Part 3
What's Next for Rocking R…
Colorado to Nebraska

CATTLE ARE THE HEART OF A RANCH
 
The future is bright for Rocking R Red Angus.  Our Nebraska ranch will allow us to expand our cow herd due to the increase in grazing capacity.  The topography throughout the ranch is significant.  Steep, rocky terrain best describes the Wildcat Hills portion of the ranch.  Our cows will be challenged due to the environment.  They will be expected to breed on time and raise high quality calves in order to earn their place in the herd.  
 
Our ranch will also allow us to develop our bulls and heifers on site.  The feeding facilities here on the ranch can handle all of our weaned calves.  We can develop our yearling cattle ourselves, which is very important to us.  Quality control is critical for any business.  Being able to observe our yearling bulls and heifers every day during their development process will help create a better product for our customers.  Evaluations and culling decisions will be a daily task, which will help to deliver higher quality animals at that end of the process.    
 
We know many of you are wondering why we are not having a Spring Bull Sale.  To be honest, we just could not make it happen this year.  Moving an entire cattle operation has been a monumental task.  The time and energy it takes to put on a bull sale is significant.  Gathering and submitting the data for all of the bulls is extremely time consuming.  Clipping, photographing, testing, designing a catalog, and all of the miscellaneous tasks takes an enormous amount of time.  There was no way we could organize a bull sale and move our business at the same time.  Therefore, we made the decision to focus all of our attention on moving our operation and keeping our cattle nutritionally sound and healthy.  
 
What about all of our yearling bulls?  What are we going to do with them since we are not having a spring sale?  
 
We are excited to announce that we will be holding a Fall 2024 Production Sale.  We will be offering Age Advantaged Bulls (coming 2 year olds) along with Registered Bred Heifers and Registered Bred Cows.  This will be a great opportunity to invest in Rocking R Red Angus genetics with the purchase of bulls and/or females.    
 
We have a lot of details to work out for this sale.  Our plan is to have the sale at our Nebraska ranch and cattle will be able to be viewed at our on-site facilities.  Customers will have the opportunity to tour our ranch and facilities and also view our entire cow herd along with the cattle we are offering for sale.  We feel that this will be a great opportunity for you to get to know our operation and our cattle.  Again, many more details to come regarding our Fall 2024 Production Sale. 
 
The last few weeks have been absolutely crazy!  But, our cattle have done extremely well during this transition.  Calves have maintained their health.  Cows have maintained their condition and have continued caring for their calves.  Our late calving cows are calving well with healthy calves with good vigor.  The cattle are definitely settling in, which is a testament to their resilience.  We are proud of our cow herd through the move from Colorado to Nebraska.  We are looking forward to a successful breeding season and a highly productive grazing season in the Wildcat Hills of Western Nebraska. 
 
Stay tuned for many more updates now that we are settling in to our new ranch.  We are very excited about our upcoming Fall Production Sale and will continue to update everyone as we gather more details.       
Rocking R Red Angus

 

 
OUR HERD IS WHAT MAKES OUR BEEF
Quality genetics, make quality beef, and that has always been what we stand behind at Rocking R Beef.  This starts from the ground up.  In being a registered Red Angus operation, we are able to test our cattle's genetics and make sure the cattle we choose for our beef program have high marbling and high carcass qualities.  
 
We are excited to be able to have the facilities to give our cattle the proper nutrition they need to make great beef.   We will have complete control over the rations fed.  Our cattle will continue to be raised on high quality pasture in the Wildcat Hills, with fresh water, and more space than they've ever had to roam.  Everyday we continue to strive to improve upon our high quality Homegrown Beef.   
 
We already have our first set of cattle at our new butcher and will be Restocked by the end of March!  Pre-Orders are being taken now.  Nothing will change in the form of shipping, we will continue to offer Nationwide shipping.   All of our products are packed in sustainable packaging with dry ice and will arrive within 2 days.  
 
We look forward to being able to offer new products, and are currently looking to source our beef jerky.  You all were amazing, and our trial run sold out in 1 week!  More to come soon!
 
Whipped Tallow Balm will also continue to be one of our top products.  Look out for some fresh Spring scents to be released soon!
Rocking R Beef

WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED OUR CRAZY JOURNEY, BUT DON'T WORRY THERE'S SO MUCH MORE TO COME FOR ROCKING R RANCH!
 
IF YOU MISSED PART 1 AND 2
CATCH UP HERE!
Colorado to Nebraska- Part 1 & 2


 

 
AS ALWAYS, IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS FEEL FREE TO REACH OUT!  WE LOVE CHATTING WITH YOU ALL AND GETTING TO KNOW EACH AND EVERY ONE OF OUR CUSTOMERS PERSONALLY.  IT'S WHY WE FELT THE NEED TO TELL OUR STORY, AND WE LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!
 
DROP US A NOTE ABOUT WHAT YOU HOPE TO SEE MORE OF FROM ROCKING R IN THE FUTURE, WHAT WE CAN DO BETTER, OR WHAT YOU ALREADY LOVE.
Dan and Katie Reardon

​Part 2
Movin' On..
Colorado to Nebraska

MOVING A RANCH, MOVING A LIFETIME
 
Leaving Montrose, Colorado wasn't easy.  We put our heart and souls into our home.  We gutted and remodeled the house, and built the corrals and barn from the ground up.  We built our business there, we established Rocking R Red Angus, and our high altitude herd.  
 
It was years of work, and leaving that was probably my hardest moment.  I raised my babies in that house, we had countless family holidays, the memories are endless.  And of course the friendships made.  
 
It all happened so quickly, we were set to close on our Montrose home in just over a month.  I looked at Dan, and said you're insane! Ha! We have to pack this house up in a month, go to the Vegas competition for a week in between, and move out prior to Christmas.  
 
But our motto is and always has been, Everything Happens for a Reason.
 
So, we bit the bullet, packed it up into a large storage unit and moved into a tiny home.  Because calving season was about to start and we were able to lease our ground through the spring.  Time to start calving!
(Thank goodness rodeo had taught us to live in tight quarters, as we do most weekends, but man we missed having a couch! ha)
 

 
NEBRASKA ON OUR MIND
A few months later, we sold our Gunnison ranch.  Which meant, more packing, and more moving. Oh the stuff, it was endless!  I didn't know how we were going to make a move happen.  
 
By this time, we were keeping an open mind in case anything else came on the market, but Nebraska was on our mind.  We just couldn't stop thinking about Nebraska.  Even though, it was such new territory to us.  We were used to irrigation, and dry land farming is completely foreign.  But we could have an all in one operation.  No trucking would be involved and the facilities were great.  
 
Plus, there are opportunities for our kids, which is a big deal for us.  We aren't so far from town that makes life extremely difficult.  And of course, we needed to be around rodeo!  

 
LET'S GO!
It was time to plan for the move!  We aren't just moving stuff, we are moving a ranch!  We had to plan it all perfectly.  It started with the moving truck, to make sure all our stuff got here.  And of course that didn't happen in just one truck, thank goodness for amazing friends who drove 8 hours and multiple trailers.  We love you all and could never had made this happen without you, you know who you are!!
 
The animals.  Oh the trucks we needed to make this happen, and to make it all work out.  Minimal stress, was our top priority for all the animals; cattle, calves, and horses.  We had to plan that we had horses to gather and load the trucks, but then make it to Nebraska before the cattle pots.  That way we could make sure they were put into proper corrals or pastures.  Plus remember, we were just finishing up with calving season, so we traveled with very young calves.  Mamas and babies had to be put into seperate areas on the trucks, to make sure no one got trampled.  
 
To say we were worried is an understatement.  But thank god, they all made it!  Our next concern was that the mama cows would remember which calf was theirs and pair up properly.   Everyone is doing really well.  The mama cows definitely had some stress on them, and made sure their calves were given the proper nutrition.  But all seem to be bouncing back and enjoying the ample amount of room.  
 
Next, we needed our equipment.  More stuff!  You can't feed without a tractor, and all the implements to go with it.  We are finally getting our last truck loads of equipment, this has been a process.  We are almost there, a few more trailer loads of miscellaneous stuff, and I think we will be pretty close to complete.  Plus some of our yearling cattle still back in Montrose.  
 
I would say we are getting settled.  You never buy a ranch without knowing a lot of work is going to be put in.  So we are fixing fence, setting up pens as we want, cleaning up junk, and the list goes on!  But, it's new to us, it's our livelihood, and we are excited to make Nebraska our home.  It's going to take time to be everything we want, but that's life, and we'll make it happen. 
 
STAY TUNED FOR PART 3,
THE FUTURE OF ROCKING R RANCH
 
AND IF YOU MISSED PART 1-OUR STORY
CATCH UP HERE!
Colorado to Nebraska- Part 1

Rocking R Red Angus
Rocking R Beef
 
 
WE ARE SO THANKFUL FOR ALL THE SUPPORT FROM OUR AMAZING FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND CUSTOMERS.  OUR GOAL IS TO CONTINUE TO PROVIDE QUALITY CATTLE AND BEEF FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS.

The Reardon Family
 

 

​Part 1
The Road from 
Colorado to Nebraska

WE WANT TO TAKE YOU ALL ALONG ON OUR JOURNEY. SO HERE'S OUR STORY…
 
Rocking R Red Angus was established in 2010.  We started with a small group of cattle knowing we wanted to raise quality beef for our family.  Both Dan and Katie are a generation removed from ranching, but we have always been foodies and knowing where our food came from was of an extreme importance to us.  So following in our grandparents footsteps, we began our journey.
 
When Dan's mother passed away in 2014, Dan felt a calling to raise Red Angus genetics as Inis' family had always done.  In being medical professionals for many years, you could say we are nerds for the science and genetics behind the cattle.  We fell in love with the Red Angus breed, and the docility to raise these cattle around our family.  
 
For years, we have focused on High-Altitude genetics, and raising quality Cattle and Beef for our seedstock operation.  We have grown to have Annual Bull Sales. (More to come on the Future of our Sales!) We have loved the mountains of Colorado, although challenging, it has been our home for many years.  Our ranches have been over 2 hours apart, making constant traveling and trucking of cattle.  
 
OUR DECISION TO MOVE ALONG…
A few years back, we finally sat down, and decided ranching was 100% in our hearts, and by now we were all in.  But, we knew what we were doing was not sustainable.  Ranching is hard, but we are crazy and LOVE it.  We love that our family can all do it together.
 
Our ranch in Montrose, our home place, was where we wintered the cattle and calved.  As our herd has grown we ran out of room, and the city was slowly growing out to where we were, making it hard to find lease ground to keep our cattle spread out.  We didn't have the facilities we needed and calving was becoming very challenging.  
 
Our ranch in Gunnison, our summer grazing property, had views you could only dream of, with water galore.  But unfortunately, the grass was not enough for our cattle.  All the forest permits in the area were taken, and we knew it wouldn't be sustainable to truck the cattle further.  
 
We initially thought, we would find a neighboring ranch to attach to our high country property.  But deal after deal just didn't work in our favor.  And we started praying on it, because it was getting harder and harder to raise our cattle.  
 
So, we looked at every possible ranch in the West in our budget.  Every spare minute we had was driving through Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana.  And we showed up at every ranch with open minds, knowing it would take a lot of work.  Every ranch ended up having a major flaw that would not make sense for our family or our operation.  
 
We had so many ranches that didn't work out, so when people asked what we were doing, we didn't say much.  Because we were tired of getting our hopes up, with the fear of it not working out.  We didn't let out the news about moving our ranch until we were 100% sure.
 
We continued to pray as a family. 
 
We were feeling pretty discouraged, and now our home in Montrose had sold, and our ranch in Gunnison was under-contract.  But we had no idea where we were moving.  It was hard, not going to lie.  We were in Las Vegas at Nolan's roping competition, when we got a call on a new ranch listed in Nebraska.  Nebraska never even crossed our minds, neither of us had ever even visited.  But, we said let's go take a look.  
 
I remember getting in the truck after looking at the ranch, and Dan just said this is our place, and I felt a sense of calm.  We couldn't believe we were in such an unfamiliar place, but it just felt right.   So we began our new journey..
STAY TUNED FOR PART 2,
MOVIN' ON

Rocking R Red Angus
Rocking R Beef
 
 
WE ARE SO THANKFUL FOR ALL THE SUPPORT FROM OUR AMAZING FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND CUSTOMERS.  OUR GOAL IS TO CONTINUE TO PROVIDE QUALITY CATTLE AND BEEF FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS.

The Reardon Family