Bar E Ranch maintains a reputation with a combination of quality enterprises
HASKELL, OKLA. – Roger Erickson first figured out he wanted to be a cattle rancher when he was young. Growing up in Missouri and Oklahoma, when he was part of the 4H Club he could see he was destined to be in the cattle business.
“I never really thought about anything in particular except being able to raise quality cattle is just passion,” Erickson said.
The same passion Erickson had for the industry as a youth he carried with him as he created and grew the Bar E Ranch in Haskell, Oklahoma into a 950-acre homestead.
The Bar E Ranch specializes in raising Red and Black Angus and commercial females in Muskogee County, Ok. They started with black Angus and then added the red Angus in 2010.
“Red Angus are more consistent and probably a little bit easier keeping on the Oklahoma pastures,” Erickson said. “Black Angus have a little bit more performance to them.”
However, Erickson said his customers do not really have a preference between Red and Black. The herd at the Bar E Ranch normally holds around 200 calves and 50 heifers each year. It’s normally split 65 percent toward Red Angus.
“Business is growing every year,” Erickson said. “The ups and downs are caused by the market swing. Like in 2015, the market dropped, and I think that two, or three years ago we had a severe drought, which caused me to get rid of a bunch of cattle. But would call it mostly steady and slowly growing.”
Erickson credits the growth to the reputation they have built in the industry and with their customers.
“It all goes by reputation. Reputation of selling a bull to somebody and they have good luck with it,” Erickson said. “With the cattle that I sell, my customers have good luck or good performance out of the cattle that I sell them. So then they want to come back. So then the repeat business is what grows your business.”
The trust in Erickson and his reputation has reached a level that many of his customers purchase cattle sight unseen.
“You start to realize you’re doing something right. When your customers want you to pick out the, instead of them coming to your ranch and picking out the cattle they want, they tell you to pick out the cattle and deliver them,” Erickson said. “That is a lot of trust. I have a lot of people that buy from me sight unseen. I basically have been able to describe the cattle honestly and you have to deal in good cattle. I have a top-of-the-line commercial and registered cattle operation. If I have cattle that are not good enough to sell to my customers, I just send them to the sale barn.”
According to Erickson, most of his cattle are sold through private treaty. “It’s a little time-consuming, but I’ve partnered with my cattle partner in Missouri and we have an online bull sale in the fall and that you can get rid of a lot of them at one time and kind of saves on time,” Erickson said. “I like to sell private treaty and at production auctions.”
As much time and work as Erickson puts into his own ranch, he also built a side hustle that has also grown since he first started 10 years ago. He makes custom livestock facilities.
“Bar E Enterprises was started 10 years ago and is also based at the headquarters and manufactures galvanized steel custom gates and panels for livestock owners and facilities,” said Erickson. “Most of our advertising is word of mouth and the quality of our work is what continues to bring customers to us.”
If that wasn’t enough, Erickson’s wife Paige started Bar E Embroidery in 2000 and provides high embroidery products to her customers. Her business is based out of the Bar E Headquarters as well.
Almost all of Bar E’s business runs on word of mouth or through their three Facebook pages for the Bar E Ranch, the Bar E Embroidery and the Bar E Enterprises.
“I’m not going to say I enjoy one over the other,” said Erickson. “It’s a combination that matches themselves really well.”
Erickson isn’t necessarily looking to expand the Bar E Ranch and get larger. He will do whatever is best for the ranch, but as he pointed out that doesn’t always mean getting bigger.
“The only way I would want to get bigger is if you can get bigger and maintain the quality,” Erickson said. “Just to get bigger is a goal. But if you can get bigger and have the same quality of animals, that would be good. But then it also goes into the right land trying to find land, and then you have to provide it with the fertilization and the ingredients to make the land produce enough grass so you can keep your cows in good shape. So there’s a lot to just getting bigger.”
