The descendants of German immigrants who first settled 100 miles northwest of Fort Worth in 1876. R. Schlegel & Sons currently consists of 60 plus registered, mostly horned Hereford cows. Cattle are grazed on native range in northern Young and southern Archer counties.

Originally a commercial cow/calf and farming operation, the first registered Hereford bull was acquired through the Sears Foundation program in 1968. The last of four bulls awared to members of the Olney FFA, he was the first not to be named champion but later redeemed himself by siring the Reserve Champion Polled Hereford steer of the Junior show at the 1971 Fort Worth Fat Stock Show. The first registered female was acquired via the Houston calf scramble in 1972 with additional registered Polled females coming from the Sam Swan herd. The first registered horned females were purchased at the 1980 Special K sale from Kansas State University. Performance records and AI were used on both registered and commercial cattle to build the cow herd with an ET program being recently begun. A retained ownership program was added in 1987 to better facilitate the collection of performance and carcass data but was discontinued after 1996 when a reduction in numbers due to drought made it unfeasible.

From the beginning, our goal has been the production of efficient, high performance, moderate framed, heavily muscled, structurally sound, easy calving and eye appealing cattle with adequate milk. Our breeding program has produced the Champion Hereford steer at the 2001 State Fair of Texas, the Reserve Champion Hereford steer at the 1998 State Fair of Texas, plus many high placing steers at other major shows and local champions. Bulls, females and show steers are sold by private treaty on the ranch and at various consignment sales.