Q Creek Ranch
“11,260 acres owned. 548,740 borrowed from the federal government at 1978 prices.”
Optimized for sovereignty, survivability, and a new economics.
2% deeded — 11,260 of 560,000 acres owned outright.src
Most of this ground is leased and can be lost. The herd-knowledge CacheCow records is the one asset no landlord can take back.
~35 acres to feed one cow (solid stocking rate). The sparser the range, the thinner the margin when an animal goes quiet.src
Early detection turns the harshest survivability number around: respiratory trouble caught days sooner is the difference between a sick cow and a dead one, exactly where the country gives you no second chances.
~13,600 head sets the size of the preventable-loss pool.src
Divide the losses, multiply the survivors: every animal that doesn't die to a disease we flagged early is value that compounds back into the operation.
Conservatively, counting only the cattle respiratory disease would otherwise kill, caught early enough to save. It is the floor, not the ceiling: treatment cost, shrink, and lost weight are real too, and left out on purpose.
Two percent owned outright — the thinnest deeded stake in the portfolio. The other 548,740 acres are federal range, held at $1.35 per animal unit month under a fee schedule that hasn't meaningfully moved since Carter. Wyoming wind moves a herd before a rancher feels the change. Our sensors don't get cold. They'd hold the line on the nights you're finally asleep — on land that can be taken back by a policy decision.
- 01Cowboy State Daily · 2026-01 — Q Creek Ranch — ~11,260 deeded acres plus leased federal range
- 02Bureau of Land Management · 2024 — Federal grazing fee — $1.35/AUM (2024), set by formula under PRIA 1978⚠ The $1.35 AUM fee has been at or near its statutory floor for decades. Market rate for private grazing land is typically $10–$23/AUM in the West.
- 03University of Wyoming Extension (B-1320) — Stocking rate — high-plains worked example
- 04USDA APHIS NAHMS · 2015 — Adult cattle annual death rate ~2%
- 05USDA NASS · 2011 — Cattle Death Loss — 4.3% of inventory; respiratory disease 28% of non-predator loss⚠ USDA's detailed Cattle Death Loss report has not been reissued since 2011; we do not imply newer national cause-tables exist.
- 06Translational Animal Science (Oxford) · 2025 — Randomized feedlot trial: automated early BRD detection cut untreated deaths ~75% and total fallouts ~27%, treating ~3.7 days earlier⚠ Several authors are employed by Merck Animal Health, which makes the tested device. We cite the statistically-significant mortality/fallout figures, not the marginal per-head economic figure (P=0.06).
- 07CattleFax (via NCBA) · 2026-02 — 2026 full-year feeder average forecast ~$335/cwt (most conservative benchmark)