Region IV Blue Ranch — Moore County, Texas
Region VI Cottonwood Ranch — Wells, Nevada
Rex and Susan McCloy saw an opportunity to expand their extensive farming and cattle operation in 2013, which led them to purchase what’s now known as Blue Ranch. Their last decade has been spent completing multiple brush management, water system and pasture improvement projects that have contributed to efficient cattle production and a thriving wildlife habitat. Today, the ranch is a benchmark for regenerative ranching. The McCloys, along with ranch manager Mike Turner constantly seek and implement environmental improvements to the sundry rolling prairie in the northwestern Texas Panhandle.
Cottonwood Ranch is a sixth-generation cattle (primarily cow- calf) and horse ranch that has been committed to environmental stewardship for more than six decades. The ranch includes 1,200 acres of private land, along with permitted cattle grazing on approximately 35,000 acres of federal lands. Currently, four generations reside on the ranch. In 2009, McKenzie Molsbee and her husband, Jason, moved back home to take on management of the ranch. Today, in addition to managing the ranch, they own most of the livestock. They sell their calves through videomarkets and offer custom beef sales.
Region V LeValley Ranch — Hotchkiss, Colorado
Region VII Downey Ranch — Wamego, Kansas
LeValley Ranch is a generational ranch owned and operated by brothers Hank and Mark LeValley, as well as their families. They run an Angus-based herd of over 425 mother cows and background more than 100 yearlings each year. They strive to integrate federal and private rangeland in a way that supports livestock production, wildlife habitat, and range vigor through diverse plant communities. The LeValleys also take pride in connecting with consumers and local residents through direct marketing of beef and co-ownership of retail stores and USDA processing facilities.
Downey Ranch, Inc. (DRI) was founded by third-generation cattle producer Joe Downey in Kansas’s Flint Hills in 1986. Today, it is owned and operated by his daughter, Barb, and her husband, Joe Carpenter, along with their daughters, Anna and Laura. DRI is a 550-head registered and commercial cow- calf operation that produces Angus and SimAngus seedstock bulls and females and feeder calves. The Carpenters strive to maintain a balance between the economics of ranching and the intrinsic ecological values of one of the world’s largest remaining native tallgrass prairies.
Learn more about each of these outstanding cattle producers at EnvironmentalStewardship.org.
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