Old Comanche Springs country at the crossroads of I-10 and US-385 — a town where ranching has never gone out of style.
Fort Stockton is the Pecos County seat, sitting at the crossroads of I-10 and US-385 about an hour east of our fields. For a town of its size it carries a lot of history — it grew up around a frontier military fort, a famous spring, and some of the earliest irrigation ditches in Trans-Pecos Texas.
Today it's a regional hub for ranching, oil and gas services, and highway commerce. Some of the largest ranch operations in West Texas run through this country, and most of the hay we send east passes through Fort Stockton on its way to a barn or a feed room.
The town grew up around Comanche Springs — once the third largest source of spring water in Texas, and a favorite stop along the Comanche Trail to Chihuahua, the Butterfield Overland Mail route, and the San Antonio-Chihuahua freight wagon road. Water was the reason this country could be ranched and farmed at all.
In 1870, Cesario Torres, Bernardo Torres, and Felis Garza dug 2,885 yards of hand-dug ditches here, each six feet wide and three feet deep — the first irrigation district in Pecos County. Fort Stockton quickly became the center of an extensive sheep and cattle ranching industry, and by 1945 the town had 12,900 acres of irrigated farmland. The La Escalera Ranch, 272,000 acres spanning Brewster, Pecos, and Reeves counties, still runs through this country — one of the largest working ranches in West Texas.
From our fields in Saragosa to Fort Stockton is about an hour up I-10 — a drive Ray has made more times than he can count. Pecos County ranches are old customers for good hay, and we know how to put up a load that'll travel well and arrive ready.
Whether you're running a few cow-calf pairs, managing a big spread, keeping horses in town, or feeding backyard goats, we can set you up with premium custom alfalfa hay from our Saragosa fields. Multiple cuttings through the season, mid-sized square bales, forage testing on request.
Give Ray a call or send a note. We'll tell you what's on hand, what's coming in the next cutting, and how soon we can get it to you. Straightforward answers, every time.