About

Welcome, Partner

Minnie Lou, Mary Lou Bradley Henderson and James Henderson

Come sit a spell and visit with the pioneers of performance proven Angus

history of the ranch | livelihood | philosophy | linebreeding | our goal | ahead of the game | industry recognition

History of the Ranch

Mary Lou’s great granddaddy, Rufus Jack Bradley was wagon boss on the famed XIT Ranch in the northwest Texas panhandle. He saved all but one paycheck during 1874-1875, and headed south to try and get away from the panhandle blizzards. With $1100 in his pocket he was able to acquire a few acres between the Wichita River and Beaver Creek in Wichita County Texas.

He married the daughter of his neighbor and to that union was born Raymond Jack "Rusty" Bradley. Father and son went from a Longhorn herd in the 1930s to commercial Herefords in the 1950s. Rusty’s son, Billy Jack, was sent off to study animal husbandry at Oklahoma A&M College. There he met Minnie Lou Ottinger, also a student in animal husbandry and a breeder of Angus cattle. Going home to Texas to meet Bill’s family, she became quite vocal in her thoughts on pink eye, dehorning and bad udders. Rusty asked her for a solution and she immediately sold him on the idea of using Angus bulls on the Hereford cows. A radical move for a rancher in Texas during the early fifties.

Minnie Lou Ottinger with her Reserve Champion
Angus steer at the American Royal, Kansas City, in 1949.

Upon graduation from Oklahoma A&M Bill went into the armed services and Minnie Lou began working for the Texas Angus Association. Rusty and Jack expanded their black baldie herd to a second ranch in Dickens County Texas. When Bill returned from service a third ranch was purchased in Childress County. Bill and Minnie Lou were married and thus the FIGURE 3 BRAND was registered in Texas representing the third ranch and third generation of Bradleys to ranch in northern Texas.

After getting her point across on the black baldies, Minnie was able to convince her new family to go with commercial Angus on the newly acquired country. After a couple of years she and Bill were of mutual feeling that perhaps Texas was ready for Angus bulls with numbers along with a pedigree. Performance testing was a new word their senior year in school but both took to the idea. So for Christmas 1956 Rusty and Jack gave them a set of the most unportable, portable scales on the market. Weighing of all their calves began in the fall of 1956 and has continued through the many years. The Bradley 3 Ranch is a charter member of Performance Registry International and has been on Angus Herd Improvement Records (AHIR) since its inception. Minnie Lou is now a member of the Board of Directors of the American Angus Association and serves on the Breed Improvement Committee. Bill was a director of the American Angus Association in 1976. Minnie Lou assumed the office of President of American Angus Association November 2004.

Mary Lou, the fourth generation of Bradleys, realized that the world was changing rapidly and that the family must change with it. Observing her fellow students while in college she became concerned with their eating habits and quality desired. Returning home she convinced her parents that they must not only satisfy the consumer, but also find a way for the commercial cow man to make a profit. In 1986 the Bradleys built a USDA beef plant, producing a high-quality beef product for the consumers and rewarding ranchers with premiums and information. B3R Country Meats was one of the first of all branded beef to be marketed across the country and reward the ranchers with a value-based marketing system. Today cattlemen from 18 states market their calves through the B3R Country Meats program and consumers from New York to California enjoy eating B3R Country Meats Angus beef while the ranchers who purchase Bradley 3 Ranch bulls are marketing their calves at the greatest premiums of any market.

Livelihood

Known by the company you keep…Bradley 3 Ranch receives the Texas Land Stewardship Award in 1998. Pictured are (from left) Kim Lindsey, employee; former Texas governor and current U. S. President George W. Bush; Minnie Lou Bradley and Zinn Lindsey.

Unlike many purebred operations Angus cattle have been and are still the only source of income on the The entire ranch is grass and the cattle harvest all they consume, except for a manufactured feed supplement fed during the winter months. Believing in taking care of the country and the country will take care of the cows has been the Bradley's philosophy for many years. The Bradley 3 Ranch was awarded the Texas Land Stewardship Award in 1998 by Governor George W. Bush.

Philosophy

Who works for whom? The philosophy of the is that our cattle are to work for us rather than us working for them. We believe that a cow should make a living on grass, that she should bring in a calf every 12 months that weans at least 50% of the cow’s weight the day the calf is weaned. She should do this with as little outside help as possible. She is to lay down and calve out in the pasture without assistance, get up and lick that calf so he will get the necessary colostrum to aide his immune system. The heifers are to breed at 14 months of age, no exception and continue to calve every 365 days to stay in the herd.

Donor Cows are proven before being selected. No cow is selected for embryo transfer until she has had eight natural calves, with a 365 calving interval, each calf being over 100% on both weaning and yearling ratios. Each cow has had to produce replacement females or a herd sire. This kind of cow has proven her fertility, mothering ability, longevity and productivity. Average number: one egg per flush 21.

Mary Lou Bradley (fourth generation) with the steaks that were served at President Bush's inauguration in 2001

Production of Bulls for the Commercial Cow Man is our bread and butter. The rancher has been our lifeline to profitability. We must in turn produce bulls that help him to be profitable. Bulls are made for walking in most of cow country so prides itself on producing high-performing bulls that are never cooped up in a pen. Bull calves are weaned in a large lot for no more than three days, then turned out on grass and fed a protein cube for 45 days, weighed on test and fed a 40% grain ration while running over rocks to get to feed and water. They continue to run out to insure sound feet and legs and are conditioned for work at fifteen months of age.

A 100-day growth test is obtained while on grass and feeding a 40% grain ration, this insures that the fertility or soundness have not been hurt while letting them express their ability for growth, muscle development and marbling. Each calf has his actual weights and measurements and EPDs plus the percent at weaning of his dam’s weight. The bull yearlings are in large contemporary groups of 100 or more, the sire groups will consist of bred herd bulls that are being compared to the top performing AI sires. Bradley 3 Ranch mates the most fertile, productive cow to a high performing bull with carcass merits to produce full brothers for our annual sale.

Balanced Traits: has never waivered in its belief that balanced traits are necessary for continual profitability.

Linebreeding

practices and believes in linebreeding. The ranch likes to set traits in their cattle that are predictable. This may be the reason that ranchers proclaim the cattle wearing the figure 3 to be the most uniform, easy fleshing and trouble-free Angus herd that they have seen. likes breeding one-half sibs and do some sire–daughter matings. genetics allows this kind of breeding to be very successful.

Goal of

To produce bulls for our customers that wean the most qulity pounds from cows exposed to calves weaned. concentrates its breeding efforts on fertility, easy calving and easy fleshing and high performance. believes this is where money is made or lost for the commercial cow man.

Ahead of the Game

Jim Reinman, Mary Lou and James Henderson –
announcing the beginning of CAB® Natural Beef.

DNA markers have been obtained on every bull since 1994. takes responsibility for every calf sired by our bulls in a multi-sired herd. Before there was ultrasound data and technicians, housed an ultrasound machine for teaching purposes for Texas Tech University and Clarendon College. Ribeye and back fat data by ultrasound and followed up with actual carcass data since 1986. Recent feedyard and carcass data revealed in a set of cattle that represented only 29% sired calves that six of the top 10 were sired by bulls. Recent closeout revealed a set of B3R sired calves averaged a premium of $95. The retained owner had purchased their sires for $1,500. A good investment!

Has Been Recognized by the Beef Industry

• 1998 Lone Star Land Steward Award
• 2001 Pioneer Award, Beef Improvement Federation
• 2002 Ladd Hitch Award “Beef Today”
• 2002 B3R Country Meats, Inc. sells out to B.C. Natural
• 2003 NBCA Regional Winner Innovative Cattlemen
• 2004 “BEEF” Top Forty beef producers
• 2008 American Angus Ass'n – Beef Heritage Award
• 2009 NCBA Regional Land Stewardship Recipient
• 2009 CAB Seedstock Commitment to Excellence Award Winner

Mary Lou, James and Minnie Receive Regional Land Stewardship Award at NCBA

Bradley 3 Ranch Wins Stewardship Award

Bradley 3 Ranch, Childress, has been awarded the Outstanding Rangeland Stewardship Award by the Texas Section, Society for Range Management (TSSRM) and the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA).

The award was presented by TSSRM President Paul Loeffler to ranch owners Minnie Lou Bradley, Mary Lou Bradley-Henderson and James Henderson at the TSSRM annual meeting in October. The family will also be recognized at TSCRA’s March 2008 convention in Corpus Christi.

From left are Paul Loeffler; Minnie Lou Bradley; Mary Lou Bradley-Henderson; and James Henderson.

The Outstanding Rangeland Stewardship Award is jointly presented by TSSRM and TSCRA to recognize a TSCRA member’s land management activities that lead to improved conditions.

Bradley accepted the award at an awards chuckwagon luncheon held at the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge, saying, “My lifetime goal has always been to leave the ranch in better condition than when I came here.”

Bradley 3 Ranch produces registered Angus bulls and heifers, and markets their bulls through an annual production sale in February. They also provide high quality mule deer, whitetailed deer and quail hunts as part of their comprehensive integrated ranch management.

The ranch institutes intense management plans that benefit both the forage that feeds their beef and the forbs and brush that help sustain the wildlife populations.

Bradley arrived at the ranch in the Red River Basin in 1955. She and Bill Bradley purchased the ranch during the drought of the 1950s. Their partners were Bill’s parents, Rusty and Lois Bradley, Electra.

The first land purchased was 3,000 acres with an additional purchase in 1956, bringing the total to more than 10,000 acres. This acreage remains intact and in 2000, Bradley-Henderson purchased 1,000 acres adjoining the ranch.

The original purchase included 480 acres of cotton land. Today, the 11,500 acres are in grass. There are 720 acres of improved grass, allowing for an intense grazing system on the improved grass and 500 acres of native grass intermingled.

Bradley 3 Ranch has partnered with a number of organizations to educate themselves and to improve their resources: USDA-NRCS Environmental Quality Incentive Program; Texas Parks and Wildlife Department field days; Texas Wildlife Association demonstration days; and the ranch is an annual stop for the TCU Ranch Management Program students.

The Bradley’s developed B3R Country Meats, a natural branded beef product, and were instrumental in the defining the national standards for natural beef products.

Bradley is a past president of the American Angus Association; has been inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame; and serves on various committees of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) committees.

Bradley-Henderson also serves on NCBA committees; was named the TSCRA’s Outstanding Young Rancher in 1998; represented the Texas Cattle Feeders Association (TCFA) in Washington D.C.; and has been nominated to the Cattleman’s Beef Board.

Henderson is a past director of TCFA; past president of the Southwest Meat Association; past board member of NCBA; and is a vice-chair of an NCBA committee.

The Texas Section is part of the Society for Range Management, an international professional society concerned with studying, conserving, managing and sustaining the varied resources of the rangelands which comprise nearly half the land in the world. Membership includes those interested in ranching, wildlife biology, hydrology, range conservation and soil conservation.

Has Been Recognized by the Beef Industry

• 1998 Lone Star Land Steward Award
• 2001 Pioneer Award, Beef Improvement Federation
• 2002 Ladd Hitch Award “Beef Today”
• 2002 B3R Country Meats, Inc. sells out to B.C. Natural
• 2003 NBCA Regional Winner Innovative Cattlemen
• 2004 “BEEF” Top Forty beef producers

Minnie Lou inducted into Cowgirl Hall of Fame

The purpose of the Hall of Fame is to preserve the history and impact of western women living roughly from the mid-1800s to the present – the pioneers, the artists and writers, the tribal leaders, the entertainers, the social activists, and the modern ranchers and rodeo cowgirls. Today, there are 176 amazing women who have been inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame since 1975.

As family owner of Bradley 3 Ranch, Minnie Lou implements innovations into her ranching operations that gained her recognition as a leader in the beef industry. And in helping share her passion for ranch work, she has partnered with the Ranch Management Program at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas for the past 51 years helping young men and women learn the ranching industry.

Visit www.cowgirl.net to learn more!

Minnie Lou Bradley was pictured on the cover of the November 2005 issue of the Angus Journal as the outgoing President of the American Angus Association, after serving 8 years on the American Angus Association Board of Directors.

The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame
inducted Minnie Lou Bradley on October 26, 2006.

is proud to be a part of the TCU Ranch Training class for the last 50 years.