Roam Ranch

Katie Forrest and Taylor Collins' journey to becoming ranchers began in an unusual way. They first developed the nationally marketed EPIC Bar, a jerky based protein bar; then sold their company and followed an inspiration to begin livestock production as a way to improve the environment. Located in the heart of the majestic Hill Country, ROAM Ranch sits on 900 acres of awe inspiring river bottom land on the outskirts of Fredericksburg, TX. Katie and Taylor shared a vision to positively impact large-scale agriculture through producing nourishing food that improves the lives of animals, enriches the health of consumers, and regenerates the land on which we depend. Like much of the world, this once-fertile region has been industrially farmed for the past 100 years. 

Through the land stewardship of Katie and Taylor, ROAM Ranch is currently undergoing a large-scale ecosystem restoration process in which livestock are used to replicate the patterns of native ungulates. Inspired by leaders in the regenerative agriculture community, the ranch is operated in a holistic context that utilizes high intensity planned grazing methods. Emulating the biodiversity found in nature, ROAM Ranch is a multispecies operation in which the animals symbiotically support each other, increase the overall health of the land, and improve the resilience of the ranch. ROAM Ranch raises the finest grass-fed and free-range bison, pork, chicken, and turkey year-round.

Katie and Taylor are also co-founders of the pasture based meat company  Force of Nature .

Soil for Water has established two transects on the ROAM Ranch in two distinctly different areas.

Pedernales Pasture: Transect one is in the Pedernales Pasture, which is a heavily degraded and compacted river bottom field previously producing a variety of crops such as cotton and more recently milo; and fertilized for decades. Katie and Taylor planted two cover crops in this pasture. The first cover crop, planted in November of 2018 consisted of a cool season blend of rye, oats, vetch and clover. The second cover crop, planted in April of 2019 consisted of a warm season blend of cowpea, mung bean, sorghum sudangrass, pearl millet and browntop millet. Every spring and fall since 2018 they try out a variety of different cover crop mixtures to see what works best for their soil type and location. Beginning in spring of 2020 they have also been applying 300 pounds of pelletized chicken manure compost twice a year to support the soil microbiome.

The bison graze these paddocks two to four times a year depending on rainfall and plant growth. The desired goal in this pasture is to reactivate the microbial activity in the soil with pasture cover cropping and beneficial animal impact leading to reduced compaction, improved soil water holding capacity, increased coverage and biodiversity of native plants, and improved forage yields.

Riparian Pasture: Transect two is in a riparian area next to Cave Creek. The riparian area along the transect already has a good amount of high succession grasses such as Switch grass, Little bluestem, and Indian grass. The riparian area will be mob grazed by the bison on average once per year for a short duration; and when moisture and plant growth allow, may get a second grazing. The desired goal for this transect is to see if these higher successional grasses move up the riparian slope further into the pasture and increase plant growth and biodiversity in the actual riparian area.

ROAM Ranch, like NCAT shares a passion for educating both producers and consumers on how agricultural practices can improve ecological function and thus the health of our food and the ecology of the environments we live in. In January of 2019, Soil for Water and ROAM Ranch partnered to host renowned agroecologist Nicole Masters for a two-day workshop on soil ecology. Although winter weather created some challenges with cold temps and high winds, a full house of participants came to the conference.