working on our ranch doesn't feel like work because it's something we really enjoy doing we're able to get up in the morning and take a walk sit by a lake and listen to the birds and being able to start my day like that is really really nice me and sue actually met at the horse races on a blind date she's she's a wonderful partner she loves the land she loves the ranch as much as i do it's taken us about 40 years to get to where we are today we bought 15 different properties through the years and we've reseeded you know many other these old cotton fields cotton's really hard on the land it takes a lot of the organic matter out of the soil it's tough to turn that around but we've got some places where we've done that the core of the ranch has to be the grass i think a lot of cattle never reach their genetic potential because the grass never reached its genetic potential [Music] we're really trying to mimic what the bison were doing a couple hundred years ago they came in in huge numbers but they didn't stay long [Music] we don't over graze our pastures we rotate our cattle when it's necessary not when it's convenient i would say there's an art about the way our cattle graze they know when it's time to go to the next pasture they just kind of tell us blackland prairie eco region runs from the red river down to the san antonio area it's uh typically very fertile you know that was the reason it was plowed up and so you've lost a lot of topsoil but we've looked at these places regardless of the management good or bad and how do we approach restoring those there's one pasture on the ranch we call the north pasture it's part of several hundred acres of original blackland prairie that's never been plowed it's the very best teacher we could have had to what wants to grow here what's been here and what it can do and what it can look like pretty much our goal and our standard of where we want things to be people on ranch tours visit the north pasture that have been in the area all their life and have never seen grass like that our partnerships have been key to all that we've done in any success that we might have had we do things for a reason those reasons are part of the big picture of profitability and sustainability i think the future is bright the way we see the business evolving we're very very lucky that our son gary lee loves ranching as much as we do it makes you feel great to be out with him and he is doing it because he loves it and he's able to do it every day it gives me a lot of peace to know that as we get older and when we're unable you know to to work like we do now you know that he'll be able to take the reins we're here for a short period of time planned to be here before after we're gone and he'll come back here someday and do a great job we know we have an awesome responsibility to do things right and we have the opportunity to carry that on the land if we take care of it can be forgiving but we have to understand the importance of taking care of it and i guess it's a lot like life you know we can get off where we shouldn't be but it's always a good feeling when you know you're back on track and you're doing the right things [Music] you