Working Ranch Magazine January/February 2025

that we calve out each year. We produce all of the feed for the cattle including hay and grain. We feel blessed to be liv ing this lifestyle and raising our kids on the family farm. I thought I would tell a little about how this ranch came to be. In 1918, Ray and Selma Jensen, my Great-Grandparents, bought the land we now live on. At that time, the ranch was just 40 acres and produced sugar beets, hay, and grain to feed the dairy cows, steers, and chickens. Over time, the Jensens acquired more land and Great-Grandpa Ray discov ered that wet sugar beet pulp and beet molasses, by-prod ucts of the sugar industry, were good cattle feed at a rea sonable price. That helped him get interested in feeding out fat Hereford steers and started him in the cattle business. In 1937, as times got better after the Depression, Ray bought his first registered purebred Horned Hereford bull and 12 heifers from the Winterton Brothers of Kamas, UT. He then joined the American Hereford Association as “Jensen Brothers Herefords” and we have been members ever since. The first bull purchased was a Prince Domino Bull and he produced some fabulous cows. In 1943, Ray shocked the locals when he went to Denver and bought a Hereford named TT Super Royal from Dan Thorton. He paid what was unheard of in those days, $4,100.00. Another bull of note was JB Promino, a bull raised on the ranch. A son of that bull won the Red Bluff bull sale and held the record price for many years. Every year to this day, Jensen Brothers Herefords put together a show string of cattle that dominated show rings across the western United States. Always looking to improve the cattle, we purchase line one Hereford bulls from prominent Hereford herds like Cooper Hereford Ranch and Holden

Rancher’s Journal include a multi-trait selection, fertility, calving ease, and good-performing cattle that produce beef and pay their way. As the 4th and 5th generation running the ranch, we are always striving for ways to improve. We recently built a butcher shop on the ranch where we can slaughter our own animals. We are excited to continue to provide beef for locals and provide a butchering facility to the community. We are also selling bulls and heifers right now, for breeding opera tions on other ranches across the western United States. Fall is a more relaxed time on the ranch. The hay and grain are put up, the bulls have done their job and are pulled out, and the mamas are pregnant. We won’t calve until the end of February and we are doing a lot of prepping for the winter months. I hope you enjoy a little look into our life as we continue the legacy and uniqueness of our family-run Hereford ranch.

Hereford Ranch. Some of the key things noted in our breeding today

BY MINDY JENSEN SMITH

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2025 I 57