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QRI Unit, Bosque County, Meridian, Texas
The Chapman family operates ranches in several different counties of Texas. The QRI Unit is located in Bosque County where one of the original ranches (the C Ranch for Chapman & Sons) was located just down the Childress Creek from the QRI Unit.
Cattle are transferred between the ranches from time to time for various reasons. When the photos below were taken, the Chapman Family Ranch (CFR) had just transferred 45 retained heifers that were held for breeding and 35 heavy cows that calved soon after moving.
The QRI Unit is in the black land prairie and limestone country of Texas, the home of native Blue Stem grass. This type of grass grows tall in the summer and fall and remains standing as hay into the winter months.
The QRI Unit also plants wheat and rye pastures for winter grazing and Pearl Millet for summer grazing. The QRI Unit is experimenting with a new type of Fescue grass that goes dormant in the dry summer months. This grass should provide an additional 100 acres of green winter grazing; however, it needs a year to get established enough to provide satisfactory grazing.
The QRI Unit has high pressure water lines piping fresh water to all of the pastures and fields. There are also three tanks and several springs for supplemental watering of the livestock. The Chapman family believes in fresh water for all their livestock.
Deer are a constant problem as they run through the electrical fences destroying them in the process. We have constructed several new fences on the unit with more scheduled to be constructed as we put this property in the proper condition for ranching.
The Chapman family’s “man on the ground” is Chris Sanders, a native Bosque County man.
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