Last updated on November 7th, 2025 at 08:01 am
Ranching On The Cajun Prairie
It’s not that Chris Thibodeaux wasn’t familiar with agriculture. His grandparents on both sides were farmers, after all. But as often happens, his parents left the farm for other opportunities. “Our parents were blue collar workers who put us through school so that we could try to better ourselves,” Chris says. “And it’s all worked out.”
Indeed it has. And it continues to do so on the Grace Ranch, near Jennings in southwest Louisiana for Chris and his wife Staci, first-generation Brahman, F1 Braford and Brangus breeders.
All In The Family
Making a living in agriculture is tough. Crops, cattle, agribusiness, it doesn’t matter. While it may not necessarily take a village to be successful, it does require not only brain power, but the mental toughness and entrepreneurial spirit to survive the bad times and take advantage of the good times.
And family. That’s the combination that has kept Jim Friemel, patriarch of an extensive cattle feeding, ranching and farming operation in the Texas Panhandle, going strong.
The Year They Tried Brand X.
Across the heart of ranch country — from the rugged country of Idaho and the grasslands of Oklahoma — a quiet pattern has repeated itself. Ranchers who had relied on Riomax® for years started to wonder: could they get the same results for less?
Each of these five cattlemen — Dain & Kent Rad (ID), Larry Morris (OK), Harold Gleason (OK), Brad Kavorik (NE), and Leslie & Jan Harrison (OK) — decided to find out. What they discovered was a shared truth: the “cheap” option often comes with the highest price tag.
Riding Out A Wyoming Winter: The Reinke Family Way
The wind cuts hard across the hills outside Sheridan, Wyoming. Snow drifts stack up along the fences, and the cattle bunch together in the draws, heads down against the cold.
For Dan Reinke, this country has been home for a long time. The Reinke family tends cattle the way most ranchers do — by the weather, the season, and the cows themselves. Dan Reinke and his son work side by side in a cow–calf and seed-stock partnership, carrying forward a way of life where every winter storm and every calf crop shapes the year ahead.
Lessons From the Homeplace: An Oklahoma Rancher’s Story
If you’re going to spend that much money, you’re darn sure going to take the time to learn enough to convince yourself that the investment is worth it. That was Dale Ferguson’s mindset at the beginning of the journey that led him to swallow hard and write a check for his first load of orange Riomax tubs. He’s glad he did. He only wishes he’d pulled the plug earlier.
The O Ro Way: Hard Land, Hardy Cattle, Smart Management
Tucked away in the remote hills northwest of Prescott, Arizona, The O Ro Ranch isn’t your average cattle outfit. It’s rugged, it’s historic, and it’s run the way it always has been—on horseback, by folks who know the land, respect tradition, and aren’t afraid of hard work.
Reviving Old Cows & Ranching Traditions
Jason Picard isn’t just managing cattle under the open prairie skies of Saskatchewan—he’s trying to rebuild something meaningful. When he took over this ranch, the cattle he inherited weren’t in prime condition. Many were older, neglected, and even physically compromised.
Tough Country, Tougher Cattle
East Texas has a way of testing ranchers. It looks like prime cattle country with its steady rainfall and thick grass, but underneath the surface, many ranchers know the truth: the land often promises more than it delivers. Bob Sanders has heard that sentiment his whole life. “My granddad used to say East Texas promises so much and delivers so little,” he recalls with a quiet grin. For years, he and his son Dustin ran cattle on these pastures and tried to make the most of it. But they kept hitting the same wall.
Keeping It Simple
Dave runs a traditional cow-calf operation in Saskatchewan, where the wind cuts deep in the winter and the summers run dry more often than not. He doesn’t run a big spread, and he doesn’t rely on a lot of machinery or hired help. His cows—roughly 140 head most years—graze native range and tame grass across the hills and meadows near his place. There’s not a lot of fancy equipment in the yard, and that’s just the way Dave likes it.
It’s a Family Affair
Six Creeks Farm, like many farms and ranches, is a family affair. And it takes a lot of family when the operation is spread across 4,500 acres of farmland and 50,000 acres of private and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) acres of southeast Montana prairie. “My grandpa, my dad and his two brothers bought the first place in 1982,” Hansen says, and they ran the outfit until about eight years ago, when Hansen and his wife Brandy, along with his parents Mike and Penny, and sister Megan, bought out the uncles.
