Shad Sullivan is a fifth-generation native of southeast Colorado. Raised in his family’s stocker operation on Antelope Mesa in northwestern Crowley County, he learned early on the importance of hard work, dedication, loyalty and integrity. He is a graduate of Crowley County High School and earned a degree in agriculture/animal science from West Texas A&M University in 1996.
After a short stint instructing and coaching equine evaluation at Clarendon College, Sullivan returned to his family’s ranching operation to help perpetuate the tradition of land stewardship and beef production. His greatest love is watching cattle grow.
In 2002, Shad built a small preconditioning yard at the headwaters of Bitter Creek in Archer County, Texas. He procures fly-weight stocker cattle in the Mississippi and Alabama region. These calves are sent to the family grow yard, where they undergo a short weaning period before being turned out to graze wheat through the winter. They are sent north in the spring and summer to utilize the shortgrass prairies of southeast Colorado and then sold in the fall.
Sullivan is a past director for R-CALF USA and currently serves as property rights chair. After falling victim to and witnessing the tragic loss of family farms and ranches through bureaucratic, market and industry corruption, he came to realize that liberty in production is at “steak”—and it all starts with private property rights. He has testified before the U.S. House Oversight Committee and cohosts the Lonesome Report and the R-CALF USA Round Up.