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JX Cattle Co. LLC
Tom & Mimi Sidwell
6237 Hwy 209
Tucumcari
New Mexico 88401
575-487-2419
or type this in your
address bar with no
spaces:
vacation @ jxranch.com
July 03, 2008
Website
development
& web master:
Mimi sidell
copyright©jxranch
2000 - 2006
JX RANCH
about us
"If God had meant for us to
walk, He would have given us four legs -
Instead He gave us two - one for each side of a Horse"
Tom was born in
south central New Mexico. His
father was a true old time cowboy who worked on some large cattle outfits there.
His family came to New Mexico in a covered wagon from Texas in the early 1890's, and homesteaded in
the foothills of the Capitan Mountains. Tom grew up on a ranch and learned cowboying from his dad. He served in the Army and when he came back he graduated from New Mexico State University with a
degree in Range Management. For many years, Tom worked as Manager of ranches in Southwest Texas and in South Central New Mexico. In 1980
he was introduced to Allan Savory's Holistic Resource Management concept, an
intensive grazing system and planning system, which he has successfully
implemented on these ranches. This grazing system which favors the
vegetation, cattle and wildlife alike, is part of our planning for this new
ranch in Northeastern New Mexico.
Mimi was born in
Sweden, grew up horseback, riding every day, while
dreaming of being a cowboy and riding the wide open spaces of the West.
While living and working abroad in Switzerland, she had opportunities to go on
week-long camp-out rides in Arizona's Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly. Right
then she knew where her heart had belonged all along. It was just a matter
of time. In 1988 the opportunity presented itself to move to the
U.S. It was not long before she found herself living on a ranch and learning
everything from fixing windmills, fences and pipelines, to caring for and working cattle, while also helping and
day-working on other ranches. She attended cattle and ranch related
seminars, joined cattle organizations, took classes and went to meetings, but it was the hands-on
experience that taught her the most.
We met in 1995, and in 1996 we partnered on a 14,000 acre / 5,670 hectares) ranch with a mixture of private, federal and state leases in South Eastern New Mexico. Tom was still managing a 64,000 acre ranch an hour and a half away, so Mimi was alone on the new ranch for that first year. She took care of 350 cows and calves, and bulls, moved them, fed them, fixed fences and repaired water pipeline leaks. Tom would come out on weekends when we together would install new pipelines and water troughs for the cattle to meet the water requirement for the one herd grazing concept.
In the
fall of '96 we got married, horseback (of course!) on
the ranch. The following spring Tom moved to the ranch, and together we operated it until fall of 1998, when
we sold it and bought a ranch in the Pine Ridge area in the Panhandle of Nebraska.
There, we took in cattle on pasture, and for the first time, guests, during the
summer months.
Back in New Mexico since spring 2004, we continue our new tradition of sharing our beloved ranch life with you!
"If you can't laugh at yourself, you're missing out on a lot of good jokes!" Mimi's quote