Photo Credit: Megan Bragg

No Day Looks the Same

September 28, 2026

The cattle at Weigand Ranch are born, raised, and finished there.

Presented in partnership with Missouri Beef Industry Council.

Mandy and Chad Weigand are both wearing Western shirts, jeans, large belt buckles, and cowboy hats. These two ranchers spend their days at Weigand Ranch in Warrensburg caring for their 1,100 head of Angus cattle.

A man and woman wearing cowboy hats, plaid shirts, and jeans stand side by side in front of a black pickup truck outdoors, smiling at the camera. — • Mandy’s focus is working on sales and, as she says, “talking to the people.” While Chad “loves researching things in general, like that’s just where his brain goes,” Mandy says. The two have known each other since they were kids but didn’t start dating until college and have now been married 15 years. “I told him the whole time, ‘I just want to be a farmer,’ and so that worked out for me,” she says. “We’re a team for sure.”

They start around six in the morning and go until about eight at night. “Most days, I go with him, and we feed with the feedbox, which is on the pickup, and then we check for cow health,” Mandy says. “Those heifers, in particular, need a little extra loving, just because they’re still growing themselves.” Each day presents something different to tackle, from doing paperwork to cutting silage, maintaining pastures, roping cattle to doctor them, using horses to move cattle, and driving the side-by-side to assist with calving.

Get a Missouri Life Magazine Subscription & Save Up to 69% Off Newsstand Prices!

Subscribe Today

A white house with a dark roof stands in a grassy field at sunset. The sky is partly cloudy, with sun rays breaking through. A wooden fence and some plants are visible in the foreground. — • Chad grew up at Weigand Ranch, his childhood home nestled among the barns, his family farming the land for three generations. Mandy grew up in Warrensburg, but had never worked on a farm before marrying Chad. “There’s intention behind everything that we do, which is fun,” Mandy says, “because then you get to ponder, ‘What’s next? What’s the next thing that we can do to make things better?’ ”

They raise cattle from birth to finish, a cycle of about 22 months. “A lot of thought goes into every phase of their life,” Mandy says.

The Weigands also spend time selling their beef at the local farmers’ market. One of their goals is to shorten the supply chain. “I want people to taste and see what they can have in their freezer at home, and I want them to have it from a local source.”

A group of black cows with numbered ear tags stands closely together on a grassy field under a partly cloudy sky, with a fence and trees visible in the background. — • A group of heifers come up close when Chad drives his truck over and lets out a little feed. “I can track their lineage because we’ve had them for forever,” Mandy says. “But these white tags in particular, that’s how we identify them as registered Angus.” Through the American Angus Association, she notes, the cattle have a documented genealogy.

She says, “To be a cattlewoman, you’re promoting beef, trying to tell your story, and trying to sell beef as a whole, because most people don’t sell retail like I do. Most people are just raising the cattle, and they’re going to the system that creates beef in a grocery store.” She adds, “What I hope, on the beef side, is that all that work and all that passion shine through with the product.”

There are a lot of aspects of ranching that Mandy appreciates, but she says, “My favorite part, actually, is how diverse our year is, and no day looks the same.”

A person in a wide-brimmed hat leads a brown horse through a grassy field, with another horse nearby. Farm buildings and silos are visible in the distance under a partly cloudy sky.

The Weigands also raise horses, like Montana and her filly, Moxie, to work with cattle. On the ranch, there is one mare along with saddle horses, which are geldings, in every age group. “That way as they get older, we’ll have horses to use,” Mandy explains. “You teach them how to communicate
with each other, and with you.”

A person in a hat leans over a large metal water trough next to a utility vehicle in a fenced rural area, with fields and trees in the background under a partly cloudy sky.

The Weigands built a waterer for the cattle from a grain bin, equipped it with a water pump, and stocked it with goldfish, which eat the algae. It abuts four pastures, three of which hold cows, and in the fourth, the grass is being left to grow to become a calving pasture. “The key to farming or ranching, and the way to succeed, is diversity,” Mandy says. “Everything works together to help.”

The Missouri Beef Industry Council (MBIC) is a nonprofit organization responsible for administering programs of beef promotion, education, research, and consumer and industry information.

All photos by Megan Bragg.

This article was originally printed in the October 2026 issue of Missouri Life.