In 2010, when Leo Journagan and his family donated Journagan Ranch to Missouri State, the ranch’s longtime manager, Marty Lueck, stayed on to continue directing operations. Since then, Lueck’s given students insight into the 24/7, 365-day life cycle of a working ranch, along with experiences in agribusiness at the national level.

Last fall, Lueck was inducted to the American Hereford Association’s Hall of Fame. We chatted with him about his career and what it means for students to have a resource like Journagan Ranch.

Q&A

Academic Expressions: You joined Missouri State in 2010, when Journagan Ranch became part of the university. This was after you’d spent decades as the Journagan Ranch manager. What was that transition like?

Marty Lueck: I went to work for Leo Journagan in October of 1981. I was 26 years old. I reflect on that, and I think, “Why did he give me that job when I was a 26-year-old?” But it worked out well. Our visions of what we wanted to do were the same, so it was easy to work together. Then in 1983, he asked me to take it over and run it. That’s something that doesn’t happen as a ranch manager — you don’t get that kind of opportunity. I always kept him informed. He knew everything that was going on; he just didn’t want to have to fiddle with the day-to-day stuff. I tried to represent him and his interests, and our business just grew and grew.

In August of 2008, he called me into the office, and his children were there, too. I came in, closed the door, and [his son] Allen said, “Dad’s thinking about giving the ranch to Missouri State University. What do you think?”

At first, I was taken aback. I asked, “Why do you want to do this?”

He told me that the ranch wasn’t something his kids were interested in taking on. “But I want to see it go on,” he said. “I don’t want to see it scattered to the four winds. There’s going to be kids who want to come into agriculture and come from the suburbs, like you did. Somewhere, they’re going to have to gain experience.”

After that, I was on board.

AE: You could relate to the goal.

ML: Yes, that was the start of it. It was my job to get the appraisals and everything you have to do. I got to work with Clif [Smart], who was representing Missouri State [in his role as then-general counsel]. So I got to know him before he became president, and I have so much respect for him.

I know I’ve been very blessed to do something I have a passion for all these years. And now, to be able to share it with students, it’s very exciting.

AE: When you think of the kinds of student experiences that only happen because of Journagan Ranch, what do you think about?

ML: One year, we took took a pen of heifers to the National Western Stock Show, [a premier livestock show in Colorado], which was also Hereford National, [a national show recognized by the American Hereford Association]. We were in a division championship, and then we sold two heifers in the national sale, [a livestock auction held at the National Western] — one for $14,000 and one for $8,500. Those sales pretty much funded the trip.

We ended up taking that trip five years in a row. The lowest recognition we received was best-in-class; all other years, we were division winners. And we sold cattle in each one. It does a lot for the students’ experience and Missouri State’s exposure to the cattle industry. Our students all wear apparel with the “Journagan Ranch Missouri State University” logo on it, so people notice. They look at them competing and say, “That’s a bunch of good kids.” It creates opportunities — for the university and for the students.

“Our students all wear apparel with the ‘Journagan Ranch Missouri State University’ logo on it, so people notice. They look at them competing and say, ‘That’s a bunch of good kids.’ It creates opportunities — for the university and for the students.”

—Marty Lueck

AE: What else would you like people to know about what happens at Journagan Ranch?

ML: We also work on conservation. It’s something the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) has partnered with us on. We’ve got a project going where we’ve been making improvements here that support wildlife. The goal is to demonstrate that if you’ve got good wildlife, that will support the cattle and vice versa. We’ve been working on grassland management, alternative water systems, fencing. We’ve been planting wildflowers to support pollinators, like bees and butterflies, so that they thrive here.

When we first started working with MDC, I said, “We’re not doing any of these practices unless they’re profitable for the ranch.” They’ve got to be profitable — otherwise it won’t make sense for anyone to adopt them. MDC understands that, and we provide them feedback that helps make the guidelines make sense.

AE: What’s an example of that?

ML: We provided feedback about fencing. The guidelines didn’t allow you to use trees to support a fence. That’s not something I’d typically do, but think about if you’re in an area where you’re on a glade. It’s nothing but solid rock, and it’s going to cost a lot of money to sink posts into the ground. In a case like that, if you can hang a little piece of two-by-four on the tree, it doesn’t hurt the tree, and it allows you to support the fencing without drilling into the rock. You’re looking at saving a huge number of dollars.

But this wasn’t allowed in MDC’s fencing guidelines. So we made the case that it was a common-sense solution and should be allowed. I said, “You’ll struggle to get people to adopt these principles if it doesn’t make sense to them. Whatever you do, it’s got to have common sense, if you want people to try to make it work.” They agreed, and the guideline changed.

AE: Wow. That’s something you wouldn’t have known unless you were out on the ranch, actually trying to implement the policy.

ML: And that’s one of the things we can do here. There’s so many opportunities that this ranch provides.

Hear Lueck in Person

Lueck has more stories than we could possibly include in one article. If you’d like to hear some of them firsthand, there’s an opportunity on the horizon. On March 27, Lueck is the featured guest at the Missouri State University Foundation’s “Lunch with a Genius” series. Registration is now open.

Around Campus…

Dates are set for public viewing events at the William G. and Retha Stone Baker Observatory this spring. The public is invited to enjoy this free, family-friendly experience on March 1 and April 12, weather and conditions permitting.

Baker Observatory in Fair Grove is a teaching and research facility that houses two large telescopes and many smaller telescopes. Its popular public viewing evenings are held at varying dates in fall and spring.

For more information and to stay up-to-date with event changes, visit the event’s website and the Facebook page for the department of physics, astronomy and materials science.