CRESTLINE — A new cattle ranch has grown into a labor of love.
Meet Your Neighbors, Jeremy and Ashli Keller, partners in Keller Ranch.
It all started after Jeremy’s father, Frank Keller, talked to his granddaughter, Saylor, about trying to get some animals. That evolved into the purchase of two Highland cattle.
“It got contagious. We all fell in love with them,” Jeremy noted. “From there it escalated quickly. It got addicting.”
The ranch is a family affair, worked by Jeremy’s parents, Frank and Nancy Keller, Jeremy and Ashli Keller and their sons Colton and Quinn, and Seth and Jenny Hartings along with their daughters Saylor and Gianna.
Jeremy and Frank were laser-focused in the development of the ranch. Frank designed the infrastructure, and Jeremy helped create everything around it. A company helped with the fencing, but since the animals needed a roof over their heads, Frank told Jeremy he was building a barn.
That's when Jeremy said the fun started and everything happened quickly.
“This was a corn field in September,” Jeremy said, gesturing across the expansive property. “We’ve got two barns going up and eventually there’s going to be a third pasture.”
A family adventure
Although the ranch surrounds Jeremy and Ashli’s house, Ashli said it's a "family ranch."
The adults enjoy the work, but it’s for teaching their kids life skills, according to Jeremy. Along with the responsibility of taking care of things, he wants to teach the kids to give back — something his father taught him, his sister and two brothers.
The future of the ranch lies with the children as they learn what it’s like to run a farm.
“It’s going to be exciting to see all these kids growing up around these cattle,” Ashli said. "It’s going to be really fun in the next couple years.”
Keller Ranch impressed many veterans at the recent Mid-Atlantic Highland Association national show in Franklin, Pennsylvania.
Jeremy and Ashli’s 11-year-old son, Quinn, left his mark, taking third place in the final round. It was the first time Quinn has shown an animal. It won’t be his last.
“Nobody could believe that it was his first time showing,” Jeremy said. "He was the highlight of the show. He placed first in his class in showmanship. For him to even get that far was absolutely incredible.”
The young girls in the family aren’t afraid of the cattle.
“Those little girls are so involved with this. Saylor has no fear of them,” Ashli said. “She loves them and so does Gianna. They are just hands-on and so excited to be old enough to show them.”
The girls are inspired by their mother, Jenny Hartings.
“Jenny showed out at that show, too, and they're watching their mom out there, and I just think that’s so precious,” Ashli said.
The animals fared remarkably well at the show, too.
“We were competing right with the big ranches. They could not believe that it was our first year,” Jeremy said. “It was incredible to get that respect from people that were doing this for 20 years and looking at us like, ‘Wow, you’re right with us.’”
Encouraged by their first national show, their next one will be in upstate Michigan.
“We’re going to try and hit four to five national shows a year, including Denver,” Jeremy said. “It’s going to be fun.”
Growing the herd
Showcasing their cattle at national shows is one thing. Producing a whole generation of champion Highland cattle to be nationally competitive is another.
Jeremy and son Quinn recently took a trip to Denver seeking high-quality cattle to show on a national level. They ended up buying three animals, including one that was pregnant with what is now their future bull. Samson was born in the spring.
“Everyone’s intrigued by this little guy, biblical Samson. We need a Delilah," Jeremy said.
Not only is Samson very promising, he’s known nationally because of his father, a champion bull named Encore, and his mother, Hazel, with strong genetics. Once a month, Jeremy fields a phone call about how Samson’s progressing.
Once a bull becomes a national champion, their semen is collected into little, really thin "semen straws." These are sold to help create a long lineage or extended family tree.
“They literally sell these genetic lines for crazy amounts of money,” Jeremy said.
Jeremy said they retrieved an egg from their best cow in order to create an embryo from Encore, the national champion, and Samson’s father, but were unsuccessful.
“We’re going to keep trying to create because of the genetics we brought in from Denver. It’s very promising on what we have and it’s just getting it all to jive together,” Jeremy said. “We can create some very good animals with this and that’s what we’re excited about.”
Their focus is on doubling the herd by next year. There are 12 cattle on the ranch now, so they’re looking to be in the mid-20s next year, hopefully with six calves.
Right now, the farm has two pastures with a third being developed. Each pasture has a fold of cattle.
“We have a show animal side and the fold on the other side is for the genetic part, pretty much building our fold” Jeremy said. “When they get to be three years old, they’ll no longer be able to show.”
Getting the cattle show-ready
Prepping the animals for a show is similar to a full-time job. Not only do the cows need bathed twice daily sometimes in order to thoroughly clean them, the family also uses hair adhesives, hair dyes, hoof coloring and even spray paint on their hair, as well as clipping them all down.
But that’s not all.
“As long as the hair is on them, which is Seth Harting’s great job — it’s his number one thing, he runs the hair blow dryers — that’s probably the most crazy thing because it takes forever to dry,” Jeremy said. “Seth’s got that down. There’s a certain way you gotta do it. It’s kind of funny.”
The animals know when a treat is coming for their patience. Ashli said they love their animals like pets.
Running a farm as working parents helps them teaches the kids about their own responsibilities to its success. Not only do the kids help halter the cows every day, but smaller jobs also need to be done for the animals, too. The animals are fed every day, but the parents make sure the kids also pitch the manure.
“Between Jenny and Seth, Ashli and myself, Mom and Dad and our kids, we all just meet out here at four-thirty, five oclock,” Jeremy said. “We spend an hour or two out here every night. It’s something that's relaxing to us. It’s something different than what we all do. It’s neat. Everybody enjoys it.”
Correspondent Joe Di Lullo can be reached at muckrack.com/dilulloj or jp.dilullo0926@gmail.com.
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