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Round River Resource Management—
Caring for the Land & Mentoring the Next Generation of Agricultural Professionals BY ANN ADAMS
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ouis Martin didn’t grow up on a ranch, but currently he is the CEO and general manager for Round River Resource Management, LLC and oversees management of two ranches: the Brett Gray Ranch (50,000 acres) near Rush, Colorado and the Lyme BX Ranch (25,000 acres) near Pueblo, Colorado. There is some complexity to these ranches as he works in collaboration with the Colorado State Land Board (SLB), The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and investors like the Lyme Timber Company as well as other stakeholders to help meet the desired outcomes. In addition, Louis has spent time developing an apprenticeship program for Round River Management so he can teach the next generation of agricultural professionals how to successfully achieve their goals and prepare them for work in the agricultural industry.
A Well-Rounded Education
“With John as a mentor, I was able to see the possibilities and opportunities that existed in ranching. Even though, I was frequently discouraged by friends, family and others to not go into agriculture, because it was so difficult to make a living, I decided to go to Texas A&M University and major in Animal Science to become a ranch manager.
While Louis didn’t grow up on a ranch, he did have some mentoring from other relatives. “I first became interested in ranching as a child growing up in Fort Worth, Texas and going to visit my grandparents and uncles who farmed and ranched near Brownwood, Texas,” says Louis. “I always enjoyed going down there and spent many summers helping out. I loved After taking over the Brett Gray in 2008, there were only 40 paddocks on the 50,000-acre ranch. the outdoors, the livestock, the wildlife and all Louis and his team have developed over 130 paddocks with an improved water infrastructure to of the diversity and the fact that things were support planned grazing, working to improve upland rangeland and riparian areas. ever-changing. “Then I got involved in 4H, showing some sheep. My family then bought a small piece of property in the country “Shortly after I started my degree plan, I quickly realized that to be near Crowley, Texas, and I began showing cattle and started developing a a successful ranch manager it would take much more than an Animal small herd of registered Polled Hereford cattle. We were very successful Science degree in production agriculture. I then started to look at options in the show ring, and I was very interested in the business aspect of it as and started taking as many courses as possible outside of my degree well. In high school, I worked summers baling and hauling hay, and had plan including courses and training in business, accounting, economics, the opportunity to work for a very successful rancher John Merrell in our agronomy, range science, wildlife management and others so that I could area, who was also the Director of the Texas Christian University Ranch have a well-rounded and balanced experience and education. Management Program. “In the summer of 1979, between my sophomore and junior year, I had 10
Land & Livestock
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September / October 2018
