Meredith Ellis joins from her 3,000 acre Texas ranch to share her journey to sustainable ranching, developing a deep love for the land and why women make better ranchers. She breaks down the importance of finding balance on the ranch and why the business model works.

Read the episode transcript.

Meet the guest

Meredith Ellis is a 2nd Generation rancher on her family ranch in Rosston, Texas. Working alongside her father, GC Ellis, and ranch manager Mike Knabe, they manage 200 mother cows on 3,000 acres of land which Meredith lovingly refers to as her “national park.” Meredith passionately believes in ranching’s ability to provide nutritious food to a growing population while leaving habitat and natural ecosystems intact. Meredith received her Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture with a focus on sustainability from the University of New Mexico focusing on sustainability. Through her formal education she is very familiar with the health and fragility of the ranch’s natural ecosystems and knows its importance to not only the success of her operation but to the health of our planet as a whole.

The ranch has been a cooperator with the Noble Research Institute for two decades and currently is involved in their Land Stewardship Program seeking to quantify the benefits that ranchland provides to carbon sequestration, clean water, and biodiversity, and is a member of the United States Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and American Angus Association. Meredith also sits on the board of Noble’s Integrity Beef Alliance, an organization known for superior cattle through adherence to strict protocols on herd health, responsible management, and genetics. Meredith believes that ranchland plays an important part of the climate solution and is a timeless refuge for native and migratory species in an increasingly developed world. She believes open mindedness, collaboration, and innovation across disciplines can help her operation achieve goals that benefit us all far into the future.

Connect with Meredith on Twitter or Instagram, or follow the ranch on Facebook. You can also learn more about Meredith’s ranching philosophy through this video from the National Grazing Lands Coalition.