Viroqua father-and-son duo win national cattle award
Father-son cattle ranchers, Reid and Matt Ludlow, have been named BEEF Magazine s 2020 National Stocker Award winner.
With their Viroqua-based operation Rush Creek Ranch, dad Reid has been in business since 1976, with son Matt joining the operation in 2008 not long after he graduated from college. The pair raise nearly 7,000 stocker steers and heifers each year, separated into groups of 600-900 head, on a spread of 2,000 acres.
But those acres aren t actually all used for grazing at once. Matt said his dad has perfected the art of rotational grazing . When he first started raising stocker cattle, he rotated between 40-acre pastures, but nowadays he s narrowed it down to 5 acres at a time, Matt said. He added it helps them preserve the land better, even if the practice has its costs.