Innovation and Adaptability
Has the Eagle Rock Ranch ever taken any risks by utilizing or experimenting with new techniques to adapt to change (consumers, markets, weather, regulations, etc.)?
One of the unfortunate historical realities of rural life is that the livestock, minerals, timber, crops, water, and other resources produced in the rural areas have all been sold and shipped to urban areas for processing and added value. Even our best people have been enticed to the urban areas. This unrelenting movement of rural raw material to the cities has turned many rural residents into not much more than factory workers and it has decimated rural communities and culture. Even today, the Amazon or UPS trucks seen in rural areas signify more rural dollars leaving the local communities. Not surprisingly, the USDA data from the 2022 Census of Agriculture indicates that Colorado led the nation in loss of agricultural and ranch land with 1.6 million acres disappearing between 2017-2022, a significant 5% decrease.¹ How then to stop this decline or at least slow it down? Surprisingly, Aldo Leopold came up with some ideas on this subject almost 80 years ago.
Aldo Leopold’s "land ethic" calls for a fundamental change in human values and a willingness to act on one's ecological conscience, even when doing so involves social or economic risk. Going further, he challenged people to "cease being intimidated by the argument that a right action is impossible because it does not yield maximum profits, or that a wrong action is to be condoned because it pays.”²
So how have we acted on our ecological conscience here at the Eagle Rock Ranch? Is it possible to run a cow/calf and haying operation at a profit while fostering a land ethic? How so? And what about slowing down the outflow of raw material and people from rural areas such as Park County, Colorado?
When we arrived at the Eagle Rock Ranch, the cows had been bred to calve in February as had been the tradition for decades. Grass was at a premium due to the large herd size, and thus the hay meadows were cut short and from fence line to fence line and willows cut down to make room for more hay. Calves were sorted off for branding on a calf table, they were fence weaned in the fall for a few days and then they were soon trucked away under the “no bawl, we haul” philosophy. Sales were final when the back roll-up door of the truck was pulled down.
But there is still lots of winter remaining in the Colorado high country during February, and plenty of frigid wind sweeping down from the high peaks. Seeking escape from the cold wind, we watched cows in labor finding their way down below the river banks and onto the frozen river or seeking refuge in frozen irrigation ditches. Newborn calves died frozen to the ice before they had a chance to stand up and cows stuck in irrigation ditches rolled over and crushed them while trying to stand up themselves. In our mind it was a disaster, yet long-time ranch managers assured us that this was simply collateral damage and that this is how things were done in order to ensure higher weaning weights in the fall.
We looked for a better way and - even at the risk of lower weaning weights - we felt we could make it up in terms of lower mortality rates. And even if that didn’t pencil out, our conscience dictated an alternative be found.
Those managers are now working elsewhere and we’ve gone in a different direction. We lost two years’ worth of calves by breeding cows to calve in late summer like a neighbor does. That risk did not work out due to early winters contributing to the same issues as late winters. Finally, there was almost an epiphany of sorts – and one perhaps divinely inspired for us.
The Book of Job, Chapter 12, Verse 7 counsels one to “now ask the beasts, and let them teach you; And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you. Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you . . ..”
Yes, we looked to nature and asked “what do the deer and elk do?” The answer, of course, is that they calve in late May/early June and have been doing it that way [successfully, I might add] for thousands of years. Well then, “let’s do that,” we said. “Oh no,” came the chorus of neighbors – “you’ll never make weight in the fall.” “Have you tried it?” we asked back. “Well, no, but it will never work.”
That was then, this is now. We “survived” another calving season in 2025 with no assisted deliveries and no calf mortality whatsoever. None. Nada. Zilch. This is now typical for this ranch. We discovered that both mothers and their newborn calves do quite well when the temperatures are above freezing, when there is green grass for the mothers to eat and lactate, and when predators have other menu options – such as emerging gophers, young elk, deer and antelope to choose from – as opposed to us putting the only defenseless menu option on the ground in February. And in case anyone is still wondering, calves that are born onto green grass in moderate conditions, and have grass-sourced nutritious colostrum as their initial diet do fine size-wise and health-wise during the ensuing months.
Branding is now done with mothers present and next to their calves. We work around the mothers and the calf is up and quietly standing next to its mother within seconds of being branded and vaccinated.³ Smaller branding irons are used and pain analgesics are administered.⁴
A low-stress, two-stage weaning process is now in place for the fall, when nose-flaps are put in the calves’ nostrils, limiting their ability to nurse, but nonetheless are able to remain at their mothers’ sides. They learn to eat grass and are fed nutritional supplements such as when flaps are taken out after a week, and their mothers removed from the pasture, they don’t bawl or make any other sound – all is good. [And yes, we tried natural weaning for a winter at an additional risk – but that did not work out as mothers were eating for three – (i) themselves, (ii) a growing embryo inside them, and (iii) a big coming yearling next to them that didn’t want to give up the teat.]⁵
Initially, we marketed our weaned calves as had been done for decades – but we felt that all the effort we were putting into our herd in terms of herd genetics left us missing out on the added value that came later. We then joined a natural beef marketing co-op and let them handle the finishing, processing and marketing. It worked well initially – but the ever-increasing percentage that they took off the top, along with the combining of our beef with that of other producers – turning it essentially back into a commodity product - was frustrating. At the same time, the large herd size was taking a toll on us and on the land. Something had to change. We asked ourselves, “could we realistically cut the herd size fairly significantly, relieve pressure on the forage base, save money on reduced labor requirements, and do the marketing and sales by ourselves?” Moreover, could Aldo Leopold – in his words from eighty years ago – now help point the way on this in terms of product marketing and pricing?⁶ In other words, would our customers be willing to pay a premium and support our efforts if they knew about our land ethic and how we handle our livestock?⁷ Could it all work in such a way that we make the same amount of net income with a smaller herd to manage? We decided to take the risk and give it a try.
Enter our daughter Erin, a business graduate from the University of Virginia and an investment banker refugee from Wall Street, who stepped in and took over the finishing, processing and marketing of our beef and the rest is, as they say, history. We’ve never looked back.⁸
We listened to our customers who said that they did not want to buy half of a cow, or a quarter. They want to buy meat like they always have – a pound of ground beef at a time, a few steaks at a time, etc. So, that’s what we offered – anything from a single steak or a pound of ground beef all the way up to an entire steer. In 2020, we opened a storefront brick-and-mortar store in historic Fairplay where we sold beef along with other general merchandise. We offer the same menu of options over the internet and ship frozen beef across the entire country. There was risk involved but we believed in the health and condition of our cattle, we felt strongly about how they were (and are!) treated, and the resulting quality of the meat they produced. We hire local people to help stock and staff the store. People now drive up from the Front Range to shop at our store in Fairplay. And yes, in our own small way, we are resisting the export of products and people raised here in the valley.
But just because we’re rural doesn’t mean we don’t take advantage of cutting-edge technology. We believe that retail beef markets have changed in the past decade or so along with every other market in the world. Both a store-front presence and an internet presence takes everyone back to a different era – one where sellers and buyers can talk, ask questions, get answers, perhaps haggle over price, and take home what they are looking for. Then they talk to their friends and neighbors about it and word spreads.
The Cluetrain Manifesto, by Christopher Locke, et al. is a seminal business book that drives this point home. A beef producer (or any other seller) can no longer put up a basic website, sit back, and wait for the orders to come in. It doesn’t work that way.
Communication is key – on all levels and at all times. The Cluetrain Manifesto argues the internet has transformed markets into smart, conversational networks (read: communication) where customers have more power, making traditional broadcast marketing obsolete. The Manifesto originated as 95 theses posted on the web, á la Martin Luther, challenging corporate assumptions by stating "markets are conversations," enabling direct, honest, and fast communication between people, making markets both smarter and more demanding. It is a foundational text for understanding the shift from broadcast marketing to digital community and social media. Companies like the Eagle Rock Ranch must listen and engage authentically to survive and thrive. We understand this and have embraced it fully while continuing to seek out the technological advantages that can provide an edge in a very competitive marketplace. That includes introducing Affiliate Marketing into our sales strategy along with a Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) strategy, and now with Artificial Intelligence in our future – a system designed to take advantage of that – called Answer Engine Optimization (“AEO”). The 21st century has arrived with respect to the beef industry.
So we communicate and we talk to our customers every day both over the internet and over a meat counter in Fairplay. They ask questions. Feedback comes immediately. We compare cuts, share recipes, we talk to them about our cattle and our operation.⁹ The risk we took in setting up this enterprise was obviously a big financial commitment, but also ensuring that what followed was authenticity, genuine concern, and interest in creating positive experiences through the store and also the various agri-tourism opportunities here at the Ranch, and the same through social media that foster connection with others and the living world around us. The latter was actually the easy part.
By changing our entire business operation to more of a “Whole Systems” type of endeavor that is integrated with our natural ecosystem, our customers sense a care-based business that embodies a commitment to leaving things better than when we arrived as opposed to extracting as much value from our livestock and land as quickly as possible. They are willing to pay a premium for this. And we gain customers and brand ambassadors for life. Turns out, Aldo Leopold was right in his musings and we think he’d be pleased to have his ideas on this subject validated in such a manner.¹⁰
1 Meanwhile, Colorado population is projected for a 47% increase by 2040 to almost 8 million people – mostly in the Front Range areas. This will only add to pressures now existing on ranch and farmland in the state, together with water and recreational resources.
2 Aldo Leopold, “The Ecological Conscience,” 1947, as reprinted in Flader, S. The River of the Mother of God, 346.
3 The concept of administering vaccinations, conducting castrations, and branding a calf within a minute’s time, all while the mother cow was standing next to us caught the attention of a NYC filmmaker who took and used footage from the Eagle Rock Ranch in an award-winning short film “MA” featuring the strong natural maternal instinct transcending both humans and animals – See, https://vimeo.com/1117264410
4 In 2022, we partnered with CSU Animal Science Dep’t to conduct the very first pain study involving branding calves. We used different size branding irons and administered pain analgesics in a first-of-its-kind research project. If we could prove that calves branded with smaller irons and given pain analgesics would subsequently live healthier lives and gain more weight – it would be a win-win for both calves and ranchers.
5 For a more complete description of risks taken, some for better – some for worse, but always willing to try; see, “Live and Learn the Ranching Way, Working Ranch Magazine, Summer 2004, https://www.qgdigitalpublishing.com/publication/?i=821878&p=58&view=issueViewer
6 “. . . the products of good land-use can often be singled out and favored.” Aldo Leopold, “Land-Use and Democracy,” 1942, as reprinted in Flader, S. The River of the Mother of God, 296. “Another tool, not yet tried, was ‘consumer discrimination . . . that would involve putting ‘green’ or ‘clean’ labels on products that came from well-managed lands to express approval for conservative land use . . . [c]onsumers might have to pay more for a ‘green’ product . . . but might they not be willing to buy wool from sheep grazed on ‘greener pastures’ or to buy paper for their children’s textbooks produced in ways that had not polluted rivers?,” See, J. Newton, “Aldo Leopold’s Odyssey” Island Press, 2006, pp. 158-159. See also, Leopold, A. 1953. Round River. Oxford University Press, New York, New York. p. 153 “[w]e have learned to use our votes and our dollars for conservation. Must we perhaps use our purchasing power also?”
7 One of the ninety-five theses posited by The Cluetrain Manifesto, discussed below, is that businesses seeking to “position” themselves, must first actually take a position.” [Original emphasis]. It goes on to state that “optimally, it should relate to something their market actually cares about.” Another states that “if you want [the market] to talk to you, tell us something. Make it something interesting for a change.”
8 See, e.g., “This Colorado Rancher Sees a World Where Conservation Can Turn a Profit, Dave Gottenborg and his wife, Jean, own the 3,000-acre Eagle Rock Ranch in Park County, where they work the land led by the ethos of the conservationist Aldo Leopold,” The Colorado Sun, March 24, 2004.
9 We also ask them directly for their reason for buying Eagle Rock Beef at a premium price when they have so many other lower-cost options in today’s world. They tell us that they “like the way it tastes,” they like “how you treat your animals,” or “how you treat your land,” or “we feel good about eating your beef.” Sometimes they say, “we think you’re our kind of people,” or “you’re our peeps.”
10 We add additional premium to our products by virtue of relationship values as articulated by noted author and philosopher John Thackara who has written extensively about this concept. See, e.g., Thackara, J. 2015. How to Thrive in the Next Economy: Designing Tomorrow’s World Today,” Thames & Hudson. Value increases from simply purchasing a commodity to the quality of life and health generated through personal relationships and interactions created either in-person at the Eagle Rock Mercantile or through on-line dialogue and conversations. Health, well-being, community and even the environment are intertwined by virtue of small-scale acts of care/compassion by individuals such as ranchers and when people are offered the opportunity to participate – directly or even vicariously – in beneficial activities such as growing quality hay or raising beef cattle in an ethical way, it gives them a sense of interconnectedness and they become invested in the process.