About 100th Meridian Ranching
100th Meridian Ranching is owned and operated by Justin & Bryn Rader. Both Bryn and Justin grew up on family ranches in the Texas panhandle near the 100th Meridian. We are 5th generation ranchers and have a deep love for the ranching way of life. While we love the lifestyle that ranching provides, we also realize that in order for it to be a viable option for future generations to pursue, ranching must also be profitable and sustainable for the people, land, and animals. We strive for excellence in those areas. Currently, we operate owned and leased land in the Canadian, Texas, region and have several main enterprises: cow-calf production, bred heifers, custom grazing, and bull leasing.
We're located in the northeast corner of the Texas panhandle, making it easy for us to serve a wide range of cattle country. Most of our bulls are black Angus, Red Angus, and Charolais. We listen to each rancher's needs, situation, and help match the best bull for their operation.
Justin is a 2007 graduate of Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in rangeland management and a 2008 graduate of Texas Christian University’s Ranch Management Program. Bryn is a 2007 graduate of West Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing and a 2015 graduate of Vanderbilt University with a Master of Science in Nursing. We have both completed the Ranching for Profit school and are currently board members in their Executive Link program. Justin ranches full time, and Bryn is a nurse practitioner in the emergency department and also plays an active role on the ranch. We have two energetic sons, Lincoln & Griffin, who love to be involved in every aspect of ranching.
Dusty Billings - Ranch Production Foreman
Dusty is the Ranch Production Foreman and brings with him a valuable skillset. He was born and raised in Canadian, Texas. He is a 2006 graduate of Clarendon College Ranch and Feedlot Operations. Dusty grew up ranching on his family’s ranch and has always had a love for the ranching way of life.
Dusty and his wife Ashley have 3 children, Kolter, Paisley, and Hadlee. In his free time, he is often sharing his love of hunting, fishing and the outdoors with his family.
Lane Hale - Bull Lease Manager
Lane grew up in Ozona, Texas, in the heart of rugged sheep and goat country. His experiences at South Plains College and Texas Tech University broadened his horizons to other forms of agricultural production, leading to a degree in Agricultural Leadership in 2016 from Tech. Lane’s path has led from education, to real world crop production, to small business entrepreneurship, and to the cattle business. Lane loves the western way of life, specifically the heritage and people that surround rural America.
Lane and his wife Kortni, along with daughters Hattie and Hollin, enjoy their time spent outdoors and traveling. The Hale family also pursues a 3rd generation love for sheep, Border Collies, and the opportunities each provides for their young family.
Here's What Makes Us Different
Rooted in Integrity & Faith
This guides every decision we make.Passion for Ranching
We are fully invested and intend to pursue ranching as a lifetime commitment.Well Educated
We have invested in both our practical and formal education and continually seek knowledge from some of the best ranches in the country.Experienced
We have experienced and managed through severe drought, devastating wildfires, record high prices, and market crashes.Committed to Small Communities
We have a heart for small communities and want to help them thrive by excellent business stewardship and by encouraging young people to be involved in agriculture.Strong Economic Stewardship
Knowing our true operating costs is as important as any other part of stewardship.Financially Secure
We have a strong capital position that enables us to operate without a bank’s control.What Do We Want?
Excellent Stewardship
Great Relationships
With our lessors and cattle customers, we are committed to treating them fairly and honestly in a way that is beneficial for everyone involved. We believe this is in part why we have never lost a lease, and we are grateful to have a growing number of satisfied cattle customers.
We rank character as our most important quality in our employees, and we are intentional about investing in quality people who are passionate about ranching and rural communities. We believe that, while a person can develop new skills, there is no substitute for character. We treat our employees with respect, give them clear objectives, fair wages and an enjoyable place to live and work.
Profitable Business
We are looking for large, contiguous ranches that have forward-thinking owners. Managing biological capital is our primary service for our lessors. Doing so while maintaining a profit target of 15-25% return on investments feeds the economic engine of the ranch.
Our rule of thumb for business is as follows:
- We use the economic framework from Ranching For Profit to look at the business. This gives us a standard and objective way of analyzing our numbers and benchmarks to compare our strengths and weaknesses to other excellent ranch businesses.
- Because ranch economics and land ecology work on long time frames, we have a long term approach and look for leases with a 5-year minimum.
- Each enterprise must be a stand-alone enterprise (enterprise A won’t be supported by enterprise B and vice versa).
- Return on investment target is 15-25%, depending on risk and other factors.
- We are invested in ranching as a business first, then a way of life.
- The land business is a different business than the livestock business.
What We Can Do For You
A ranch inventory and baseline of soils, plants, wildlife, and livestock
- If we know what we’ve got to start with, we can measure success into the future. We have simple systems to track progress.
Stewardship of resources already in place on the ranch
- From fixing broken wires to changing windmill oil, we know that details and daily maintenance are too important to be overlooked.
- Taking care of your safety and liability is important to us as well. That’s why we offer to list you as an additional insured on our $1Million general liability policy at no charge to you.
Plan to accomplish meaningful goals
- How do you want your ranch to look in 10 years? We can help get it there with simple, written plans and on-the-ground action.
- Without vision, there is no hope. We want to take the time to communicate our goals to you as well as understand and achieve your goals.
Improve infrastructure
- In the past eight years we’ve installed 4 miles of pipeline, 4 solar pumps, 3 water wells, 18 miles of barbed wire fence, 8 miles of electric fence, 14 water tanks, and 5 sets of corrals. We have done most of these improvements with the help of Environmental Quality Incentive Programs (EQIP) contracts through the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) at little to no cost to our lessors.
Useful and informative updates
- From quail hatches to oil and gas activity, we pride ourselves on communicating what we are seeing to our lessors.
Yearly ecological reports
- We have a simple and efficient way of measuring bare ground, basal plant cover, water cycles, mineral cycles, and energy cycles. These also come with yearly rangeland transect photos.
Rangeland Health and Plant Diversity
- Through adequate recovery periods and adaptive grazing management, we can influence plant species to fit our goals. More diversity in our plant communities affords more selection for our wildlife and livestock to fulfill their needs.
- Fuel load reduction and management goes hand in hand with excellent grazing management, reducing wildfire risk to both you and your neighbors.