Eye on Agribusiness spotlights Bandy Ranch Farm Store

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eye onagri-business meeting the needs of farmers

Bandy Ranch Feed Store

By Julie Turner-Crawford

Submitted Photo

s Location:

Vinita, Okla. s Owners:

The Bandy Family

History: Bandy Ranch Feed Store started as a bulk feed company on the Bandy Family Ranch.

“We opened the storefront in November 2003. What prompted us to open was about a year before that when Tri-State Feed Mill in Afton, Okla., closed down,”owner John Bandy said. “We just saw a need. We started in a 2,500-square-foot building at our home for seven years. Now we have 10,000 square feet of floor space at our current facility.”

The operation is genuinely family operated by John and his wife Beckie, and their children, Jaqueline, John Dually and Jenna, taking active roles.

“It takes all of the mules here to pull the plow,” John said.

Products and services: Bandy Ranch Feed Store offers a wide range of livestock feed and mineral, and farm supplies.

“We don’t have everything, but we try to have the general things you will need as far as feed and supplements, and we recently added some animal health supplies,” John said. “We try to own all of our inventory, and that way we cut down on our overhead.”

Bulk feed is manufactured for Bandy Ranch Feed Store by Stillwater Milling, including Bandy’s “store blend.”

“It’s something I have developed,” John explained. “We also have our private label mineral that I developed that Ragland Mills manufactures. We have a breed-back tub that ranchers can put out in a commercial application prior to turning the bulls out to help the cows cycle, which is manufactured by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM).”

The Bandy mineral line is among the popular sellers at the store.

“I took a snapshot of about a 35-mile radius of our location of the grazing, feedstuffs we use and tried to develop a mineral from that,” John explained. “It’s been successful. When we developed our medicated mineral, we added the most tetracycline allowed by law in a 4-ounce product to combat anaplasmosis.”A veterinary feed directive (VFD) is required to purchase the medicated mineral.

“Other than a couple of the horse feeds, everything in this store has been used on our ranch,” John said. Bandy Ranch also produces all of the square bales of hay sold at the store, and customers can also purchase beef from cattle raised by the Bandy family.

“There’s a lot going on other than inside the store to provide stuff for our store,” John said. “It truly takes all of us.”

Future plans: “We’re either going to put in a fertilizer plant and do buggies, or we’re going to put in our own mixing mill and do everything here on site,” John said.