Get to know our family

Nestled in a U along the whimsical White River lays the White Thunder Organics ranch. With a combination of fertile river bottom, peaceful meadows, rolling hills, and lush native prairie, the land here has a rich history; from being near to a well used Native American trail to being a self-sustaining Native American colony featuring a school, cannery, large veggie crops, Dairy cows and fields. Dominic was a young man of 19 out looking for land to follow his dream of being a rancher, when he stumbled across the crumbled remains of the colony. Not one building left standing, the fields left fallow and the hills over grazed and barren. Seeing potential in the land Dominic started working and saving every dime in hopes of one day attaining this plot of land in which to build a dream. In 2004 Dominic and I made our move, after purchasing the land and locating a well breed herd 46 Tarantaise Angus bred cows the ranch was up and running. Seeing an immediate need for a rotational grazing program, and not having enough funds to get them running, Dominic sought out the help of Mr. Leland Schoon of the NRCS (National Resource Conservation District) whom was able to put together an EQUIP program to aid in the fence lines, tree rows, artesian well, pipelines, and cattle tanks. In the first year of operation we installed eight miles of native wildlife friendly fence line while also planting 2400+ trees in tree rows to establish windbreaks along the fields, and finally establishing a mile of native plants along part of the river that was extremely eroded. The land was in the perfect location to drill a 1350 foot deep well tapping into the Dakota aquifer, a natural hot water free flowing well that flows at up to 50 gallons a minute and come out at 109 degrees. We put the water to good use, first flowing through the house, build by family out of dead standing local trees, to supply all the heat necessary to heat the home ( re-routed in the summer), then through the shop where it continues on the path to one of the eight original cattle tanks. After three years of maintaining, adding to the family a son named Phoenix Dezmore (2006) and growing the cattle herd we decided to expand an additional 800 acres. With the new land we had to build a pump station to get the water up the hills and onto the native prairie on top. We took that 800 acres and divided it into nine more pastures with seven additional miles of fence and five more tanks, bringing the total to 16 pastures and 13 tanks. Again, all this was accomplished with the aid of the NRCS. In 2007 we where nominated and won the SRM Excellence in Range Management award for the state of SD, then went on to win Nationals. We have Mr. Schoon of the NRCS to thank for that, as he was a key mentor and aid in the growth and development of our sustainable operation. As a family we installed bat houses and bird houses in attempts to use bio control in controlling the pest populations, and with the aid of rotational grazing we have totally eradicated all thistle populations. The new 800 acres contains part of the largest prairie dog colony in Mellette County, and with great diligence we hope to use bio control to keep the prairie dog populations at a manageable amount. We plan on installing one hawk nest per 20 acres, and allowing all natural predators to flourish, including badgers, snakes, hawks, and coyotes. We have been successful in allowing nature to balance itself on our original land with no problems and are in hopes of doing so with the new land as well. We make our living off the land, raising and grass finishing our organic calves in 18 month on 100% native prairie and alfalfa and finishing our organic pastured pork while rotating them through fields of radishes, turnips, peas, and alfalfa. All the animals on the ranch enjoy there stay, with the fresh water, to the fresh dirt for them to rut in, no animal goes unattended or unloved. All of the animals are raised and worked following the low-stress livestock methods and are never poked, prodded, or branded. Being Organic we do not use any convention methods on the animals. Instead of antibiotics we use preventative measures or in the case that more is needed vinegar, garlic, Echinacea, and colloidal silver are put to use. We have never had an ailment that couldn’t be cures with the use of herbs. Building a ranch from the ground up is a lot of work, and hardship. We are constantly working on building and maintaining, and don’t have the free time or resources to go on vacations. But, what we are doing is much more rewarding; instead of visiting a little bit of heaven somewhere else in the world we are building it right here, where we can enjoy it every day. We are now beginning to direct market our products to consumers, making sure that our products are affordable and available to all people in every walk of life. This has been a very trialing time for the ranch as we have been making the start up investments and holding on to finished products that would have already been sold. Now as a family of four, (welcomed Forest Tatanka in 2008) we have , we have started our own little vineyard and orchard, established 3 buzzy little bee hives, and plan on becoming even more self sufficient year round by building a green house to extend our growing season plus haveplans of getting off the grid by enlisting the use of the well as a hydro generator. SUPPORT OUR FARM BY PURCHASEING OUR PRODUCTS AT: www.whitethunderorganics.com