Melinda, Dani and Todd Carter
(left to right)

Howdy from the Broken Chair Cattle Ranch! We are Todd, Melinda and Dani Carter, the ranch hands that ride for the brand every day on our ranch. We are glad you stopped by to check out our responsible, sustainable ranch where we raise 'natural' Angus beef; without the use of steroids, growth implants or antibiotics. Our herd of Angus cows and bulls free graze on irrigated pasture in the fertile valley of Tonto Basin, AZ. Our nutritious beef has nourished many an American family, from the juiciest tender steaks to mouthwatering burgers. Our family band is aptly named Broken Chair Band brokenchairband.com, where much of our original songs are inspired by ranch life. Check out our new website the latest info on 'Americowboyfolkgrass'!

Winter 2016, less than 24 hours old!!!

Upper pasture with snowy 4 Peaks backdrop

Baby calves amid the back drop of snowy 4 Peaks

Spring 2014 herd work

Calves buckin'

Mott faced heifer

Mouthin'

Milkin'

Broken Chair brand

Todd and Dani branding

Our cowmen!

Spring cow crew, thank you!

Fall herd working Sept. 28, 2013

Todd working the chute

Backgrounding the calves

Cowgirls of TM Ranches and Crazy Creek Ranch

Spring herd work, April 20, 2013

Angus calves...

Women of Crazy Creek and TM Ranches, with Toni Lofgren

Preg check for potential late calves

Book em Dano

Free help is always welcome! With Randy and Lance Lofgren

Our future generation!

Necessary repairs....

Our (new to us) calf table made quick work of working the calves!

Dani tagging her calf

Spring herd work, April 2012

The TM Broken Chair Brand

Yes all cowboys and calves were safe!

Crazy Creek Ranch Women Chenoa and Carol Ann

Melinda branding with the help of all those cowboys!

Dani branding Chocolate Milk Jughead

Doug of Crazy Creek Ranch and Bobby of 2 Bent Nail Ranch

Working some of the bigger calves in the squeeze chute

Crazy Creek and TM Ranches women, plus the Mad Rancher

Dani ready to move 'em out!

Dani took this picture of this dandy heifer calf

Todd kickin' back after workin' the herd, Spring 2012

Some of our fine cows and calf crop this 2012 spring!

On Jan. 21, 2012, 260 volunteers of the Gold Canyon community came together with Footprint Matters and the Gold Canyon Soroptimist club  to clean up te Peralta pasture of illegal dump sites and target shooters trash. The  effort of folks sacrificing their Saturday morning yielded filling 3 industrial size dumpsters with trash that littered the Peralta pasture. Thanks to all the folks who cleaned up the trash of those who don't respect the sustainability that the Peralta pasture offers! 

January 2012      We started calving on Jan 7 this year with a beautiful heifer.      We look forward to another outstand-ing crop this year!

2011 Fall Work
Doug and Melinda

Gathering the herd

Melinda and Joe

Doug workin

Everyone works! Even the smallest ranch hands....

June 17, 2011 Wallow Fire update and Blue, AZ

Many summer and winter cattle grazing pastures surrounding Blue and Nutrioso, AZ  are destroyed due to the largest wildfire in Arizona history. We at TM Ranches regard our livestock and our land stewardship as the highest priority for sustainable and renewable ranching. So do the ranchers now devastated by the Wallow Fire in the surrounding areas. Some local hay producers graciously donated 12 squeezes of hay to feed the cattle now displaced, down on the Blue River bottom. On Friday June 17, 2011, 7 trucks and trailers conducted a hay rescue for the cattle on the Blue River, escorted by the sheriff's deputies down Turkey Creek and into the Blue.

The Arizona Cattlegrower's Association has set up a fund to help the ranching families affected by the wildfire's devastation of grazing pastures. Tax deductible contributions can be made to the Arizona Cattle Growers' Association Arizona Bale-Out Fund, 1401 N. 24th St., Ste. 4, Phoenix, AZ 85008, by stopping by at any branch of Wells Fargo Bank, or by visiting http://www.azbaleout.org

Helicopter slurry for the fire

Early 2011

We started calving on Jan. 10 and they are some kind of black beauties!  With more cross fencing done on the irrigated lease, we are looking forward to another stellar calf crop this year! More info and pics to follow!

Late February
We worked our herd early so we could tag the calves on the ground to their momma's, we've got some show stoppin' good lookin' bull and heifer calves.  All are solid black with the exception of one black baldy bull and a charlais heifer. We opted to keep the bull calves bulls until the entire herd has calved as some interest has been shown for seed stock bulls or possibly show steers.

A pregnancy checker in training, "Wow, I felt the calf's head and it pulled away from me!"

How many cowboys does it take to doctor a scoury calf?!

Fall 2010 Working Pen



















We worked the rest of the herd on 9/3/10 and finished our perimeter fencing project on Labor Day Weekend! Our herd in is great condition and we look forward to expanding grazing once again now that our fence is secure. Good fences do indeed make for securing the health and welfare of the herd. Good fences do make good neighbors!

Partners in action

Bovine pedicure...

Corner post that was lodged in mesquite tree, see Spring 2010

Herd grazing

New fence

On 8/28/10 we vaccinated and tagged our calves,  and branded if needed and tagged our replacement heifers. We will palpate the cows, vaccinate and perform parasite management the rest of the herd on 9/3/10. Below are some pictures of our partial 2010 calf crop.

Fine dandies!

'I over herd...'

Branding pot

Spring 2010 working pen

That's a lot of bull

Checkin' teeth

Spring 2010 Working pen

Spring 2010










All the rain we've had this spring has grown some awesome feed for the desert so far. The cattle are fat as butter and so are their calves. Grazing with livestock has it's advantages of keeping what is now green but will be volatile fuel in a mere few weeks. Here's a picture of a controlled burn before the burn bans go into effect.

We will be working our herd for spring vaccinations, parasite management and branding April 24th.

The winter flood took out some of the irrigation mains for the ranch.  We've got them repaired but are still out the lower parts of the perimeter fence.

Update for January 2010

The huge winter storm of January 20-22 dumped over 5" of rain to different regions of Arizona.  Tonto Basin sits on the banks of the Tonto Creek, and she went into a rage with the rainfall and is still running from the snow melt coming from the upper elevations.  Bottom line is most of our lower perimeter fence was taken out in the storm. Thank goodness our cattle were moved to our upper mesquite thicket pasture where water did not touch those fences. Most of the grass that was coming on has either been taken away in the flood or is now buried under 4-5" of silt left from the running creek waters.  We've had to cull our steers and heifers hard, and are having to feed hay.

We're not sure what lies ahead for our herd. If this truly is an El Nino spring, this may not be the last of the massive rains.  Our cows have started calving, we have 3 on the ground already.  Below are some photos taken of the devastation the waters had on the ranch.

Corner post taken up and deposited in a mesquite tree

Silt deposit in Hidden Pasture

Snow laden back side of 4 Peaks

We will be working our herd for the fall roundup on the weekend of Sept 12. Fall vaccinations, parasite management, branding, and palpation for our replacement heifers and mother cows is scheduled.

TM Ranches takes the stewardship of the land, water and resources for their cattle as first priority.  Mother cows are Angus/Maine/Anjou cross, and the bulls are black angus. TM Ranches follow the "natural" beef guidelines by raising  cattle without the use of steroids, growth implants, or constant antibiotics. Cattle are allowed to free graze grass and are supplemented with alfalfa hay and nutritional supplement salt blocks. 

*   Cattle free graze and are supplemented with grass hay, and are never fed anything other than vegetative feeds. This minimizes the herd's susceptibility to Mad Cow Disease.

*   TM Ranches is dedicated to high quality beef and as responsible stewards to the herd utilize the Beef Industries Quality Assurance Program.

*   Cattle fed grass hay typically have higher lean muscle yield, and higher levels of omega 3 fatty acids high in CLA (conjugated linoleic fatty acids), and responsible fat marbling.

 

Fall 2009 Working pen

New calf crop

Movin' the bull

Records ready

Cow bosses