Shudde Ranch

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The Shudde Ranch was established in 1897 by my grandparents, John and Anna Schuddemagen. They made payments on the 1500 acre ranch from the sales of honey and a few cattle. John was primarily a beekeeper with about 400 colonies of bees on the ranch's huajilla brush. John and Anna carved out a pretty good life for themselves and their eight children. The ranch provided most of what they needed, as numerous deer, turkey, squirrel, quail, dove and wild hogs made their home here. Small patches of land were cleared so that some crops like oats and milo grains could be planted. The family also kept a vegetable garden. The ranch is long and narrow, and in the early days, the cattle could only get water from the Sabinal River that served as the western boundary for the ranch. The eastern end was almost five miles from water, which was much too far for cattle to roam for grazing. The first stock tank was dug by Emil Shudde, my father, using a mule and an implement called a fresno. The whole ranch was now ready to be used for the purpose of raising cattle. Over the years more stock tanks have been dug using a bulldozer. There have been times on the ranch when most of the herd had to be sold because stock tanks went dry. Now, some of the stock tanks have wells on them to offer a dependable supply of water. The ranch has also been divided into several pastures, which allows us to rotate the cattle for grazing purpose. The cattle will spend about three to four weeks in a pasture, then they are moved. This gives the cattle fresh nutritious grass to eat and allows the pastures a chance to grow back before they are grazed again. We take great pride in our grass on the ranch. We have spent a great deal of time, money, and energy clearing brush and planting grass. What is not obvious to most people is that grass is our primary crop, not cattle. Cattle harvest the grass and convert it to something usable, beef. Most of the land on the ranch is rolling hills with a flint gravel top-soil. In my family's early days, it was completely covered in brush. In the years before civilization though, the land was prairie except along creeks and rivers. Because of our clearing efforts, about 50% of the ranch is now returned to grassland. The remaining brush will be left as a habitat for the wildlife, who also benefit from the grass. As I indicated before, we are proud of our grasslands. Now, I would like to tell you why we use Longhorn cattle to harvest our grass. Different types of cattle had been on the ranch, but we searched for one that could use the grass more efficiently. Longhorns convert both grass and brush to beef very efficiently. Longhorns have developed some desirable traits developed during the time they ran wild. One special trait is the lower cholesterol of the meat, like wild game. Longhorn cows also calve easily without help and typically are very healthy animals. They live and are productive up to twice as long as most other breeds. The Longhorns on our ranch are worked and handled in a very gentle and easy manner, avoiding unhealthy stress on cows and calves.

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