Working Ranch Magazine Summer 2025

soon saw students transferring into WISD because of the cattle company. Wildorado Cattle Company (WCC) raises registered black Angus cat tle. This was their breed of choice because of the genetic opportunities and marketability to a wide range of customers. It also allows them to keep a smaller herd size while maintain ing higher profit margins. They also wanted to keep doors open to work with breed organizations such as the American Angus Association. Even though the unique program has drawn national attention, stu dents and their engagement in the cattle company remain the focus. “The vision is to have a program where students can apply themselves and get hands-on experience,” Russell said. Russell has been at Wildorado ISD (WISD) for three years and his role in the cattle company is to oversee and facilitate the students’ participation in the cattle company. He is adamant that he does not do the students’ jobs for them. Impressively, these students are managing the cattle company while going to class full time and bal ancing other extracurricular activities. All students at WISD are encouraged to get involved in the cattle company even if they do not have a background in agriculture. There is a place and pur pose for anyone willing to put in the hard work to see that the cattle com pany continues to succeed. For example, if students are interested in event plan ning, the cattle company has an events coordinator responsible for booking the venues for their sale, and buyers’ din ners and managing trade show booths at various conventions and expos. There is an opportunity to work closely with Russell as the Finance Director to set and oversee the bud get for the upcoming year. This per son works with the rest of the team to evaluate changes to the program and how that will affect the budget. The Finance Director must maintain all the spreadsheets associated with the company and make sure everyone stays on budget. A board of directors with nine dif ferent departments sounds like a great way to build a team, but the directors must also learn how to delegate jobs and responsibilities to the 77 students involved with WCC. This allows these

WCC’s seventh annual production sale.

WCC MEDIA TEAM WCC STUDENT RHOWAN GALLAND

students to learn vital aspects of man aging a business with employees. Russell noted that with the struc ture of the program you are guaran teed employee turnover. Every year a senior class graduates and every four years you have a completely new team. This allows the students to build the next generation of youth that will run the cattle company. “The current students must teach the next group so that we don’t stay in the same place,” Russell said. “We have got to move forward with a growth mindset.” In recent years the students at WCC have worked to improve their market ing capabilities and outreach to pull in new buyers for their sale. They have worked to make this dream a

reality by improving and maintain ing their own website, running social media campaigns, and designing printed materials for booths at trade shows and merchandise. They witnessed tangible results from their improved marketing at their most recent sale on March 7th. A third of their sales came from new buyers who had never been to a WCC sale before. This year at their seventh annual production sale they offered red and black Angus cattle including 67 “reg istered and ranch ready” one- to two year-old bulls as well as registered females, bred cows, pairs, and open yearlings. They also marketed com mercial black Angus cows and heifers. Ansley Matt is a junior at WISD and SUMMER 2025 I 61