JF Ranch

06/30/2025

They say ranchers don’t care about their animals. They don’t have any heart. All they care about is profit. The cow was just a number to them. Yes, she was a number. 307 red tag who just had her first calf earlier this year. She was a good gentle girl. She made an unfortunate decision to go through a gate that used to have a chain on it and was locked, but some member of the public decided they wanted it open so they cut it off. This corral hasn’t been used in years because people keep tearing it apart and it’s just not a priority for us. We don’t use it. We had water here, but someone stole the tank. Then we had a fire that burned the pipeline that brought water to this corral. Oh yeah, that particular fire was caused by someone target shooting when it was too dry out. They fully admitted it, so I’m not wrong about what caused that fire. So you can say we didn’t care, but you could also say the public doesn’t care about the consequences of their actions. You can also say we need to learn to deal with the public, but how do we do that when the public won’t follow the law? We can live harmoniously with the public if they just follow the rules and stay away from structures that they are not supposed to be touching. This poor girl got in that gate and got into one of the inner corrals and the gate shut behind her with her calf. This was me holding her head up, trying to get her to drink some water and to get some sugar and salt in her, but unfortunately it was too late. We did our best, but she passed away. Her calf now without a mother. Please take a moment before you do something stupid and think about the consequences. You may not think something like this could happen, but in a rare instance, it does. Fly high sweet girl. We’ll take care of your baby for you 🪽

04/17/2025

To the person that was driving on I 10 and called our phone number because you were upset because we flipped them off. Maybe you shouldn’t have been on your cell phone while you were driving and in the left lane camping to where you were prohibiting traffic from flowing. I have you on dash cam so when I get a chance, I will get the video and we can put you on Facebook too With your phone in your hand. So you can get upset all you want with me flipping you off but I think you should take into account. You could’ve killed someone with your phone in your hand, not paying attention. And before you get all up in arms, the passenger wrote the status. 

02/07/2024

Just a few facts for the day….

01/02/2024

We are going to be having a work day at the JF upper ranch January 27th to put back the lanes to the loading chute and squeeze chute that were damaged in the fire. We are also going to be cutting brush to put back the water lot fence. That entails cutting with a chain saw and putting in corner posts. We are also going to be hanging new gates. There will be drinks and lunch provided. If you are interested in helping comment or PM us and we will give you the details. Thank you!

08/30/2023

Brought a nice load of steers to the Marana Livestock Auction 🐂 There are some nice quality replacement heifers we brought also. I sure hope someday we can get back to selling the meat but this is where they are going for now. Auction is today if you’re interested!!

08/03/2022

It saddens me to write this but it is unfortunately what is happening right now. Due to the cost of hay that has doubled in a year and the higher costs of everything it takes to go into getting the steers ready for butcher, we have made the heartbreaking decision to not sell the processed meat this year. I did all the figures and just to break even, we would have to charge over $1,000 for 1/4 of meat. We just don’t have the heart to charge that much. Even when we charged the $800, we were barely breaking even. It’s was more for the enjoyment of sharing our passion for quality meat with everyone and having them know exactly where it came from and what went in it. Knowing these steers had a wonderful life beforehand. We decided that we will sell the steers outright so if you are still interested in quality meat where you know it came from a great home, they will be available for purchase as we bring them in. You just have to buy the whole steer and transport it yourself. We do have some out there that will be ready probably late fall and then next year we will have a few. I am so sorry we had to do this. I take so much pride in what we do and being able to provide for families and it breaks my heart to do this. Hopefully things will get better next year but I just don’t know 😔

*Video is of the steers we are getting done for the family this year. It’s going to be really tough sending these guys. I’m a little bit attached 😢

02/09/2022

Sweet ole Coonie. She was the last remaining cow from the original J/A brand. She helped us many a time gather rouge cattle or a bull that had escaped the corral. She was 16 years old and never missed a year giving us a calf. She will be missed greatly. She was a special one and is being buried in the pasture as I write this 💕

12/28/2021

This article is a very interesting read. The comments after make you lose IQ points. It’s like they didn’t even read the full article.

I get many people asking me how much our beef is and when I tell them, they go into shock. We mainly sell ours in bulk which is hard for some people to be able to afford at one time. They always exclaim that it’s way too high and they can go to the store for cheaper. But if you break down the cost of what we sell ours for, you would be very surprised.

A quarter of beef which is roughly 125 pounds is sold for $800. Break it down and you’re paying $6.40 per pound. Go to your local grocery store and find out what type of meat you can get for that price. A quarter of beef from us is a mixture of the entire steer. You get most all of the cuts for $6.40 per pound.

Understandably, I know there are consumers who can not afford that. Not can they afford to have a larger freezer to store it in. Which is also why we have started to sell individual cuts. But the cost of our individual cuts are a greater cost than what you will get at a grocery store so that turns people off.

Unfortunately it is a losing battle on every side you look at. We are in this business because we love the way of life it provides. We love bringing quality beef to families. And we love knowing that they know exactly where their beef came from. Here’s something you may or may not know and it’s not something ranchers like to post publicly but we do not make a profit at all selling our beef. Would we like to? Yes, of course. Is it feasible? No, it’s not. We have other jobs that support this way of life thankfully.

There are so many costs involved in running a ranch. Most aren’t the normal costs, like supplements and feed every now and then. Maintenance repairs are a large cost also. You could probably make a small profit if that was all there was. But then you get your wildfires that come along and devastate you. They are the big money losses that ranchers can not keep up with. On the JF Ranch, just the Woodbury fire alone has a price tag of $2,585,000 to put fencing and water pipelines back in. Then we had the Sawtooth fire and the Whitlow fire which took out miles of pipeline that needs replaced. Granted, we get help from some agencies but it’s only a very small fraction of what is needed. For example, installing fences are $62,000 per mile and the agency that we partner with provides $14,000. So we have to come up with $48,000 out of our own pocket. How do we do that if we don’t even make a profit normally?

Unfortunately this way of life is going to be no longer if consumers don’t start standing up and fighting for it also. We don’t even know if the beef at the grocery store is from America. But you know exactly where it comes from when you buy straight from your local rancher 🐂

“You’re feeding America and going broke doing it”: After years of consolidation, four companies dominate the meatpacking industry, while many ranchers are barely hanging on.

11/05/2021

So sorry this is short notice and we completely understand if you can’t make it but in case you are free and want to put in a good days work 🤪

09/19/2021

To all the hunters out there 😜

Are you ready for hunting season?
www.rangemagazine.com

08/21/2021

When people say they will only eat “antibiotic free” meat, I would love to show them this picture. How would you feel if you had a case of pink eye and didn’t go to the doctor to get medicine to make it better? I would assume the burning in the eye would be quite painful. The same is true for animals.
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One of my calves had pink eye, and I (the doctor) gave him a spray in his eye and an antibiotic to help heal his infection. If we can take antibiotics when we are sick, why can’t we expect our animals to do the same?
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This is the first time this animal has ever been given an antibiotic, and hopefully it’s the last. But if I didn’t treat him knowing he had a bacterial infection in his eye, he would suffer in pain for a few weeks, completely loose vision out of that eye, and potentially loose the entire eye if the infection got bad enough. That’s a better end result than giving an antibiotic to heal the eye in a few days? I would beg to differ.
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You see, since he was given a shot, that does not mean that there will be antibiotics in his meat. Every single antibiotic has a withdrawal period on the label. After the minimum withdrawal days have gone by, the medicine will be completely out of his system and his body will be antibiotic free. ALL animals are antibiotic free because of required withdrawal periods, and every animal that enters a processing facility is tested before butcher to make sure there is no antibiotics in their system. If there is, the animal is rejected and will not be butchered.
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Pink eye is a very contagious disease and can cause many issues this time of the year. Luckily, we have only had a few calves who have gotten it, but if we didn’t treat those few animals it could potentially spread like wild fire into the rest of the herd. And that is NOT a good day if that would happen.
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Did you know ALL meat is antibiotic free because of withdrawal periods? Leave your response in the comments below 👇🏻
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