Maddux cattle drives aren’t nostalgia; they’re business

Probably no phrase calls to mind more mental images than “wagon train.” Sepia-toned photos of grizzled cowhands, sipping coffee from tin cups around a campfire. Guys in white hats chasing off rustlers in black hats. Huge herds darkening the prairie.

If you’re of a certain age, you can remember a time when just about every other TV show was about cowboys (one of them starring Benkelman’s own Ward Bond).

For those who own and work at the Maddux Cattle Company, though, a cattle drive isn’t an exercise in nostalgia. It’s a good way to do business.

The company conducts multiple drives during the year, John Maddux says. A couple just happened in March and April.

“Usually, the biggest drives are the last,” Maddux says. He declines to say how many head those entailed, but it’s in the hundreds.

“We have yearlings and cows that we sent out to corn stalk. We generally truck them to cornstalk and horseback them home.”

It’s done partially to fit the philosophy of the business.

“It’s like a violation of a Maddux creed to ever feed anything to a cow you don’t have to,” Maddux says. “We make our cows and our yearlings graze all winter. Corn stalks are an excellent forage source and we try to capitalize on that forage source to graze our cattle.”

The cows are only driven one way — home — because “you never want to drive your cows past an unpicked cornfield.” The cows would detour off into those fields, harming a corn producer’s crop before harvest.

The cows are trucked up to 25 miles from the Maddux ranch to start. “They eat their way back home,” he says.

It takes anywhere from half a day to a day to conduct one drive, depending on how far they’ve been trucked for the start, he says.

He allows one horse and rider for every 100 animals, and also gets help from  neighbors like Kenny Smith. Many of his men also bring along their border collies, working dogs that help keep the cattle in line.

The drives also require much-appreciated assistance from the Chase County Sheriff’s Office.

The drives start close to county highways and Maddux gives deputies a heads-up when they’ll be crossing a road. “They’re usually there to help us block traffic,” Maddux said.

While the drives are serious business, Maddux and his employees often bring their kids along to learn the business.

It’s even fun sometimes, “if you like to be on horseback,” he said, “especially if it’s a nice day. I’ve put in miserable days, too.”

Much of the work involves keeping the cattle out of the farmyards and fields they pass.

Doing that has enabled Maddux to build good relationships with farmers along the route. Some of them have allowed the company to graze their fields for decades.

Read the full story and many others FREE in the 2020 Salute to Beef special section.