Detour Ranch was founded by Jerry and Wendy McEntire and our four children. Began in early 2007, we were just trying to find a way for our family to be able to live better and eat healthier, while teaching our children at the same time. During the last couple of years two of the children have moved off, and Samantha, Jerry's daughter, has blessed us with another son, and a Grandson.
Neither one of us liking the massive amounts of hormones and other additives in every day food that is purchased on the open market and we also disagree with the standards that today’s world has adapted as the norm. With the selective breeding of goats, pigs, and chickens, Detour Ranch strives to produce healthy, clean animals that are safe; not only for our family, but yours as well.
The early stages of production can be found building livestock pens, re working old and abused battered fencing, and researching the healthiest meat possible. Sitting on 21 acres of mesquite trees and cacti, we as a family, decided to take on the challenge, and the adventure that is West Texas farming.
Taking on the care of animals isn’t a task either one of us would ever take on lightly, a lot of planning, research, time and money was invested in each and every project that Detour Ranch has taken on these last few years.
Detour Ranch takes care in our breeding program to try to make sure we have what the customer wants, whether it be for meat, breeding, or for show (County,Sanctioned, Nationals, FFA or 4-H). We will not over breed our animals, we are striving to offer quality goats, pigs and chickens, not quantity. What animals we do keep, we want them to live a long, healthy, content life on our farm.
We started out with just a few Boer-cross does, growing to a few more mixed breed goats. After some pretty heavy culling, we do believe that what we have now will provide meat goats, as well as a few show quality animals for starter herds, or for kids at FFA and 4-H. The latest addition is registered Boer Goats to add to the breeding stock. Additionally, Detour Ranch has acquired a registered Buck, named 'JR', who will breed back to the herd in fall to ensure 2010 spring kids.
Please keep checking back with us, as time goes by we are continually adding new things.
Jerry did a lot of research on the breeds and types of chickens that we wanted to raise. Yes we have had chickens in the past, mostly for eggs, but we wanted a good versatile, hardy chicken to not only provide eggs, but also for meat. Rhode Island Reds are known for their size and their egg production.
We looked into pigs extensively, for their quality and quantity of meat, their temperment and their mothering abilities. The Berkshire pig is known for all of the above, that is why we decided to mainly start breeding them. We are still looking for another sow or gilt, and a boar.