COOPER RANCH LIFE
The Cooper Ranch is located in the beautiful high desert of the Arizona foothills in Kirkland, not far from the town of Prescott.
The ranch was originally an Angora goat ranch. It was homesteaded in 1921 by my great-grandmother, Nel. They ran over 10,000 head of Angora goats all along the mountain ranges.
As a child, I remember hearing so many stories about Nel and our family’s history. Now, on our livestock ranch, we run cattle. All the cattle are truly free-range. The only time they’re in the corrals is when we’re weaning, doctoring, gentling or otherwise getting them ready to turn back out to the range. We raise cattle as naturally and humanely as possible on this beautiful, rocky and mountainous high desert land in Arizona, and treat all of our animals with love and respect.
We run about 400 head of free-range Hereford, Black Angus, Limousin and other mixed-breed cows, calves and bulls on about 45 square miles of big rugged mountains on the Hassayampa River in Arizona. It’s so rugged and has such a large amount of land to cover on horseback, we use a helicopter to bring the cattle in. We call it "Helicopter Roundup”.
Take a peak at Helicopter Roundup Day:
