A Weekend Study In Contrasts


I spent the weekend on Champion Ranch in Centerville, TX visiting a friend of mine, Ed, who is a Hurricane Rita evacuee from Beaumont. He evacuated to Centerville along with his two daughters and several other people to the ranch which is just about halfway between Houston and Dallas off I-45. It's been a handful of weeks since Rtia, but he's still living in the Camp House on the ranch because electricity has yet to be restored in his neighborhood and he has a very large tree lying in his game room.

I spent the weekend on Champion Ranch in Centerville, TX visiting a friend of mine, Ed, who is a Hurricane Rita evacuee from Beaumont. He evacuated to Centerville along with his two daughters and several other people to the ranch which is just about halfway between Houston and Dallas off I-45. It's been a handful of weeks since Rtia, but he's still living in the Camp House on the ranch because electricity has yet to be restored in his neighborhood and he has a very large tree lying in his game room.

Champion Ranch is not small. At any given time there are anywhere from 2000 - 3000 head of cattle grazing its fields. The ranch encompasses 8000 acres of forestland with 25 miles of paved, single lane black top road that lazily criss crosses the property where cows and other animals have the right of way.

Ed's best friend, Tuffy, is Champion's Ranch Manager (Tuffy got his nickname from having six older sisters who beat up on him rather than anything having to do with ranching). Tuffy spends most of his workday on horseback. He delivers calfs, brands cattle, and vaccinates the herd. And yes, he does wear spurs.

And so I was fascinated by the life a modern day cowboy. Then the conversation turned to what I do for a living, sell software, and Tuffy's eyes lit up. This is where the conversation took an even more fascinating turn.

Just a little more than a year from now the federal government will require that all ranches keep detailed records of every head of cattle in their herd from birth to slaughter, including movement of a cow between herds, vaccinations, veterinary treatments etc. Tuffy was convinced that the only way to effectively manage this information was with computers. So with the financial backing of the ranch owner, Dick Wallrath, Tuffy worked with a Houston firm to develop "Ranch Hand" software.

Tuffy explained that every head of cattle on the ranch is embedded with an RFID chip which is scanned by the software and then everything you would want to know, need to know about any head of cattle in his herd currently or had been in his herd previously is available at your fingertips.

Using his notebook computer (the kind that's waterproof, shockproof, with a rugged case), Tuffy demoed the software for me which is web-based and can be purchased via a client-server or hosted model.

Should any health issues arise with any head of cattle anywhere in the nation, the originating herd can easily and quickly be quarantined to prevent the further spread of disease. This capability is especially important now that the government is concerned that terrorists may try to threaten the nation's food supply.

Certainly, the idea of using RFID to track product is not so revolutionary, ala WalMart. But for your everyday American rancher I can guarantee you this is a shock to the system. Tuffy thinks he is about two years ahead of the market which is a good place to be. He's got two years to get a running start on his competitors.

And so it was a weekend in contrasts, a mix of the old and the new. I was actually able to look up at the night sky in what felt like the middle of nowhere and see the Milky Way, a sight I don't get the pleasure of seeing in Dallas. And standing in the grass just a couple of steps from the road I could hear the mooing of a cow with an RFID chip in its ear.

Posted: Wed - October 12, 2005 at 07:24 AM          

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