Dickinson Cattle Company: Leading the charge in Ohio's Texas Longhorn industry and making history at Belmont County Fairgrounds
The Dickinson family bought its first piece of property in Ohio in 1994. Then, it took them eight years to move from their home in Colorado, along with 1,000 head of cattle.
BELMONT COUNTY, Ohio — The Dickinson Cattle Company is a Texas Longhorn ranch with nearly 5,000 acres of property in Barnesville. And it's shared Belmont County's history for almost 30 years.
The Dickinson family bought its first piece of property in Ohio in 1994. Then, it took them eight years to move from their home in Colorado, along with 1,000 head of cattle.
They decided to relocate the ranch to Ohio because of the available land and the quality of it.
"This is really good cattle country because of the rainfall,” Darol Dickinson said. “And one thing cattle country is, is country that's not good for other things.”
Most ranches are located on land that can't be used for much of anything else because of different variables including a lack of resources. Longhorns are their own resource. This breed of cattle is known as the leanest meat among other breeds, and they're the oldest breed of cattle in the country.
"So, if you got 10 acres of land and four acres of it is brush, Longhorns will eat the brush, and you can run one more cow on that 10 acres with a Longhorn than some other breed."
Dickinson Cattle Company is the top producer of Texas Longhorn cattle in the country and Belmont County's top producer of all-natural lean beef. They push out 200 head of processed meat - ground and frozen. The company also sells calves and shows cattle globally.
In fact, a lot of the champion cattle in Texas were bought from the Dickinson ranch in Ohio. So why don't we see more longhorn ranchers in the area?
"I'm somewhat amazed that everybody in this whole area doesn't raise Longhorns,” Dickinson said. “I would think they would and they'd be happy about it and be profitable, but people have their own things."
All cattle were originally bred for work and now they graze, are bred and harvested. However, one special occasion is will mark history this upcoming weekend, with the first showing of Texas Longhorns at the Belmont County Fairgrounds.
“It's like other cattle show's except a little more exciting,” Dickinson said.
"There will be some new people there that will see the cattle and say, ‘I like this,’ and they'll want to start raising Texas Longhorns, and they'll enjoy it and it'll be profitable to them."
The longhorn show at the fairgrounds is Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.