Hello all, my name is Perri Jacobs and I am the Vice President of RSA. I will be guest blogging for the month of April and I hope you enjoy your time with me. My husband and I, as well as his parents own and operate Jacobs Ranch, Inc. Do not be fooled by the incorporated part of our name. That is for tax purposes only as we are a family owned and operated business. As a matter of fact, we celebrate 100 years of family ownership in 2017. My husband is the fourth generation to live and work here.
My husband and his mother were both born and raised on this place. Neither of them has lived anywhere else, unless it was to attend school. You see, they both attended the nearby one room school house through eighth grade. Then they were boarded in town to complete their high school education. My father in law is also a local having grown up on a ranch north of Malta. As for me, well I have only been part of this outfit for 6.5 years, which is how long hubby and I have been married. I do have a ranching background as I grew up on a cow/calf operation in southeastern Montana. I estimate that between the four of us we have 185 years of experience in the business of food production.
Our ranch is located 50 miles south of Malta, MT. So yes, it is 50 miles or one hour with optimal road and weather conditions to the grocery store, the bank, the post office, and a small hospital that most times sends you to Billings for treatment. The nearest Starbucks or Costco is 175 miles or a minimum of a 3 hour one-way drive to Billings, MT.
So when we “go to town”, meaning we drive to Malta, you make the most of the trip. I mean it is 2 hours of driving time so we don’t just go get a pizza and or gallon of milk. The food pantry is always well stocked. For example we freeze extra milk and also have powdered on hand. We also stock plenty of extra parts for the vehicles, tractors, water systems, household repairs, etc. The heat goes out, the water quits working, and/or there is problem with the power supply. Call the repairman and then get to work to try to fix it yourself. Hard telling how long the repairman may take. Although they do their best and we pay for every mile they drive to get here.
We are a cow/calf ranch and a dryland wheat farm. So what does that mean? A dryland wheat farm means that we plant and harvest wheat without supplemental water, as in irrigation. Our wheat grows solely on the moisture provided by Mother Nature, a sometimes fickle entity.
As a cow/calf ranch we use cattle to turn grass into beef which is a healthy source of lean protein. Every fall, usually in early November, we sell the steer (castrated bull) calves that we just weaned and keep the heifer (female) calves. At some point we sort the heifer calves into those we will keep to turn into mama cows and the rest go to market.
This time of year, April, we are heavy into calving. Meaning we have lots of babies being born on a daily basis. Watch for pictures of them and learn more about us in future posts.
