Buckthorn Ranch, Walkerton Indiana                                                                   Brian Warner - (574) 213-4958 - BuckthornRanch@Gmail.com

Buckthorn Ranch LLC

We are grass farmers at the Buckthorn Ranch.  We maintain a herd of around 50 Irish Dexter cattle.  We generally have breeding stock, including milk cow candidates available for purchase,  And, we provide grass fed beef to the local community.  We also produce quality hay for ourselves and local dairy farmers.

Our ranch is located in the heart of the Kankakee River Basin in North Central Indiana.  Before 1864, this area was a marsh twice the size of the Okefenokee Swamp.  The Kankakee River had over 3,000 switchbacks that wandered through Northwest Indiana and Central Illinois connecting the St. Joseph River and the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River.

In the late 1800's, the Chicago cattle barons figured out that draining the great marsh would make available some of the world's richest farm land.  The Kankakee River was straightened and a complex of drainage ditches was installed from South Bend to Kankakee, Illinois.  

The great marsh and her bounty of waterfowl and fur were lost forever.  Today, we find ourselves stewards of some of the richest soil on the planet. 

Grass farming on a river basin can be challenging. Most of our ground is muck, high in organic matter, but chronically soft.  Getting in to harvest hay as well as getting the hay  to dry for baling is a challenge. Although, we always have good lush hay even when it is dry.