Ellsbury Ranch named commercial producer of the year

Ellsbury Ranch, Sundance, took home Commercial Producer of the Year honors at the American Hereford Association (AHA) Annual Membership Meeting in Kansas City on Oct. 26. 

Ellsbury Ranch LLC is a fifth-generation cow-calf and yearling operation in northeastern Wyoming, owned and operated by Colter and Sarah Ellsbury, and Jeff and Whitney Stull. The couples purchased the cattle and equipment in 2017 and enjoy raising their families on the ranch and teaching their children about the ins and outs of the operation.

Together the Ellsbury and Stull families are raising six kids from ages of two to 14 alongside the cattle operation - Lyman, Ridley and Mattie Ellsbury, and Ruby, Sutton and Weston Stull. 

Ellsbury Ranch roots reach back to 1885, when their great-great-grandfather moved his family West from Minnesota to land in Beulah, where they successfully set up a general store, feed stable and hotel. The family pulled up stakes in Beulah in 1891 and settled along the creek in Farrall, the modern-day headquarters of the ranch. 

Initially, Ellsbury Ranch was home to Hereford cattle, but in the '90s the herd transitioned to black baldies before becoming home to solely black-hided cattle in the 2000s. But, after Ellsbury and Stull acquired the herd, they felt like they needed a change to bolster performance, despite their strong commercial Angus cow herd.

So, Ellsbury Ranch welcomed back Hereford sires in 2018, when they purchased three bulls from Frederickson Ranch, Spearfish, S.D. The resulting black baldy calves showed the textbook example of heterosis firsthand, with the bald-faced calves consistently weaning at heavier weights than their black-hided peers.

Today, Ellsbury Ranch runs 550-head of black-hided cows, a Hereford bull battery and about 300 yearlings on 19,000 acres of privately leased and forest service ground deep in the Black Hills. Their black baldy calves are consistently at the top-of-the-market, whether they are sold through Superior Livestock, the local sale barn or privately, off-the-ranch.