Dad had Purebred Limousin cattle. He grew up through that Junior Association and was a member of the North American Limousin Junior Association Board of Directors. “The Junior National Program got us [he and Sam] both hooked.” Ryan claimed. While Ryan was focused on Limousins, Sam developed her love for beef cattle through the Maine-Anjou Association. Growing up in Indiana, she attended her first National Junior Maine-Anjou Show in 2001 in Terre Haute, Indiana. Her family worked with top names in the Maine- Anjou breed such as Fred DeRouchey and Bushy Park Farms as well as being actively involved with Registered Jersey cattle. After graduating from South Dakota State University in 2007 and following a short stint at Linhart Limousin in Southern Iowa for three and a half years, Ryan moved back to South Dakota in 2011. South Dakota had felt like home since college. He worked part-time for Werning Cattle Company as well as a few others clipping and freelancing. In 2012, he hosted his first online sale and was then invited by his childhood friend, Cory Altena, to use his show barn and sale
facility in northwest Iowa - which he did from 2012 to 2014. Fate so had it that within weeks of purchasing the property that is now home to RJ Cattle Co. in Mitchell, South Dakota in August of 2014, Sam would be heading out to work Fall sale cattle for Bushy Park Farms. After Ryan and Sam’s paths crossed that Fall, the two started dating
bunch of cattle and re-trade them. If someone trusted me with their calves, I took them and sold them on splits. That’s how I got started. I took them home. I broke them. I clipped them and presented them to the best of my ability and tried to sell them as good as I could. I would help the new owner and try to get them as many wins as was
yan (RJ) and Samantha (Sam) Johnson have put their brand on the livestock industry since they started RJ Cattle Co. back in 2015. Looking at them today and seeing the champions they are tied to on a national level, one would think they are a generational operation. While both have roots in cattle, it’s what the two of them created when they joined forces that will make a lasting impact on cattle genetics and the show industry. Ryan grew up in Northwest Iowa. His first memory of anything to do with cattle was going with his dad to the Clay County Fair in Spencer, Iowa. His dad would take a weaned calf that was tame enough for him to show in the small open class. Ryan attended his first National Junior Limousin Show in 1993 in St. Paul, Minnesota at the age of eight. It was there where he has his first vivid memory of having a lot of fun with kids his age. Both Ryan’s Grandfather and
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in 2015. That same year, they hosted their first sale. RJ Cattle Co. was officially in business! There’s no question that Ryan has an eye for cattle. Everything at RJ Cattle Co. was built from the ground up by Ryan and Sam. “I went around and took calves on commission for guys that maybe didn’t have a sale at that time. I couldn’t afford to buy a
possible for that animal. It built from there. I would save my money as much as I could and over the years kept going and going like that. Selling calves on commission. It has come to the point now where when we see a female that we really fall in love with, we want to buy her and own her. We are to the point where we are flushing several females every few weeks and putting in
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