Mission
We are committed to continually improving our ranching practices in ways that nurture the environment. We seek to always have an open mind to new ideas and practices and to share our knowledge with anyone who seeks it. We view ourselves as caretakers of the land, maintaining biodiversity, natural habitat, and clean waterways.
Goals
01.
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To improve grazing systems in order to better maintain native species habitat, biodiversity, water filtration, and well being of cattle.
02.
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To improve the quality of our herd through encouraging maternal traits, data collection, and gentle cattle handling practices.
03.
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To increase our carbon sequestration rate through improved pasture rotation, adaptive context based grazing, and cover crops.
04.
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To be an advocate for sustainable ranching and the benefits it provides our planet as a whole.
“Our stewardship to the land benefits everyone. This is for my son.”
MEREDITH ELLIS | RANCHER
History
G Bar C Ranch started in 1982 with the purchase of 450 acres. Owner and founder GC Ellis wore out 2 pickup trucks in search for the perfect location to start his dream. Ranch Manager, Michael Knabe began working with GC at age 18 and has been part of the family operation for several decades. GC Ellis’s daughter, Meredith Ellis, represents the next generation and future of the ranch. After receiving her master’s degree in Landscape Architecture with a focus on Sustainability from the University of New Mexico, she realized the importance of her family’s work and returned home to continue her father’s legacy.
Presently the ranch has grown to 3000 acres with over 200 mother cows. The cow calf operation runs black Angus cattle with a strong focus on maternal traits. The ranch raises and retains their own replacement females perfectly adapted to their North Texas environment. The ranch is a decades long member of the Integrity Beef Alliance and Meredith Ellis presently sits on the board of directors. Integrity Beef’s goal is to raise the most nutritious beef available paying careful attention to herd health and efficiency, Beef Quality Assurance standards, and gentle animal handling practices. In September of 2022, the Integrity Beef Alliance and its partners received a $30m USDA Climate Smart Commodities Grant to launch their new Legacy program seeking to develop a robust, diversified market incentivizing responsible land stewardship practices giving customers a choice between purchasing beef that is raised in a manner that is a benefit to the environment and beef that is not.
The G Bar C Ranch pays careful attention to data and management decisions are highly observation based. “If you can measure it, we are collecting that data,” says Meredith. Understanding the effect cattle are having on their environment is key to the operation’s success. Using cattle as a tool to improve the land just as migrating ruminant animals have done for a millennia is the overall goal of the program. The ranch is a member of the United States Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, the TSCRA, and the American Angus Association. The ranch has previously done work with the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, the Youth Society for Range Management, The Noble Research Institute, the NRCS, Skidmore College Environmental Sciences department, The Soil Inventory Project, Conservation Equity Partners, Texas A&M University, McDonalds, the United States Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, EarthX, The Botanical Research Institute of Texas, and more. This collaborative effort across many organizations, continually pushes the G Bar C Ranch to improve in both quality and sustainability.
