08/25/2026
When we first started telling people about our Ranch - we got a lot of ‘who are you?’ with many people not really believing that we were starting a Ranch. Heck, I didn’t really believe it myself! But here we are 😁
Leading us to… OUR STORY (Part Four): From a few cows, to a full on Ranch.
Continuing from last post where we had no idea how to raise cows…
We really didn’t have a clue 😂 BUT now that we had the cows and I surprisingly LOVED them - I was whole heartedly invested and began to join Jay in the deep dive research. I really never paid attention to the different ways of raising cattle prior to this, but the more we read about regenerative agriculture, the more drawn we were to it. A big portion of our land was old farmland 50+ years ago that had since been overtaken by a lot of unusable scrubland. What we were learning through our research was that, if grazed properly, our cows could help us regenerate this soil, increase biodiversity and invigorate wildlife habitats while turning much of the scrub bush into productive land again - THUS, creating a net-positive return on the earth. At this point, we were determined that if we were going to raise cows for our family we had do it in a way that was not only beneficial for us and our cows, but also beneficial for our land as well!
Jay started planning out the different pastures we could develop and fence in, but quickly halted when pricing it all out. In order to fence in more of our land and implement proper grazing strategies, we were going to need a whole lot more money. We began brainstorming ways to help us properly implement rotational grazing and decided our best option would be to create a business plan so we could apply for a loan.
And so, a business plan we began and it went something like this:
~ Me to Jay when I first started working on the business plan: Okay, so I’m only doing this plan to help us apply for a loan, we’re not actually starting a business…we’re just going to sell our meat to friends and family.
When we first started telling people about our Ranch - we got a lot of ‘who are you?’ with many people not really believing that we were starting a Ranch. Heck, I didn’t really believe it myself! But here we are 😁
Leading us to… OUR STORY (Part Four): From a few cows, to a full on Ranch.
Continuing from last post where we had no idea how to raise cows…
We really didn’t have a clue 😂 BUT now that we had the cows and I surprisingly LOVED them - I was whole heartedly invested and began to join Jay in the deep dive research. I really never paid attention to the different ways of raising cattle prior to this, but the more we read about regenerative agriculture, the more drawn we were to it. A big portion of our land was old farmland 50+ years ago that had since been overtaken by a lot of unusable scrubland. What we were learning through our research was that, if grazed properly, our cows could help us regenerate this soil, increase biodiversity and invigorate wildlife habitats while turning much of the scrub bush into productive land again - THUS, creating a net-positive return on the earth. At this point, we were determined that if we were going to raise cows for our family we had do it in a way that was not only beneficial for us and our cows, but also beneficial for our land as well!
Jay started planning out the different pastures we could develop and fence in, but quickly halted when pricing it all out. In order to fence in more of our land and implement proper grazing strategies, we were going to need a whole lot more money. We began brainstorming ways to help us properly implement rotational grazing and decided our best option would be to create a business plan so we could apply for a loan.
And so, a business plan we began and it went something like this:
~ Me to Jay when I first started working on the business plan: Okay, so I’m only doing this plan to help us apply for a loan, we’re not actually starting a business…we’re just going to sell our meat to friends and family.
~ Me to Jay partway through working on the business plan: Hmmm, it's really hard to make money with cows (it's true), should
we maybe get some pigs too? They could also actually really help us clear land.
Jay: I thought we weren't actually starting a business, so what does it matter if we're not making much money off the cows.
Me: Right. I'm just saying, getting pigs would make our business plan look much better.
~ Me to Jay by the time we're finishing up the business plan: We need to start this Ranch.
Jay: That was the plan the whole time (😂 that's how it went. As we dove further into the business plan the thought of starting an actual Ranch all the sudden didn't seem so crazy. But even more so than that, through the research, we became increasingly aware of the gaps in the industry and a fire began burning in our souls. Our desire to provide high quality meat to our family, slowly turned into a passion and excitement to provide others with nutrient-dense food they could trust and know exactlv where it came from "
And so, we re-vamped the business plan to include some woolly pigs, added some more Highlands to the fold, changed some goals and projections, came up with a name - and put it into action!
And there you have it - our slow spiral into ranching! We got our first cows over 2 years ago now and we haven't actually sold any meat yet, but it's coming guys - and we're excited!! It's amazing looking back on how one door opening, led to so many other doors opening - taking us to where we needed to be one door at a time. It's not by chance that we are here now, we are meant to be here and we couldn't imagine our lives anywhere else. It's been a crazy amount of work and there's still loads to learn, but the rewards -- healthy food, healthy land, and healthy families -- will keep us going for years to come.
Thanks for following along this LONG story of ours and joining us in this crazy adventure we call life!
