Your Legacy, Our Mission: Local Rancher Keeps Tradition Going
Scott and Stacey Schumacher were up early on Black Friday – not for shopping, but to care for their cattle, administering vaccines and tending to the herd.
Sacrifices like this are the norm for the fourth-generation rancher and his family – but they can’t imagine doing anything else.
“You’ve got to be a jack of all trades,” Scott said. “We build a lot of fences. We do a lot of electrical work, and a lot of plumbing. We work on our pickup trucks. We do a lot of welding and working on the pens.”
Schumacher Cattle breeds elite longhorns for show but he also has 850 cattle spread across several pastures north of Era in Cooke County. The majority will be sold to meat markets this June and then the process starts over again.
Scott learned the ropes from his father and, someday, he hopes to pass the business on to his children, Stran and Selah.
At the Mercy of the Weather Winter Storm Fern in January was especially challenging.
“That’s when it gets the hardest because we’re out there all day every day,” Scott said. “We had all of our heifers calving out in the middle of that ice storm. Everyone was taking shifts about every two hours. We were looking for calves being born. We had them in our garage warming them up. Then the next day, we’d reunite them with their mother in the barn.”
Scott and Stacey Schumacher were up early on Black Friday – not for shopping, but to care for their cattle, administering vaccines and tending to the herd.
Sacrifices like this are the norm for the fourth-generation rancher and his family – but they can’t imagine doing anything else.
“You’ve got to be a jack of all trades,” Scott said. “We build a lot of fences. We do a lot of electrical work, and a lot of plumbing. We work on our pickup trucks. We do a lot of welding and working on the pens.”
Schumacher Cattle breeds elite longhorns for show but he also has 850 cattle spread across several pastures north of Era in Cooke County. The majority will be sold to meat markets this June and then the process starts over again.
Scott learned the ropes from his father and, someday, he hopes to pass the business on to his children, Stran and Selah.
At the Mercy of the Weather Winter Storm Fern in January was especially challenging.
“That’s when it gets the hardest because we’re out there all day every day,” Scott said. “We had all of our heifers calving out in the middle of that ice storm. Everyone was taking shifts about every two hours. We were looking for calves being born. We had them in our garage warming them up. Then the next day, we’d reunite them with their mother in the barn.”
To make things more challenging, several calves – and even a bull – wandered onto frozen ponds and needed to be rescued when the ice broke.
Though some days are tough, the good far outweigh the bad, and Scott loves caring for his herd.
“Everybody loves feeding cattle, it’s easy and it’s fun,” he said. “I like it during springtime, you see all the babies coming up. Though you kind of repeat the cycle year after year, two days are never the same.”
Dependable Electricity Where It Counts
The Schumachers have several pastures for their cattle, but only one falls within CoServ’s service area.
He said he’s grateful to have CoServ powering the 1.5-mile electric fence that keep his valuable livestock safe.
“We could use solar chargers to power these fences, but reliable electricity is way better,” Scott said. “It has way more power. It can go farther and drive a lot longer hot wire and it’s more consistent.”
Family ranching operations like this are an integral part of CoServ’s 89-year history.
Your moments are our mission powering an electric fence to keep cattle in, or powering the lights at bedtime.
