About Us
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Meet Elton and Lauren Tophoj. |
We live in the central area of the United States called the Great Plains. It is a semi-arid region of weather extremes. The temperature can fall to 25° below zero F. in January, and rise to 110° during June through August. The wind is an almost constant factor in our environment. Windmills pump most of our livestock water. We are constantly monitoring the fresh water by chopping ice in winter, and during 100+° of summer checking for ample fresh water supply for our livestock to avoid dehydration and death.
In 1971 Elton Tophoj (pronounced Top-eye) rented his first farm. He produced angus-shorthorn crossed calves, sheep, raised wheat, alfalfa hay, and corn. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since our beginning. Elton has dug ditches laying irrigation pipe, and stacked feed bags on pallets in a warehouse before completing a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics and a PhD (ABD) in Agricultural Education during midlife. Elton has since taught college courses in agricultural economics and worked as a farm management specialist. He has in some way always been involved in agriculture. Lauren Tophoj has gone from being a stay at home mom to completing a pharmacy degree at age 49. She now enjoys being a professional pharmacist.
We moved back to Elton's home, Garden County, Nebraska in 2000. At that time we purchased the local drug store in Oshkosh, Nebraska. Lauren leads the daily operations at Campbell Drug with Elton's occasional help with management. Soon after returning to Nebraska, we started to build our ranch in Antelope Valley northeast of Oshkosh.
Antelope Valley Ranch raises registered Black Angus cattle, commercial cattle, a small flock of ewes, hard red winter wheat, and produces hay. We rent a major portion of our summer and winter grazing. We want to become as close to the consumer as possible. Therefore, one of our goals is for the livestock operations to become as vertically integrated as possible.
Because our sandy land is fragile and subject to wind erosion, we are working to return the most vulnerable land back into grasses and trees. The result is more wildlife habitat and better conservation of the land. Elton and Lauren want their land to endure for the benefit of future generations.
Elton and Lauren care for their animals with compassion and concern. We are there when they are born, or soon after. All of our new babies receive their individual identification at birth. We track the movement of our animals to various pastures, dates procedures are completed, and record all their genetic information.
Mother Nature is wonderful when she gives us rain and makes the grass green and wildflowers bloom. During the years of good moisture, we can wade waist deep in our hard red winter wheat and knee deep in hay. At those times the pasture grasses are up the bellies on the cows, and the sheep can be lost from sight. Those are the good times.
However, it is not always sunshine and rain. Sometimes it is just the beating sun, withering wind, and no rain. Regardless of the weather conditions we are monitoring our range conditions to know when it is time to move our livestock to a new pasture. Drought not only means a shortage of pasture and precarious water supplies, it also means a shortage of winter hay. During these times we may find it necessary to switch into survival mode and conserve feed supplies and buy additional hay.
Whatever situation we find ourselves in, we give thanks. We are grateful to have loving families, wonderful employees, and the opportunity to live in the greatest nation in the world. We are blessed to have the opportunity to succeed or fail on our own without interference from our government (well, almost). Still, we would not choose to live anyplace else.
Elton and Lauren have a vision of what we want to be, and what we can become, and are working toward that goal. By God's grace, that goal includes being of the most service we can be to our fellow man.
