by
Hannah Farber
| Sep 02, 2026
Ryann Bauer grew up reading a book with Texas Longhorns in it and never forgot them. She also assumed, like most people in Wisconsin, that they only lived in Texas.
She was wrong about that. And the day she found out changed everything.
A friend introduced her to Ali and Ammon Mast of Painted Outlaw Ranch, not far from where Ryann and her husband Jay live in Maiden Rock, Wisconsin. She went to a meeting, saw the animals, and called Jay on the way home.
"We're getting Longhorns," she told him.
He said they were not set up for that.
"Well," she said, "I already confirmed that we are."
That was October of 2022. Rock Bottom Ranch started with two little heifer calves. When all of this year's calves hit the ground, the herd will be just shy of 50.
The Bottom of the Hill
The ranch sits at the bottom of a hill on the Rush River, in Rush River Valley, about 45 minutes east of the Twin Cities right on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. Ryann's husband wanted to call it Bauer Ranch. He came back a few days later with Rock Bottom Ranch instead, which she fell in love with it immediately.
The land has sandier soil than is ideal for grazing, which means Ryann has had to be deliberate about the feed program from the start, making sure loose mineral is always available, weight is going on before winter hits, and that water consumption in cold months runs higher than most new owners expect. She has leaned on Mandy and Kannen Odden of Oddens Grandview Farm, who are close enough to call with Wisconsin-specific questions, and on Randy Murry of New Age Cattle Company and Dale Hunt of Rockin' H Longhorns for the broader expertise.
The Oddens introduced her to Prairie Ag out of Menomonie, Wisconsin, a feed supplier already familiar with the Longhorn community in the area. That network, local people who understand what she is doing and why, has made a difference in a part of the country that still mostly runs dairy.
People will stop on the road in front of the ranch and take pictures. Ryann will get message her on Facebook asking if she is the Longhorn people. She says yes, she is.
The Herd She Is Building
Jay's pride is a cow named MML So Unpredictable. She measured 94.5" TTT, one of the largest in the state of Wisconsin, and she earned her name. She is a big-bodied animal, gentle around the kids and easy in the chute, and she has given them beautiful calves. She came from the GNTLA Sale two years ago and she is not going anywhere.
Ryann's eye runs toward diversity. She wants to look out at her field and see something different in every direction. She has brought in Misty Moon and Tempting Doll from Randy Murry, adding older genetics and something she describes simply as different. She has a Pace Cattle Company bull named MF Bruce Wayne who has thrown brindle, black and white, grulla, and dun in his first crop of calves, and whose daughters are already starting to show something.
Then there is RD Showstopper, purchased from Adam DeSplinter of Rockin D Longhorns after he posted her on Facebook. Ryann messaged him the same day she saw it. Showstopper is already starting to curve back, her color is unique, and her mother is, in Ryann's words, just a beautiful cow. She cannot wait to see what this one becomes.
Randy Murry has told Ryann more than once that she has an eye for cattle. She started four years ago knowing nothing about pedigrees, she would look at a cow and feel something. That is still how she buys.
"I don't know anything," she says. "I look at a cow and I'm just like, I like that one. Let's take it home."
Dale Hunt told her at the Texas Treasure Heifer Sale that what she is growing is impressive. She filed that away.
Why She Puts It Online
Ryann's ranch content started, as a lot of things do, almost by accident. She posted one video about her husband being her ranch hand and it took off, so she kept going.
Her goal is not a follower count, it is one person. If she can get one person to invest in a Longhorn because of something they saw on her page, she says that is enough. The breed changed her life and she wants to give that back.
"There's so much dark stuff on social media nowadays," she says. "Being able to share this kind of stuff, lighthearted, people loving to see what's going to drop, did you have a heifer, did you have a bull, what color is it. It's just brought a lot more fun into social media for me."
Her Instagram was taken down and so was her personal account. Both were flagged after she shared content related to her nonprofit work. So, she is rebuilding.
In the fall, when Jay is hunting, Ryann runs the whole operation herself. Round bales, skid steer, chores, all of it. She knows that is exactly the kind of content people want to see and she is working on capturing more of it.
Freedom Bridge
The vision for Rock Bottom Ranch is not what most people expect when they hear it.
Ryann is building toward a nonprofit called Freedom Bridge at Dark Horse, a home for victims of human trafficking and child exploitation where they can come and live among animals and learn what slow living feels like. She has been involved with Dark Horse Benefits, an organization that trains law enforcement to take down trafficking networks, for several years. What she kept seeing was that the operations were happening and the rescues were happening and there was nowhere for the survivors to go afterward.
"I got so mad," she says. "I could either hope and pray that somebody else is going to take the lead on this or I can just do it myself."
She approached the founder of Dark Horse Benefits with an operational plan for the aftercare side and he was on board. Now they are looking for land and building toward it.
The Longhorns are central to the vision. So is the peace she feels walking into the field every morning. Her youngest son has struggled with behavioral issues for years and he is calm around the animals. She has watched that happen and she wants other people to have access to it.
Some of the cows already on the ranch, the ones in their middle years, Ryann already knows will go there when the time comes. She cannot wait for that.
Ryann manages the Rock Bottom Ranch Hired Hand website the way she manages everything else at the ranch: herself, on her own terms, learning as she goes. "Best money we've ever spent," she says. "100% the best money." Find Rock Bottom Ranch at www.rockbottomranchwi.com.
This article was written based on a podcast interview on From the Pasture with Hired Hand. Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts, or learn more about breeder websites at hiredhandsoftware.com.