We are relative newcomers both to Texas and to cattle ranching, moving here in late 2018 and obtaining our first cattle in March 2019.  We had a "family horse" for many years, and our oldest daughter now has her own horse.  But we hadn't been able to afford land on which to keep them while staying within manageable commuting distance of work.  The move to Texas allowed us (barely!) to change that.  We have been very happy here and love our "ranch life" in Texas.

The people from whom we purchased our property had a few mini cattle on it.  They explained how that made sense for them because mini cattle required less feed than full size cattle, and because of the size of their property.

Because we had no experience with cattle, and hadn't even heard of mini cattle, we looked around the internet to see what we could learn.  The most important and useful thing we learned is that, in our experience, the mini cattle community in Texas is friendly and supportive.  I think the reason for that is because the mini cattle operations seem to be small individual- or family-owned businesses that are run by folks who love what they are doing.

It was clear that we would have friendly and knowledgeable folks to help us along the way.  It also seemed like a good way to get into the cattle business without having to compete with larger commercial beef cattle operations.  So, despite good-natured ribbing from my co-workers about "mini cowboys with mini lassos," we decided on mini cattle.

We believe that God* has ordained mankind to be stewards of His creation (Genesis 1:28), and made us accountable to Him for that stewardship (1 Corinthians 4:2).  We run our ranch according to Proverbs 12:10a, "The righteous care for the needs of their animals, ..."

We believe in dealing honestly and straight-forwardly with people, and in honoring our commitments (Proverbs 10:9, Proverbs 12:22).  We believe in treating others the way we would want to be treated (Matthew 7:12).

Properly caring for the animals under our stewardship includes caring about where they end up.  One purpose of cattle is to provide food for people (Genesis 9:3).  There is nothing wrong with that and we are not opposed to it; we do it ourselves.  But we reserve the right to refuse sale of our cattle if we have a good faith belief that they will be abused, seriously neglected, or cruelly mistreated.

* By "God" we mean the triune Christian God as testified to in Holy Scripture; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.