The Niehus Ranch has generations of data for each animal selected for beef sales
ZENA, OKLA. – For a young Oklahoma family, the business of selling beef is more than just dollars and cents.
“Our mission and vision are to provide a safe, delicious, as well as nutritious food source for families,” Susie Niehus said.
The 250-acre Niehus Ranch is owned and operated by Nate and Susie Niehus and their children, Naaman and Natalie. Their ranch, located in a rural farming and ranching community in Delaware County, Okla., consists of a commercial Angus cow/calf operation.
Nate manages the day-to-day chores around the ranch while Susie markets and organizes the beef sales. They are excited to share their “pasture-to-plate” experience with more folks as their business expands from their Zena, Okla., ranch.
The Niehus Ranch will have harvested 96 of their home-raised cattle for public consumption by the end of 2021.
They collaborate with multiple butchers, including state- and USDA- inspected processors, and hope to offer a shipping option for their beef in 2022.
The beef is antibiotic, growth hormone and steroid-free and can be bought in quarter, half or whole increments.
“To date, we have sent cattle to freezers in New York, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Florida and Oklahoma,” Susie said.
The majority of the marketing is done through their Facebook and their website,
www.theniehusranch.com.
As third-generation cattle producers, decades of breeding Angus and Brangus cattle combined with a finishing program create a high-quality animal. The Niehus calve year-round, allowing cattle ready for harvest quarterly. The cattle are fed a custom-mixed feed ration consisting of corn, soy hull pellets and dried distiller grain.
“Every animal sold as a ‘locker beef’ eats approximately 30 pounds of feed per day for a minimum of 120 days before being butchered,” Susie said. “Each animal on the ranch is given free-choice, loose mineral.”
Many of the cattle harvested are third- or fourth-generation animals at the ranch
“Years of intentional genetic selection and months of calculated feeding go into each animal that is selected for harvest,” Susie said. “We strive to provide quality, grass pastures for grazing, clean water for drinking, and implement low-stress methods when handling.”
The cows in the breeding program are vaccinated and dewormed biannually. At weaning, all the calves are vaccinated and dewormed.
“We give careful detail to withdraw periods which are followed by extreme measures, with any animal being butchered,” Susie said.
The Niehus Ranch is built around three core values, she said: An unwavering faith in Jesus Christ, faithful and careful stewards of the livestock and land, and loving their neighbors.
“It is our ultimate goal to treat people the way they would want to be treated, meaning every animal that is sold off of the ranch is treated as if it were going in their personal freezer,” Susie said.
Susie, an accomplished equestrian, faith-based speaker and ordained minister, takes her faith outside the family’s ranch and runs Preaching From The Pasture ministry.
She has spoken before the Oklahoma State Senate, at several prisons, including the Mabel Basset Correctional Center, Eddie Warrior Correctional Facility and Jess Dunn Correctional Facility. Other venues include the Maranatha Bible Camp in Everton, Mo; Legacy Leadership Conference in Stillwater, Okla. ; Live It Up Women’s Conference and several churches in Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
