CALF News Aug./Sept 2018

38 CALF News • August | September 2018 • www.calfnews.net T he approach to the CK Ranch house near Brookville, Kan., is deceiving. The surrounding wooded hills open up to a lovely ranch house with windows facing a huge horse pasture. The welcoming party on this day included Chuck Norris, ranch general manager, his wife, Tobina, 8-year-old Josey, 6-year-old Trent and 4-year old Cord. I can tell immediately that I’m in a serious interview when I ask Cord his favorite thing about the ranch.“Riding horses and fixing fence,” he replies. A Kansas visionary John J. ( J.J.) Vanier, CK Ranch founder, is a history story that deserves to be told. From starting work at a hide company in 1914 for $7 an hour, to selling for the Abilene Flour Mill, to acquiring controlling interest in the Western Star Milling Co., Vanier became a major force in the business world. “Everything J.J. did turned to gold,” Norris says. Vanier pur- chased the Brookville property in 1933 and later acquired ranches in other parts of Kansas,Wyoming, Colorado and Oklahoma, making him a major player in the purebred Hereford business. His milling interests were eventually sold to ADM. Kansas readers will also be familiar with the Vanier family support of Kansas State University and other causes. The CK today Norris, a native of Florida where his family ranches on the edge of Lake Okeechobee, came north to attend Kansas State University and, when the foreman at the CK quit in 1988, he went to work as cow foreman, straight from college. He was promoted to general manager in 2012. “It is a good place to be a manager,” Norris says.“You are to manage as if it is your own. There is no micromanagement. The Vaniers want long-term people and treat their people well.” Norris has overseen changes at the ranch through the years. “I have attended the By Betty Jo Gigot Publisher | Photos by Betty Jo Gigot and Chuck Norris Ranching in the Smoky Hills TOP: Cord Norris is living his dream. RIGHT: Chuck Norris discusses cattle ranching on the CK Ranch.