Cattle You Will See on the Ranch

When the first thing a visitor sees are cattle lounging on your driveway or a bull bellowing nearby, they have two questions. “Are they your cattle?” And “what kind are they?” Both are good, straightforward questions that I will answer there.

The short answer to the first question is that these are not our cattle. We do not own them and do very little for them other than to provide a place to graze. This has been a great solution for us. Heeding the wisdom of friends, neighbors and books, we pretty well understood that the easiest way to go broke in ranching is to actually buy cows. Over the years, however, we learned that people were really trying to tell us that people with our level of experience should not buy cows.

The real question that people are too polite to ask is “why do you allow them to roll around and rub out tub-sized potholes in your driveway”. I don’t have a good answer to this question except to admit that we love to watch them. I usually explain that cows cannot pass up a summer dirt bath and have about as much fear of cars as the a big city squeegee man. Quite the opposite, they look forward to cars and trucks, expecting that someone will open a gate for them or just drop off some mineral treat.

The second question is still a bit difficult because mix of breeds, crosses and cattle ages change slightly each year. The best person to answer this question is our neighbor, the real deal cattleman and horseman around here. When you visit our ranch you will be seeing his herd. He was raised in a ranching family, a Crawford, Nebraska local, and Crawford High School rodeo champ. He has been riding and raising his own herds for over thirty years. He’s the guy who puts beef on your table and keeps our grasslands and pastures healthy and productive! We are blessed to be working with him. Pictured below are a few of the breeds and cattle types you will see.