Original Homestead

In 1890 my great-great-grandfather, Albert Lafayette (A.L.) Brock bought a ranch along the foot of EK Mountain in the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains, which was the beginning of Brock Livestock Company, and the family still owns the land that Albert originally purchased. Through the years and the generations, my ancestors managed to buy up homesteads and other parcels of land to build the ranch up to what it is today. Because of this long heritage, we feel a deep, binding tie to the land, a responsibility to not just maintain the health and integrity of the land, but to improve it and leave it better than we found it. I believe that my uncle, Danny Hanson, put it best when he said "I don't own this land, I am borrowing it from my children and grandchildren." In order to fulfill this goal of managing a self-sustaining ranch that we can pass along to the next generation, we practice holistic grazing in order to use the cattle as a tool to improve the land, and we do not take any federal subsidies.

I first became interested in producing grassfed beef in December of 1999, when I heard Jo Robinson speak of the numerous health benefits of grassfed products in Dallas, Texas. It was there that I decided that grassfed beef, the way nature intended it to be, is the kind of beef I wanted to put on my table.

From there the Williams family - which at that point consisted of myself, my brother Nathan, and our mom Kathy - began producing finished cattle that had a complete forage-based diet with no artificial inputs of any kind. We gave meat away to friends, ate a lot of it ourselves, and basically began a very steep learning curve. Nathan and I also attended a conference in Jackson, Mississippi hosted by Gearld Fry and Allan Nation, specifically about producing and finishing cattle on grass.

Then in the summer of 2004, my life changed forever - both personally and professionally. I met a beautiful, smart, exciting young lady named Radona Rae Vore. Radona and I got engaged the following January. Things were changing professionally as well because we felt that it was time for our fledgling business to take the next step. So in May of 2005, with Radona's encouragement, we decided to take that next step - Radona and I formed an LLC, Williams Grassfed, and decided to broaden our markets.

2006 has truly been a blessing for us, not only professionallythanks to our wonderful customers, but personally as well. Our lives took a glorious turn for the best on April 12th when Marilee Juliet was born in Casper.  She is a true blessing from the Lord and it has been a wonderful, challenging, awesome experience for both of us to be new parents!

Radona also has a long history of ranching in Wyoming, east of Sundance, Wyoming in the foothills of the Black Hills in Crook County. In 1882, William Blackburn Vore, Radona's great-great grandfather, homesteaded on Red Water Creek near present day Aladdin, which is near the Wyoming/South Dakota border. Radona grew up on that ranch, which still has much of the original land holdings, and the famous Vore Buffalo Jump is named after this historic ranch and family.

Our interests

Probably the single most exciting, most time-worthy organization we are involved with is Provider Pals. This organization, operated by a wonderful family in Montana, reaches out to the youths of inner cities to put them in touch with the people who produce many of the everyday things that many of us take for granted, including food, clothing, shelter, and energy. Each year we get the great opportunity to travel to a large city in the U.S. to talk to the kids - 6th, 7th, and 8th graders - about our lives here in the west. It has been a lot of fun as well as an incredible learning experience for us, is one of our true passions, and has been made possible by the Vincent family in Libby, Montana. To learn more about this great organization, or to make a contribution, click here.

Another of our "extracurricular" activities is coaching. Jason is the assistant coach for the Kaycee Jr. High boys basketball team, and looks forward to it every winter. 2006 was his sixth year in coaching, and he is already looking forward to a new season starting in January of 2007!  Jason is also a volunteer EMT with the Kaycee Ambulance Service, and both of us are involved in Wyoming Association of Conservation Districts, as well as Wyoming Agriculture in the Classroom, two other organizations determined to educate, and to help us keep Wyoming wonderful!  In March of this year, Radona became the coordinator for the Wyoming Natural Resource Foundation, an organization devoted to providing natural resource conservation programs within Wyoming.

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