Wayne and Sherri Staas bought their first beef cattle in 1966 and settled on a small acreage they purchased to raise their family on. They started with Angus Jersey cross cows and eventually grew and transitioned to a 100 cow commercial purebred Angus herd. Their daughter, Ronda took over herd management in 2011. At that time, Yuba River Ranch was using Hinton Ranch and Circle Ranch Simmental and Sim/Angus bulls on the herd and producing high quality commercial calves. In an effort to increase marbling and prime potential, Ronda invested in a full blood black Waygu bull and bred Yuba River Ranch’s replacement heifers to him in 2017. Since that time, the ranch has fully embraced the Wagyu breed and now crosses the entire Angus herd on fullblood black Wagyu bulls. The ranch also maintains a small herd of registered Wagyu cattle and raises it’s own bulls for F1 production as well as selling seedstock Wagyu females and bulls to other breeders.

Wayne and Sherri’s younger daughter Michelle and her husband Mike have managed the ranch’s rice operation since 2009. Along with a thousand acres of rice, they also grow alfalfa, walnuts and sunflowers in the lush Sacramento Valley.

The Yuba River Ranch family works hard to provide a high end, quality product to their customers.