Circle Arrow Longhorns: Our Story
We always knew we were destined to be ranchers. Growing up, Judi in Canada and Roy in South Texas, the larger than life persona of TV cowboys and cowgirls like Roy Rogers and Dale Evans gave both of us a shared lifelong dream of living a truly western lifestyle.
This dream began to take root for real about twelve years ago when we purchased 160 acres of farmland with an irrigation pivot and plowed out corners—a far cry from a working ranch. But, little by little, year by year, we have restored our land back to prairie and pasture. As we both have "town jobs," Roy is a soil conservation coordinator for a conservation district, and Judi is a middle school English teacher, all the farm/ranch work has to be done on the weekends and in the evenings. The two of us have even built our own house and barns with very little additional help from family and friends.
We were given the Circle Arrow brand by a hundred year old woman, Ruth Linn, before she passed away. We knew this brand was special and decided to use it as our own. We purchased two small groups of Texas Longhorn cattle. One group came from Meeker, Colorado and the second group from Charlie Schreiner, owner of the famous YO ranch in Mountain Home, Texas. We now have around 130 head of pure Texas Longhorns. All our cattle are ranch raised except for three heifers we recently purchased from the historic herd kept at Fort Robinson.
Since purchasing our foundation stock, we have acquired more grass land and restored the entire original piece to natural grass. We have removed the pivot irrigation system and now rely solely on nature to water our pasture. We try to keep everything on the ranch in a natural cycle. Our cows have their calves in May and early June--about the same time that most animals naturally give birth. The care and welfare of our animals is an important part of every day. Our home faces the pasture where the cows calve and every morning we survey the "nursery" for any apparent problems or new arrivals. Our animals are fed entirely on pasture grass in warm weather and hay forage in the winter. They are never penned up for long periods of time or fed any grain products or supplements meant to increase growth. They live comfortably and naturally here with us on the ranch.
