By Ben Cox
Photos by Ben Cox/Submitted to The Source
Ron Freeman has trusted in God’s plan for his beef herd for over three decades. The 600-acre Freeman Bros. Ranching farm north of Jacksonville services customers in over five states.
The grass-fed, grass-finished beef was recognized this year by the Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition. Freeman was bestowed the 2025 Master Grazier Award at this year’s 2025 Grazing Conference held in March in Springfield. This award recognizes Illinois livestock producers with outstanding grazing operations and those who work diligently to promote the grazing industry.
After starting his ranching career in 1977, Freeman recognized the need for a more sustainable, lower-input system to maintain profitability. Through intensive rotational grazing, he rebuilt his pastures while enhancing biodiversity.
Freeman secured Environmental Quality Incentives Program funding to install miles of fencing and over 27,000 feet of water lines to rotate his stock through several pastures on a daily basis — rain, hail, sleet or shine. Moving away from conventional cattle methods and embracing a system that works with nature, not against it, Freeman says he places trust in God and allows nature to do the work.
He says he rarely has to deal with diseases or any kind of parasites due to extensive culling of his herd. He says there’s also enough food for the remaining ecosystem including bobcats, coyotes, deer and foxes among others. “We chose a cow herd 40 years ago that was developed specifically for production efficiency and a grass selling environment. We feed them no grain at all,” Freeman says of his herd.
The breed is a special crossbreed of the Hereford, Shorthorn and Brahman breeds developed by famed cattleman Tom Lasater; the crossbreed is extremely docile and is self-maintaining.
The cows are just one part of the operation. Freeman values the entire ecosystem, which he says came back with multiple types of clover, grasses, weeds and plant life after he eliminated the row-cropping that his father had done successfully on the land for many years. “Every animal in nature has the ability to stay warm, to feed itself, to prosper, to survive … if you just allow it to happen and stay out of the way,” Freeman says.
He says the cows will eat on the nutrient-rich weeds and forage as they should to keep things in balance. “That’s why it is so important to spend time with your cattle, watch what they eat and when they prefer it,” Freeman adds. He says the daily routine in the pasture, watching where they move and what they eat, makes all the difference between being a cattleman and just someone who owns cows.
Freeman says his college education at Culver-Stockton College wasn’t in agriculture but it provided him insights on how to raise cattle and to remove emotional response from his operation, ultimately letting God and nature do the work. “This is a movement that pushes us past a rebuilding process to a place where we understand the regenerative effects of a pasture ecosystem to establish the value of balance in conjunction with the attitude that we as humans can learn from Nature with the constant recognition that our Lord is still in control,” Freeman writes to his followers on Facebook.
Freeman says his practice is organic in nature, but he has dropped the certification from the process because of onerous regulations. The organic side goes all the way through to the finished product, as he has beef produced at a locker service in Eureka, one of the only certified organic meat and locker services in Illinois.
When he is not tending his cattle, Freeman is a published Christian author. He is currently completing the Rest Area 10 series that focuses on how Jesus Christ can connect with people and change their lives in a modern context. Freeman’s expertise has been featured in a segment of Illinois Stories that has highlighted his philosophy and business model.
