Cattle are branded with their birth year as part of their herd identifi cation. Randy Tawater uses an electric hot iron brand while Spencer Hendricks attaches an ear tag.


H


By Ellen H. Brisendine


ILLWOOD LAND AND CATTLE SITS NORTH OF FORT WORTH, surrounded by Fortune 500 corporate headquar- ters, highways and homes. The ranch entity known as Circle T is part of the land owned by Ross Perot, Jr., and is managed by Mark Baker and his team


of ranch professionals. Brangus cattle and forage resources are normal


parts of ranch management. But the exposure to IH 35 and State Highway 170 that run along the property boundaries, the attention of neighbors whose backyards abut Circle T’s back fences and the constant scrutiny of corporate and urban visitors are not normal variables in ranch management. Even with these challenges, Perot, Baker and the team seem to be thriving in the developing area. Perot says, “We used to not be in the city. This area


used to be in the country. My father started this in the 1970s. The fi rst thing he did was put Longhorn cattle and buffalo on the land he had purchased in Plano. I purchased Circle T in 1993 and carried on the tradi- tion here.”


84 The Cattleman November 2014


Mark Baker, left, and H. Ross Perot Jr. are part of the team at Hillwood Land and Cattle, and Circle T Ranch, north of Fort Worth. Baker manages the ranch, which is bound on all sides by urban development directed by Perot and his family.


Perot explains that the ranch is one of several entities


under the Hillwood umbrella. Each entity is expected to run as a stand-alone business. “We said, ‘Mark, make it as good as you can and compete,” Perot remembers, encouraging Baker and his team to participate in com- mercial cattle shows at events such as Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo. In addition to the ranch at Alliance, Texas, Baker


also manages the land and an Angus herd at a ranch near Denton. Circle T operates on a sandy loam soil base and sits


in a unique position geographically, Baker says. “We are blessed here. If it rains a half-inch in town, we’ll get an inch out here. We’re in one of those funnels for weather systems that when it sprinkles in town, it rains here.” The Circle T Brangus herd calves in the spring,


Baker says, to take advantage of the forage at its best. Calving generally runs from the fi rst of March to the end of May. Depending on rain and forage supplies, they wean at the middle to end of September.


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