Building a dream from the ground up

<p>PERRY RANCH: Phil and Rhonda Perry built Perry Ranch with the help of their children, Nickie and Nathan. Phil started the ranch in 1987 with the purchase of the ranch headquarters, just north of Oskaloosa, Kan. He built the house and improved the outbuildings to suit the family’s cow herd and calf preconditioning enterprises.</p>

<p>WORKING FACILITIES: This working barn and loadout chute at Perry Ranch was designed with cattle haulers in mind. In the 1990s, the Perrys began a preconditioning enterprise, where they took delivery of calves from herds bought at sale barns in the Eastern U.S., and got the cattle healthy and prepared for placement in feedyards.</p>

<p>CATTLE: Phil Perry started with 50 cows and a dream. Today the Perry Ranch cow herd consists of 500 head of spring-calving cows. The Perrys use AI and heifer-sexed semen to use the best bulls in the Angus breed to breed, for replacement females for their herd and for sale to other ranchers. The goal is a cow that will efficiently use available feedstocks and is low-maintenance for the rancher.</p>

<p>RANCH FACILITIES: Phil and Rhonda Perry have used the advice of Kansas State University Research and Extension specialists and Natural Resources and Conservation Service specialists in building their ranch over the past 30 years. Whether it was learning how to raise healthier cattle or improving their conservation stewardship of the land in their care, the Perrys say those advisers were important to their success.</p>

<p>INDUSTRY: Phil Perry decided early in his ranching career to join the Kansas Livestock Association, to gain a better understanding of the beef industry and to learn how to improve his ranch. Along the way, he says he made tremendous friendships — not only in the state of Kansas, but also around the nation. Here Phil and Rhonda are at an NCBA meeting. In December, Phil was elected the president of KLA.</p>

<p>WORKING: Phil Perry still enjoys getting on a horse to work cattle, and in his spare time he competes in ranch rodeos.</p>

<p>TRAVEL: The Perrys enjoy traveling together to see new sights. In the course of his work with the Cattleman’s Beef Board, Phil has traveled to Paraguay to learn about foreign beef trade, and Perry Ranch has hosted international visitors from Argentina.</p>

<p>FAMILY: The Perry family has grown to now include 11 grandchildren, but the tradition of doing right by the livestock and the land entrusted to their care is still the same as ever.</p>