About
the Ranch
Our livelihood depends on the health and resilience of the land where we graze our herds. We value our livestock and strive to give them the highest standard of care while believing our most important task is good stewardship of the streams, foothills, forests and grasslands where we husband. We partner with local organizations to protect our land from urban development, to regenerate creeks and riparian areas, and to reestablish native flora and fauna. We raise grass-finished beef and sell it through our Farm 2 Market (F2M), an honor system-based beef store located at our ranch headquarters open seven days a week.
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Regenerative Practices
Regenerating the land is at the core of our mission here at Oxbow. While there are many definitions for the term “regenerative,” we believe it means to leave a place better than you found it. We practice holistic management and make key decisions for our business based on our goals to improve the lands we have the privilege to steward. We rotate our cattle as frequently as possible given water and feed availability using Halter virtual fencing as well as poly wire. Sometimes this means moving them every day or even twice a day. An apprentice with oxbow will learn that there’s more than one correct solution for progressive management. We are always learning and changing. In past years, we’ve purchased and grazed goats for weed mitigation. We also currently use PastureMap for our grazing and drought planning and have various monitoring sites on the ranch.
We also consider ourselves to be life-long learners and are continually attending workshops to improve our stockmanship, horsemanship, financial planning, understanding of our soils, and more.
Tour
the Ranch
The Mentor
Bart & Wendy Morris
Bart and Wendy Morris started Oxbow Cattle company in 2014. Bart switched to ranching after a long career as a game warden. Growing up in the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming, he spent much of his childhood working on ranches, hunting, fishing, and just being a Wyoming kid. He believes land stewardship is a great responsibility and takes no shortcuts to help restabilize a creek bed, re-introduce native grasses, and prescriptively graze his cows to promote plant diversity. He has many years of experience working with animals and an even stronger love and appreciation for all sentient beings. He is an excellent horseman and stockhandler and loves to teach and talk about low stress stockmanship as well as natural horsemanship. He loves his community and knows that Oxbow wouldn’t exist without the support of the Missoula community. He also loves his dogs.
Wendy loves her dogs too and has been a full time anesthesiologist in Missoula for nearly 20 years. Because she’s a doctor, she has a deep understanding of cattle health, including appropriate diagnoses and required medication. Wendy is a highly skilled stock handler and cowboy. Because she grew up ranching, she brings a unique perspective to Oxbow that only someone who has ranched their entire life can bring. Her biggest strength as a mentor is her insightfulness. She is always paying attention to people’s needs and will be the first to make sure an apprentice is doing ok during a stressful move or day. She is also a plan maker and keeps Oxbow running smoothly. In 2022, Wendy moved to part-time at the hospital with the hopes to spend more time with her cows, horses, dogs, and Bart.
The Duties Of
The Apprentice
What will an apprentice do?
- Assist with calving our mother herd (150+- cows)
- Build and maintain electric poly, barbed, and hi-tensil fence
- Virtual fencing using Halter
- Learn grazing management: calculating ADA’s, assessing cattle behavior, forage assessment, when to move, how big of a paddock to build, mapping the move on Field Area measure or Halter.
- Cattle moves: we use horses for most of our cattle work but also move cows on foot. You will learn and utilize natural horsemanship techniques alongside low stress livestock handling principles.
- Cattle health assessments: looking for sick animals, monitoring recently doctored animals
- Bart and Wendy rope sick animals and the apprentice will learn how to do ground work and administer medication.
- Help with our beef business:
- Restock our F2M store daily
- Price product
- Occasional beef deliveries around Missoula
- There could be more possibilities to become involved in the beef business depending on the apprentice’s interests.
- Selecting and sorting finishers
- Loading and hauling animals (the apprentice will become very comfortable hauling stock trailers
- Assisting with infrastructure projects around Miller Creek (operating tractors, skid steer, etc)
- Flood and pivot irrigation in the Spring
- Participate in our head and heel brandings in July
What skills and traits are required?
- Valid Driver’s License
What skills will an apprentice acquire?
We want an apprentice with experience in and a passion for regenerative ranching, a love of all living beings, a love of being outdoors for both work and recreation, someone who takes accountability for their actions, is honest, has a desire to learn, has a good work ethic, and someone with experience riding horses.
Nuts & Bolts
More Details
Living on the Ranch
Town Information
Oxbow headquarters (Miller Creek) are located within the city limits of Missoula, MT. Missoula is the second largest city in Montana with all the amenities of a hip, small city. Oxbow is about 20 minutes from downtown Missoula. From April-December, most of our animals will be at the Sapphire Ranch– our main lease south of Lolo in the Bitterroot valley. We will still meet at Miller Creek most mornings, where our shop, f2m and corrals are located. Missoula is a college town, known to be the “hippest” city in Montana with many good restaurants, concerts, small farms and the like.
Housing
We provide a camper trailer with electricity and water hookups at Miller Creek.
Laundry
Will be shared.
Internet Service
In apprentice housing.
Cell Service
All carriers.
Visitors
Visitors are welcome as long as discussed in advance. We encourage visitors to come on days off.
Food
See “Stipend” section.
Pets
This will be a case-by-case conversation to ensure the best outcome for both parties.
Drugs / Tobacco / Alcohol
No tobacco or cannabis permitted at all, and alcohol allowed after work hours but the apprentice must not be hungover or otherwise incapacitated while on the clock, including on-call weekends.
Vehicle Info
Ranch Vehicles
Apprentice will drive ranch vehicles during work hours. Some ranch vehicles are manual transmission.
Work Hours / Time Off
Working Hours
An average day at Oxbow is from 8 am – 6 pm. Sometimes we have very long days, especially during calving when we have to check animals before last light, and are running back and forth between the three main properties. It is not unusual to get home around 8 or later during the busy season. When we can though, we strive to finish work by 5 or 6 and are getting better at accomplishing that. We also believe in having weekends off, alternating who’s “on-call” to restock the f2m, perform calving checks, irrigate, move salt, or other small tasks depending on the time of year. The apprentice will have 1-2 on call weekends per month.Time Off
The apprentice will have most weekends off with 1-2 “on call” weekends per month. On-call days can require anywhere between 30 minutes of work to a few hours depending on the season. The apprentice is also able to take up to five days of paid vacation throughout the summer as long as it is discussed well in advance.
Health Insurance
Explore
Apprentice Stories
Check out past apprentices and what they have to say about their experience.
- 2026 Apprentices, Frontier Ranch Management, Music Meadows Ranch, New Agrarian Blog