Duane Shimogawa Sr. wants Kaua`i to eat more beef, specifically, more all-natural, free-range, grass-fed Kaua`i raised beef.

So he jumped at the chance to contribute beef from his own herd of Red and Black Angus cattle for the first ever Garden Island Range & Food Festival to be held Nov. 15 at Kilohana (see box for details).

"I'm proud of my beef," the Kipu resident says of the cattle he raises on 1,600 acres southwest of Lihu`e. "And I'm a firm believer in keeping everything local."

Shimogawa calls himself a "first-generation" cattle rancher. He got into the business as a ranch manager for 1,200-acres of the Rice family's Kipu Ranch in 1974 and then 14 years ago started working weekends as boss of his own herd.

The Shimogawa family, which has been on Kaua`i for four generations, has been involved with the processing of meat on this island for some time. His father, Kenichi "Stupe" Shimogawa only recently retired from cutting customers' meat to order at Andrade's in Lawa`i, one of two slaughterhouses on Kaua`i.

Shimogawa's father now helps him with A`akukui Ranch, as do his wife, Anne; daughter Shantelle Manibog and her husband Euge; son Duane Jr., when he's home from O`ahu, where he works as a TV newsman; bunches of cousins and other relatives; and cowboys from around the island who chip in for twice a year roundups.

Shimogawa runs about 450 brood cows (calf-bearing females) and 50 bulls on A`akukui Ranch, named after the former sugar camp on the Grove Farm land he leases.

Each year's "crop" of calves is about half-and-half male and female. Some females each year are raised to maturity as replacements for older brood cows and some new males each year join the ranks of the bulls.

The majority of cattle are bound for slaughter when they're about 2 years old. Older cattle that have done their time as reproducers and are tougher are destined for hamburger, while the younger ones are the source of choice cuts of meat, Shimogawa says.

Shimogawa started his ranch with 900 acres, transforming it with hard work from abandoned, overgrown cane fields to rich pasture.

If you don't raise cattle you might not know: the very same Guinea grass that was a pest for sugar growers and lawns is a terrific cattle feed. The cows love it and fatten well on it.

Plow under the remnant sugar and the weeds, and the Guinea grass becomes dominant, Shimogawa explains.

Give the cows some shade and water and Guinea grass – and voila, top-rate Kaua`i beef.

When sugar was in full swing, most of Kaua`i's prime agriculture land went to that crop. But as plantations pulled out of sugar, former cane land has been available for other agriculture purposes.

Some people associate grass-feed beef with toughness, because they've had animals raised in steeper, mountainous areas, where they had to work to get at their grass.

Raising cattle on lower elevations with plenty to eat means "fat and happy cows," which translates to tenderer meat, Shimogawa said.

Allowing potential customers to taste the quality of locally raised beef, pork and lamb is one reason he and other ranchers are contributing meat for the Range and Food Festival.

And it's not just about upscale dining, though Shimogawa believes natural range cows are up to that task. With the down economy, cooks can learn how to prepare cheaper cuts of meat in ways that taste best, he said.

For instance, though he likes a good steak, Shimogawa is really partial to beef stew and chopped steak.

A big Catch-22 for Shimogawa and other Kaua`i ranchers is that the two aging slaughterhouses on island aren't large enough to process all the beef that could be sent there, he said.

For now that sort of works because Kaua`i residents and visitors aren't buying and eating that quantity of local beef. But if word spreads about the quality of Kaua`i beef, pork and lamb, the demand will go up. Then, maybe more grocery stores will add local meats to their offerings, he says.

But to deal with that future increase, a larger, more modern slaughterhouse is crucial, Shimogawa says.

Bottleneck a rancher and see if they don't give you the same answer. However, exactly how, when or where a new slaughterhouse will be built here is still "in discussion stages," Shimogawa says.

With current slaughterhouse capacity, ranchers must export live cattle for fattening on the Mainland, even as packaged mainland meats are shipped here.

"There's a movement towards more sustainability" and producing food on Kaua`i for consumption here, Shimogawa says.

But until people start buying, requesting, even demanding local meats from their grocery stores, the local market for local range meats won't grow, Shimogawa says.

And unless more meat is sold locally, ranchers who could produce more Kaua`i meat limit their output and/or ship young animals to the mainland for fattening and slaughter there.

A marketing study several years ago for the Kaua`i Cattlemen's Association said people want locally produced products.

Folks like Shimogawa are trying to meet that desire.

A`akukui Ranch beef is sold retail at Ishihara and Sueoka's markets and featured at the Sheraton Kaua`i, Kaua`i Marriott and Beach Club and Gaylord's Restaurant.

Reach Diana Leone at dleone@honoluluadvertiser.com.