Rosewood Ranch takes holistic approach to land management |
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By MINDY POEHL | Central Texas Edition |
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July 7, 2005 - Kenneth Braddock is an extremely busy man. He manages around 21,000 acres of lush, flourishing land that grows hay and pecans, and contains cattle, ducks, deer and crawfish. Rosewood Ranch, located in Ellis and Navarro Counties, is a corporately owned ranch that Braddock has managed for 20 years, as well as one in Henderson County. "This ranch (in Ellis and Navarro County) is one of five Rosewood Ranches in Texas," Braddock explained. "The ranch has 4.5 miles of Trinity River frontage. Of 17,000 acres we lease 2,200 acres from others. And we lease out the south end of the ranch, that is not the very high quality land, to other ranchers." Braddock plants 750 acres of oats or wheat along with the 2,200 acres of wetland habitat. Then, cattle is grazed on that land and when the cattle are gone, the land ends up attracting many snow geese. "Hunting is our primary source of income," Braddock said. "We lease areas to three duck clubs in Dallas. Duck hunting is a big source of income for us." When the duck season is over, 900 triangle crawfish traps are set up. "The only thing we do for them is manage the wetlands," Braddock said. "We don't plant for them and we strictly rely on rain water." Crawfish, which are Texas red crawfish, are trapped from mid March to June 1. And, Braddock traps crawfish on less than 3 percent of the water, but sells around 8,000 to 10,000 pounds of crawfish every year. "If we could find a wholesaler, we could sell 10 times that amount. It's a good business," Braddock said. "We don't rely on it, but the crawfish is a bonus. When people eat mine, they won't go back to eating the Louisiana crawfish that everyone wants." Rosewood Ranch has 1,200 mother, commercial cows that are an F1 Braford and Brangus cow herd, Braddock said. "I'd say we are mainly a cow/calf operation. All of our cows are raised here on the ranch, except for two years ago we bought 250 cows. They are the only ones from outside of the ranch," Braddock said. "They have been preconditioned for the past 20 years. We put an analysis on the calf and we know where he is." The ranch does sell cattle and has an 88.6 percent calving rate. "If we're at a break even state, we're going to sell the calve," said Braddock. "We sell our cull cows directly to a killer." The cows calve in the spring from Feb. 1 to the first week in April. The cows calve in the fall around Sept. 15 to Nov. 15. "We wanted to get a spring and fall market because we have a rotation system," Braddock explained. The ranch has 2,300 pecan trees that were grafted many years ago, which can sometimes be a problem, Braddock said. "We don't sell pecans every year. But when we do sell them, they are excellent," Braddock said. "You've got to be there before the hogs, pigs and birds get to them." Last year, people trapped and killed over 600 feral hogs and "it didn't even put a dent in them," said Braddock. In three years, Braddock believes they will probably have a turkey hunting season because Eastern turkeys were released on the property three years ago. "We manage the land for wildlife," Braddock said. The previous owner of Rosewood Ranch, Bucker Sands, had a holistic approach to ranching. "It works for us. We operate each area separately and we have year-round hunting," Braddock explained. "I do my management through his (Bucker's) eyes. He was one of my best friends. I'd never seen wildlife the way he'd seen it. He'd say, 'You and I will never see this tree grow, but someone will.' You've got to think about the landscape 25 years down the road, not day to day or year to year." A 116-foot fire tower sits at the highest point of the ranch, which allows people to climb to the top of it and look out across the beautiful land. Braddock said, "I like to say the only thing you ever have is what you've left behind." |
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