Working Ranch Magazine

A few weeks ago I was sitting at Catalena Hatters in Bryan, Texas while Brandon was getting his new cowboy hat shaped. I saw this magazine sitting on the bench in their store so I picked it up and started browsing through it. LOVE IT! This is a great magazine for anyone in the cattle business.

A relatively new publication, Working Ranch is what I would consider similar to a Sports Illustrated, Cosmo, or Cowboys & Indians type magazine for ranchers and those who love the cattle business. It's very trendy, has great articles, and really relates to those who are living the ranch lifestyle day in and day out.

The great thing about this magazine is that it is free! That's right, you can get a free subscription if you visit their web site at http://www.workingranchtv.com/.

Their next issue that will be arriving is the November/December magazine, so you might want to go ahead and subscribe so that you'll be on the mailing list for that issue.

And, for our advertising clients, this is a great publication to consider advertising in. Their rates are very affordable and they have a great circulation. If you're a livestock person wanting to advertise the person to talk to is Todd McCartney and his e-mail is todd@workingranchmag.com. This is a great outlet for advertising bull sales and other registered cattle events.

Enjoy reading!

St. Paul Lutheran Church of Wharton

"We believe God’s purpose for St. Paul Lutheran Church is to
boldly teach, preach, and live the love of Christ." - St. Paul Lutheran Church of Wharton
 
What beautiful words from a great group of people! This month we were very happy to create a web site for St. Paul Lutheran Church, one of our community's churches. With a very rich and deep tradition in Wharton County, this congregation celebrated their 110th anniversary in 2005.
 
At RHD, we love to work with churches to help share the good news of God's love with others. Because of this, we offer special discounts and even in some cases pro-bono work to faith-based organizations. This month, we created the new web site for St. Paul Lutheran, we designed flyers for the Abell Street Church of Christ gospel meeting, and we have other church web sites in the works.
 
We encourage you to visit http://www.stpaulwharton.org/. If your church or association needs help with your church web site or church promotional materials, we're glad to help.

New Web Site - Top Line Angus

We are happy to introduce our newest web site client, Top Line Farms of Tremont, Illinois!

Top Line Farms is located in Central Illinois about 15 miles south of Peoria. They are registered Angus breeders who strive to produce eye appealing cattle that will compete at any level while maintaining maternal strengths that make great cows. Their cattle will function in any climate and be versatile enough for all parts of the country.

The folks at Top Line have put together a great set of donors both raised on the farm and a few purchased from leading Angus operations. Their first production sale will be October 24th in Tremont, IL and a great sale preview of the offering is pictured on their Sales Page.

We hope you will visit this web site where you'll be very impressed with their Angus genetics!

Mock Livestock

If you're looking for heavy muscled, good ribbed, structurally correct wethers with a killer look -- there is one place to go --- Mock Livestock!



We are happy to introduce our newest show goat web site at RHD -- Mock Livestock. ML is owned by two great young people in this business - Kevin and Megan Mock of Blanco, Texas.

The Mock Family, who will be growing very soon with the birth of their twins, are two very busy go-getters who have made quite a name in the show goat business.

Mock Livestock consist of around 150 show wether oriented embryo recip does and a small herd of elite embryo donors. Their program is built around predictable, line-bred pedigrees that are proven to produce champion show wethers. Such genetic lines include “900”, Schafer, Kohls, and Powell-Holman.
We have worked with Kevin for about two years now on a variety of projects before officially launching the newly-redesigned Mock Livestock site. Kevin is also a part of the Duelm's Prevailing Genetics team and a goat speecialist for Show-Rite feeds as well as a trailer designer for Sundowner Trailers.
 
We hope you will take a minute to visit their new web site and remember Mock Livestock whenever you need a killer show goat or show pig.

September Web Updates Blowout

As to be expected with all of the busy club calf sales during the month of September, RHD recorded our biggest web updating month in the 10-year-history of RHD in September 2009!! This month we did a record-number 333 updates from September 1-30!!!

Recently I was visiting with someone who has a web site done by a company other than RHD. This person was complaining that they had sent in some photos to be added to their web site and 5 days had passed, and the photos still weren't added. Their sale was coming up, and they wanted their photos up right away. Wouldn't that be FRUSTRATING!

At RHD, we know that time is money. That's why we make it a top priority to keep our clients web sites updated as soon as possible. Of the 333 updates we did this month, 271 of these were done on the VERY SAME DAY the client requested the update. The remaining updates were done within 1 day of the client update request.

So yeah, we're tooting our own horn a little bit, but we feel this is important.

Our Grand Champion Updater for September 2009 was Beefmaster Breeders United. This is a great group of people to work with. By and large, their updates are due to the very popular Buy/Sell listing on their web site which is a great service to BBU members. They had twice as many updates as any other client.

Our Reserve Champion Updater for Sepember 2009 was the American Brahman Breeders Association.

Other sites in the final drive for this month's updating championships were:

• Virginia Club Calf Producers
• Rincker Law
• O.H. Kruse Grain & Milling
• Matt Lautner
• Graves Cattle Co
• Cross S Arena
• Aegerter Marketing Service

RHD's On The House Online Magazine

New from RHD! Introducing our "On The House" online magazine! We will be publishing this issue online each month specially designed for RHD clients. We created this opportunity as an added value to clients we design print ads for, and also clients we do web sites for.

How can you get your ad in this magazine? Simple, be a RHD client.

If we do your print ad, we'll automatically include your ad in this publication for as many times as you want. For example, if we design a bull ad for you, if you want us to include it in every online issue for the entire year, just let us know. If you have a sale ad, we'll include it in every month publication until your sale happens.

If you have a magazine or someone else do your print ad, but RHD does your web site, we'll still include your ad free of charge. All you have to do is get your final, camera ready ad to us by the 20th of the month to be included.

How much does it cost? It's free to all RHD clients!

So we invite you to check out this month's "On the House" by visiting Ranch House Designs. The magazine is posted on our home page. We welcome your feedback and ideas! This month's cover features our good friend and RHD client Travis Pembrook judging at the South Dakota State Fair, taken by Lacee Caffee of LC Promotions. If you have a cover shot you'd like to submit, e-mail it to rachel@ranchhousedesigns.com

RHD Speaking at San Antonio Farm and Ranch Expo

This Thursday night, I've got plans to be enjoying a nice Mexican dinner and margarita at Casa Rio on the San Antonio Riverwalk!

Why? Because on Friday, I was invited to be a speaker at the San Antonio International Farm and Ranch Expo at the San Antonio Livestock Show.

This is the 1st Annual expo, hosted by Texas AgriLife Extension, Texas Farm Bureau, Texas Department of Agriculture, and the San Antonio Convention Bureau. It will be held at the stock show, (San Antonio Livestock Exposition) and is free to attend.

The conference runs from October 8-10 (Thursday-Saturday) but I will be speaking twice on Friday. My first appearance will be at 10:00 a.m. on Friday as part of the "Spouse's" program, then later in the day at 2:00 p.m. 

So if you're a south Texan, stop by the Expo and come listen to my talks. And even if you're not interested in my talks on web design and advertising, there are over 50 different educational programs and a big trade show, also free to attend.

Bonnell Club Calves

One of our most recent web site creations is for Bonnell Club Calves of Columbus, Indiana. The Bonnells run a small herd of Shorthorn and Chi-cross cattle that was originally started from their children's show careers. Their cattle are sold on a first-come first served basis and currently they have a great selection of calves sired by Heat Wave, Sun Seeker, Hannibal and more.

Visit http://www.bonnellclubcalves.com/

October Featured Project - Business Cards

Last month, we featured an online coupon for our blog readers for a special 10% off discount on any new project at RHD. We had such a great response we have decided to start offering a monthly blog special as a bonus to those who loyally check our blog and keep up with what's going on at RHD.

This month, our "Blog Special" is business cards. Mention this blog for a 10% off discount on any new business card project or business card re-order from us.

Our business cards are custom designed, full color, glossy business cards that will give your business the competitive edge over others who just have your plain old, run of the mill, home printed business card.

So if you're running low on business cards, here's a good time to stock up, or if you've been considering getting some but haven't quite pulled the trigger, now's a good time to order. Don't forget to mention the Blog Special 10% discount when you book your new project for business cards with Tricia. To order, call 979-532-9141 or email tricia@ranchhousedesigns.com

Lot One Magazine

After being out of the office for a few days, when I got back today I noticed a new magazine on my desk-- Lot One. This magazines is published by my good friend Brad Fahrmeier of LiveAuctions.tv. I have some very vintage photos of Brad and I when we were both on the American Junior Shorthorn Association board but I'll just keep those to myself! :)

I consider Brad one of my close friends in this business, and he is someone I really respect for having very out of the box ideas and a great business sense. We chat lots of times on MSN messenger to bounce around ideas. So I am happy to be one of the advertisers in this publication.

I thought this magazine was EXCELLENT! It was the perfect mix of ads, of course, but yet filled with interesting artcles and information that any rancher would love to read. This issue is filled with ranch stories, interests, and hobbies of the cattle business. As Brad states in his article,  "It's the one of a kind people, places and cultures that we come across that will be evident in every issue."

I think it's a breath of fresh air to have a publication like this in the cattle business. From stories on how to throw a tailgate party, to a recipe for the "best margarita" to historical articles -- this publication ROCKS.

So I encourage you to look up this magazine. You can subscribe and view the magazine online at http://www.liveauctions.tv/ or if you join the Live Auctions facebook group you can view it there too. Congratulations to Brad and the Lot One Managing Editor - Marissa Mrozinski on a fabulous job!