Muenster Grass Fed
Our Family Farm
Raising Cattle in North Texas Since 1901
Our family farm consists of Roy and his two sons, Lucas and Grant as well as a couple hired employees. Our operations consist of both farming and ranching. As farmers, we raise all types of grain crops such as hard and soft wheat, oats, corn, milo, soybeans, and cover crops. As cowboys, we raise several hundred cow calf pairs which we integrate into our farming operation by allowing the cattle to graze our crop fields at specifically coordinated times of the year. The grass fed calves we raise for Muenster Grass Fed are a small, but important, part of our business. Grass fed calves demand high quality grass at all times in order to maintain daily weight gain in the calves. That's why on the ranching side of things, we are "grass farmers" first and foremost. We are constantly working toward the goal of raising a high quality grass fed calf with tender and delicious steaks. Even though we only raise a few dozen grass finished cattle yearly, the increased productivity of our pastures has benefited our entire herd and has allowed us to become much more efficient in our operation.
Harvest 2014
Grant, Lucas, and Roy standing in front of the Case IH Combine after a full day's work
Our Farm's Story
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Edward and Margaret Fette
Our Great-Great Grandparents on the Fette Side. Edward purchased our homestead back in 1901.
Beginnings in Muenster
I guess you can say that agriculture is in our blood. For six generations, our family has raised crops and livestock right here in North Central Texas. The oldest piece of property in our family was purchased by our great-great grandfather Edward Fette in January 1901 just south of Muenster. Edward’s son, Conrad, along with his son-in-law, Herman Hartman (our grandfather), continued farming and raising cattle in Cooke and Montague Counties. These men worked long, hard hours in the hot Texas sun and bitter winter winds cultivating the land with little help from modern machinery. They gathered cattle with horses and dug fence post holes by hand in the gumbo clay and chunk rock.
George Hartman
Our Great-Great Grandfather on the Hartman side. George also owned land around Muenster and had an awesome beard.
Conrad & Erna Fette
Our Great Grandparents on the Fette side. Conrad put together a large ranch in Cooke County which he passed on to his daughters
Technological Revolutions
Our father, Roy, has witnessed a great deal of changes on the farm in his life. As a boy, he remembers riding a bundle wagon pulled by two horses with his Grandpa Conrad. These horses pulled bundles of wheat from the field to a stationary threshing machine operated by a crew of men. As the decades past, he saw the rise in modern tractors and farming implements as well as new farming techniques. In the fifties, it took a crew of twenty men to harvest the wheat. When Roy returned to the farm after his tour in Korea in the early 1970s, one man on a self-propelled combine could perform the same amount of work.​
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​While the technology on the farming side of the operation increased exponentially, raising cattle remained pretty much the same throughout his life. In fact, we are still using corrals and an old calf working table designed and built by his grandfather, Conrad. The principles of raising cattle on native grass pastures which we have done for over 110 years changed only in our increased awareness of managing grass and improving cattle genetics.
Herman and Roy Hartman​
Our grandfather Herman Hartman riding horses with our father Roy. Dad is breaking a horse named Lightning. Herman is riding Traveler.
Our Great-Grandfather Conrad Fette's Threshing Machine
Our Farm's First Self-Propelled Combines
The Next Generation of Farmers and Ranchers
In 2002, Lucas returned to work on the farm after graduating from Texas A&M University with a degree in Animal Science. He and dad worked together for almost 10 years while Grant finished his schooling at the US Military Academy and completed his service in the Army. In 2012, Dad, Lucas, and Grant became partners forming their own company named RCH AG, LLC to conduct their farming and ranching operations.
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Only three of Conrad Fette’s great grandchildren are able to continue farming and ranching at the present time. Like many family farms, low prices, unpredictable weather, and more lucrative opportunities elsewhere drove most to outside careers. Our father, Lucas, and Grant saw the writing on the wall that conventional commodity exchanges would not sustain our wages in future years, so we investigated alternative farming markets. Joel Salatin, a revolutionary sustainable farmer in the Shenandoah Valley, along with other renowned sustainable farmers and ranchers inspired us to begin marketing our beef as grass fed. The transition from our conventional production methods to the 100% grass finished method took very little effort from a production standpoint, since we already raised our cattle on open pastures.
"The Yellow Brick House".
Built by Conrad Fette. Our grandma, Della Fette, lived here as a girl. Later, Herman and Della Hartman moved here, and this is where Dad was raised.
Our sister, Ashley, and Lucas with a bottle calf
Dad home for lunch, Summer 1972
Looking Forward to the Future
Through the decades, our attitude toward how we approach our farming and ranching lifestyle has remained the same. I think one of Dad’s fondest memories with his grandpa Conrad Fette sums it up very nicely. Early one morning, Dad and his Grandpa were herding cattle on horseback. Conrad and Roy looked out on the prairie as the sun rose over the horizon observing the bunch of cattle grazing in the pasture on the side of a hill, and Conrad told him, “We sure are blessed. How many people have the opportunity to do this?” Our Great Grandpa was a man of great wisdom, and he worked and sacrificed his entire life to ensure that we can continue farming and ranching into the 21st century. We don’t know what the future holds for our farm, but we know God will take care of us, and we know that we are some of the most blessed people around.
Harvest Time in the 90's
Lucas and Grant filling up the grain truck as boys. That old Case IH 3588 had a long nose. It was a "treat" to drive.
Lucas and Grant enjoying a good laugh before the cattle working started