My name is Brittany Cole Bush, AKA Cole.  I’m the eldest of 6 daughters, born and raised in the southern coastal parts of California. After years of being seasonally nomadic with a home base in the Bay Area of Northern California I’ve made a full circle back to Southern California now stewarding 240 acres of land in the Ojai Valley of Ventura County.

I call myself a modern-day urban shepherdess, shepherding animals, people, and projects. Working in both the built landscapes of urban metropolises as well as on the land with my comrade graziers I am committed to supporting a new era of working on the land with livestock and innovative agrarian entrepreneurship. My work takes place in the fields of education and advocacy for the good food & fiber movement, supporting efforts to enhance ecological health of the land and using carefully managed grazing as an effective tool to reduce fire hazardous vegetation.

Passionate about connecting conscious consumers closer to the source of what they consume and use, I am the co-founder/owner of a sheep and goat hide enterprise called Shepherdess Holistic Hides. We source our hides regionally from sheep and goats “raised and grazed” in the American West, working to highlight the stories of select ranchers and farmers that dedicatedly raise their animals with care, ethically and humanely. I also enjoy the craft of working with leather and make custom to spec practical things for daily use.

Inspired by the shepherding schools of Spain and France, I have been working to create a pathway to prepare the next generation of graziers as “ecological doctors of the land” while creating viable livelihoods in the work of “land and livestock” through an evolving project called the Grazing School of the West. It is my personal mission to help bridge the gap for those desiring meaningful and impactful work in a new era of land stewardship through new opportunities forged by newly developed collaborations with public and private land managers, institutions, industry stakeholders, and non-profit organizations.

In 2020 I embarked on my greatest journey yet launching Shepherdess Land and Livestock Co., a contract grazing outfit providing prescribed grazing services, along with technical assistance for the development of community-supported, community-driven grazing programs. This has been long in the works and I am thrilled to be making my biggest leap yet.

It's hard not to live life like a story tale when there is so much beauty and experience to be had.

 I hope you get to learn a bit about my story, what I make and do, and perhaps I'll get to know yours too.

Thanks for visiting.