It's not our work life,
it's our life's work
who we are
Cook Ranch Beef is the result of the combined life's work of founders Jamie & Kenneth. Both come from staunch agricultural backgrounds and educations.
Together, they own and operate The Ranch at Coon Holler , a cow-calf ranch, established in Athens, TX. The ranch is comprised of Super-Black Baldie stock on mob rotational grazing of rich East Texas grasses. The premiere cattle are AI bred, producing top Beefmaster genetics, and the best beef possible.
meet jamie
Jamie hails from Kansas, where she grew up working cattle
with her family as soon as she was able to ride a horse.
She sets a good saddle and is a strong team roper and barrel racer.
In Athens, Texas, Jamie sells Kubota equipment,
and raises her daughter, Kody.
Together, Jamie and Kody manage the ranch horse stable,
bottle calves and practice competitive roping, barrel racing,
and pole bending.
​
Jamie's accomplished career began at a young age in Junior Rodeos where she competed and showed horses in 4H. She was a college champion on the rodeo team at Fort Hays State University, where she competed in barrel racing and breakaway roping.
Jamie's other titles include Thomas County Rodeo Queen, McCracken Rodeo Queen, and 1st Runner Up, Miss Rodeo Kansas.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Business, Jamie worked for A.G. Edwards, then Golden Belt Feeders.
Jamie moved to Athens, Texas, when she accepted a position with Booger Barter Productions, the best team roping company in the United States. She traveled from California to Florida, competing in more professional events along the way, including The Windy Ryon Memorial Roping, Coors Roping Association andThe USTRC..
​
Rodeo has come naturally to Kody, she began competing in rodeo at only two years
old. Now, Kody takes after her mother, she loves helping around the ranch
and competing in barrel racing and pole bending at
Lone Star High School Rodeo Association.
​
Kody loves helping out with the cattle. She can remember their tag numbers
and what baby belongs to what mamma better than anyone.
​
We love the family aspect of raising these cattle and take tremendous pride in
producing healthy, happy, and delicious beef.
meet kenneth
Kenneth grew up on a small family cattle operation in Montgomery, Texas and loves a great steak!
His grandfather began crossbreeding Registered Angus stock with Simmental genetics. During high
school, he showed Beef Breeding cattle on the show team at Cy-Fair FFA. For those of you familiar
with Cy Fair's program in the late 70’, the show team traveled frequently and was not in school often
but racked up many State stock show awards.
​
Kenneth's grandfather introduced Alicia bermudagrass to his farm from one tiny sprig to almost
20 acres. They nurtured the grass and it nurtured our best cattle. Since this was a small operation,
they bought hay equipment and baled our own hay. Throughout high school, Kenneth baled hay
for neighbors and friends and performed AI work at the farm and for others at the age of 12,
managing hundreds of purebred breeding operations by scheduling on an old rotary phone, well before cellular data communications, texts and emails. Surprisingly the after-school and weekend side gigs paid for his education at Texas A&M and built a great herd of cattle. After graduation, he sold the cattle and hay equipment vowing, never to be back to these long hot, humid, hard days of maintaining superior cattle.
​
It was Kenneth's 50th birthday that he realized his diversified career was actually all
about water. After completing a dual degree in Animal Science and Ag Economics at
Texas A&M University, he started financing intensely irrigated agriculture along the
Texas Gulf Coast for the Farm Credit Banks, ultimately going to work for a client to
develop and manage a 4,000-acre sod farm operation. Sod farms require a lot of water,
and a great portion of his time was focused on obtaining water rights to support
farm growth. The sod farm also planted golf courses which led him to start a landscape
company, with a golf construction division. Decades of cooperative research work with
Texas A&M University and Texas AgriLife on plant water consumption provided the base
to create smart water intellectual property now used in many commercial irrigation
control systems. In 2008 Kenneth's company Acequia LP (the ancient Spanish term for
water steward) was awarded the US EPA Water Efficiency leadership award for
documenting water savings on thousands of acres of commercial landscapes across the
southern US.
While at Texas A&M Kenneth studied animal nutrition, genetics, and meat science. The curriculum followed animals throughout their life process to the production and process of their meats.
Water, Grasses, and Beef Cattle management are in our blood and the basis of
Cook Ranch Beef's commitment to the highest quality beef.
