History of Rutherford Ranches
60 Years
Rutherford Ranches was founded in 1948 by Pat R. Rutherford, Buda, Texas. Four miles of beautiful Onion Creek wind through this Texas hill country ranch. At 1,100 feet above sea level, it sits on a limestone outcrop that produces excellent minerals and strong native grasses. Similar to most in the 1940s, Pat Rutherford started with top-quality, purebred commercial Hereford cattle. By accident, a neighbor’s Charolais bull jumped the fence and bred several Hereford cows. The following year those cross calves outsold the straight Hereford calves by a large margin. Rutherford Ranches started to evolve toward Charolais cattle, starting a small registered herd in the 1960s along with commercial cattle. The ranch then started buying Charolais cattle from Max Michaels, a neighbor who in circa 1933 introduced the first purebred French cattle to North America. Years later, Rutherford Ranches started importing Charolais cattle from France by way of Canada. In the 1980s the breed trended toward large-framed, less efficient cattle with birthing and fertility problems. Rutherford Ranches dispersed the registered cattle and continued in the commercial cattle business. Today’s choice and prime meat market had not started and the ranch did not see that trend coming.
In the 1950s Pat Rutherford purchased a 14,000 acre ranch near the strong grass country of Brady, Texas, formally owned by the Richards family. The Richards family were pioneers of some of the best Hereford cattle in Texas. For many years this ranch produced many Grand Champion steers at the prestigious Fort Worth Stock Show. The Brady ranch was gifted to Patsy Rutherford Richter in the late 1960s.
In 1968 a third ranch consisting of 20,000 plus acres was added by the Rutherford family near Pearsall, Texas. This ranch sits on six miles of Frio River bottom land and is the home of Boone and Crocket big whitetail bucks. Today the ranch is owned and operated by brothers Pat and Mike Rutherford maintaining a commercial cow-calf operation consisting of 1,400 mother cows. Mike Rutherford has been using Angus bulls on his Brayford and Brahman Angus cross cattle for several years and the Angus cross calves are outperforming the others in dollars. This market change is fueled by the demand for Choice and Prime grade beef that only Angus cattle can efficiently provide. As the beef market has evolved, Rutherford Ranches has evolved into the common sense business breed of Angus. With sixty years experience raising high quality cattle, Rutherford Ranches' goal, as always, is to maximize their profit using their wonderful ranch assets. As America continues the demand for high-quality beef, and with the added economic growth of India and China, the future for the Angus breed is unlimited.
A famous cattle quote!
“Did you ever see anyone go to an upscale steak restaurant and order a Brahman Steak?”