivers, lakes, and dams to make sure we can provide water to livestock and wildlife. This is a very important part of our ranch management plan due to our severe drought throughout the western US.
We feed many byproducts at our ranch including cull bell peepers and spent grain from microbreweries. Both resources help us feed our livestock and reduce waste in our landfills. The cull peppers are fed to our cattle herd during the summer and fall months. Brewer’s grain is fed to our steers and bulls to help maintain and grow them as we feed them out. We are passionate about being able to use resources such as these to help reduce waste.
 Meet the Dogs
A few years ago, we decided to embark on the journey of raising Miniature Australian Shepherds. We currently have four breeding females and one male on site. We raise several litters of pups each year and work hard to make sure they get placed into loving homes. If you would like to know more about our dogs, please contact Erica at 408-804-3153.