The Pitchfork Land & Cattle Co. home ranch covers 165,000 acres in Dickens and King counties near the town of Guthrie, Texas with a satellite operation of over 8,000 acres in Jefferson county, Oklahoma. Founded by two cousins in Mississippi, it was incorporated with 52,500 acres of land in West Texas and a foundation of 9,750 cattle.
After selling its Flint Hills ranch in Kansas and its Flag Ranch operation in Wyoming, the Pitchfork also acquired more land in Texas. Unlike most ranches established during the great cattle boom of the 1880s, the Pitchfork survived episodes of drought and cattle depression for more than 100 years. It is larger today than during its initial years.
Although the Pitchfork's operations have expanded and modernized, cattle remains its core business.
The herd, primarily Black and Black Baldie cows, are selected for multiple traits that include both maternal and carcass characteristics. Pitchfork calves are all Source and Age verified, and all are USDA process verified as NHTC (Non-Hormonally Treated) and All Natural. With around 4,500 mother cows grazing the home ranch, the cowboys have ample opportunity to work the range in a manner very similar to the cowboys who first rode for the brand. Pitchfork cowboys have always ridden good horses.
The signature "Pitchfork Gray" – a gray horse with a black mane and tail – has become as synonymous with the ranch as the brand itself.
The Pitchfork has changed with the times, as change was necessary. However, it has never forgotten its past or the traditions and ethics that allowed it to survive when many others failed. Helicopters and computers are now as common as ropes and saddles. Still, some things never change and never should. Even today, cowboys on the ranch eat at a copy of the table the cowboys ate at nearly a century before.