From a  young age commercial cattlemen Jordan Willis, Cokeville, Wyo., and Ryan Noble, Yuma, Colo., both had a laser focus career goal: they wanted to ranch.  

Separate operations, but similar paths.  

“I didn't understand what it was going take for us to all be back here on the place, but I always wanted to be here,” Willis says. Today, he and his wife, Jennie, manage their family ranch with his extended family. 

After college, Noble came home to his parent’s ranch that had survived the 1980s. Making it work to support another family, which now includes wife Ronella and their kids, would be just that:  work. 

Both families built their herds and developed a marketing path over the years. They use American Angus Association programs and reap the benefits of an investment in themselves.

This conversation touches on genetic selection, how their seedstock supplier helps them reach their goals and what they’ll need more of in the future.  

HOSTS: Miranda Reiman and Troy Marshall, director of commercial industry relations, American Angus Association  

GUESTS: Ryan Noble, Noble Ranch; and Jordan Willis, Willis Ranch

GUEST BIOS:  
Jordan Willis, along with his wife, Jennie, and their four children, own and operate Willis Ranch near Cokeville, Wyo., alongside the rest of his extended family. Today, 24 pivots cover nearly 3,700 acres of flood-irrigated soil with 1,800 commercial cows surrounding it. Willis Ranch is a diversified operation, committed to producing top-tier commercial Angus cattle, collecting detailed data, irrigating and farming their native lands, and keeping their family ties strong.
 
Ryan Noble, Yuma, Colo., ranches with his wife, Ronella, and their two children, along with Ryan’s parents on the place that’s been in the family for more than a century. After college, Ryan found a way to stretch their eastern Colorado ranch to support two families and continued growing that Angus-based cow herd each year. An innovative “always getting better” mindset, along with a focus on cattle that do it all on the ranch and on the rail earned the family the 2019 Commercial Commitment to Excellence Award. Drought has changed their “how,” but not their “why,” and today they operate successful heifer development program.

Related Reading:  

Register for Angus Convention:
https://angusconvention.com/ 

The Way to Do It
https://www.angusjournal.com/ArticlePDF/1019-CAB-commercial.pdf 

Legacies for a Living
http://www.angusjournal.com/articlepdf/0218-cab-willis.pdf 

Healthy Hearts Start with Knowing More
https://www.angusjournal.net/post/healthy-heart-starts-with-knowing-more 

The Link to Profitability  
http://www.angusbeefbulletin.com/extra/2020/05may20/0420fp-B-ABB-Willis.html 

The No Judgement Zone
https://www.angusbeefbulletin.com/extra/2022/08aug22/0722mk_B_TheLink.html 

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