The changes started the following year, when the Graffs developed a direct marketing plan for their 7A Ranch Heritage Beef. They grassfed their cattle and eschewed synthetic growth hormones and antibiotics. Customers order 7A Beef via the Internet or telephone and orders are picked up at the ranch.
The 7A cattle receive supplemental feeding only during a severe drought, such as the one much of Texas has been in for the last two years. The Graffs responded to their drought by cutting back on their stocking rates.
"Due to the low numbers of cattle that we currently have, we don't face the feeding dilemmas that we once faced when we stocked more cattle," Laurie Graff said. "We have fed through a drought, but we'll never do that again -- it's too expensive. We dramatically cut our feeding numbers several years ago to allow our pastures to rest and to avoid going into debt again.
"When you put the pencil to it, feeding during a drought is extremely cost prohibitive. It is more cost effective for us to market via the web and word of mouth from our customers."
She added that allowing the customers to pick up their beef at the ranch allows both the ranch and their customers to cut out shipping costs. "That can cost more than the beef itself," she said.
The Graffs utilize rotational grazing on native and improved pastures. Any supplemental feed the animals receive is ground and mixed on the ranch, using grain and forages from the ranch whenever possible. It's not that different from the way cattle have been raised on the Medina County land for more than a century-and-a-half, though day-to-day life on the ranch has changed considerably.
In 1998, the Graffs began hosting tour groups at the ranch to hear the history of the ranch, while being treated to an evening of Western entertainment and food. They built a pavilion for the tour groups to use, which they have been doing for the past 12 years.
One tour group customer mailed an article about corn mazes to the Graffs along with a thank you note for their hospitality. That note led to the ranch's third major diversification, the South Texas MaiZE, which provides recreation and allows the Graffs to talk about how agriculture affects their guests' lives, whether they know it or not.
That maze turned out to be a good investment, especially in the wake of the most recent drought.
"We have learned from previous droughts and have fared very well though this past drought, which is not over yet," Laurie said. "When Medina Lake is full, the drought is over. Our maze business has sustained our ranch despite the adverse weather."
The seven-acre maze of twists, turns and dead-ends is scheduled to open this year from Sept. 25 to Nov. 28, and features pumpkins, hay rides, a picnic area, barrel trains, rubber duck races, tube slides, a goat walk and a hay pyramid. The maze attracts families, public school groups and home-schooled students. Laurie said it generally takes about an hour for people to find their way out of the maze.
The 7A brand was first registered in Medina County in 1903. Laurie said there are two stories behind how the ranch got its name, but she isn't sure which one is true.
One story has it that Adolf Graff had seven siblings, and so the ranch was named 7A. The other theory holds that 7A was simply easy to brand on the cattle with a running bar.
Though the rough-hewn pioneers who settled this land named the ranch might wonder what in the world tour groups and a maze can have to do with ranching, Laurie said the family's decision to diversify its operations has allowed it to stay in business.
"Our farming and ranching operations are a passion of ours," she said. "Unlike my in-laws, the standard cow-calf operation cannot sustain a family in 2010. Without our diversifications, the ranch would cease to exist."
For more information on the 7A Ranch Heritage Beef, go to their website at www.7aranch.com or call (830) 741-8501.
