About Us
About Dry Creek Pastures
I'm Millie Bradshaw, a rancher with a master's degree in animal science and a lifetime of learning from livestock and land. Still learning every day.
Dry Creek Pastures sits on 480 acres in the high desert along the Utah-Wyoming border, where the Bear River runs through sub-irrigated meadow before the land rises into arid sagebrush country. We receive about 9 inches of precipitation a year. Winters can drop to -40°F. Our frost-free growing season runs about 52 days.
It's demanding country. But it doesn't have crocodiles, poisonous snakes, or overwhelming parasite pressure, and we've learned to love what it does for our animals.
We raise meat goats and cattle in a regenerative system, with a simple goal: build soil and leave this land better than we found it. Nature doesn't function in monocultures. Multiple species of livestock grazing multiple species of forage. That's how healthy land works, and that's what we're building here.
This is a family operation in every sense. Dry Creek Livestock started before we ever set foot on this land. We lived on the original Dry Creek in Woodruff, and when we moved, the name came with us. Dry Creek Pastures is where it all comes together: Dry Creek Livestock, Dry Creek Fence, and Goat Wise. Stacy runs the fence business professionally and we all pitch in, on contract jobs and on the ranch itself. Our three kids have grown up in this life, and livestock is all they've ever known. Depending on the time of year you'll find their 4-H animals woven into the daily rhythm of the place too.
In 2020 we purchased this land from my parents, put down roots here in 2022, and carried the original JS Hopkin Livestock Company brand with us. That brand was registered by my great-grandfather, passed through my father, and formally turned over to us just last fall.
What We Believe About Livestock and Land
We've spent years working toward a herd that takes care of itself. We select for does who wean moderate-weight kids while maintaining their own body condition, animals built for this environment, not pampered for the show ring. We expect our does to kid unassisted, get their kids up and nursing, and carry them through to weaning without hand-holding.
That's not laziness. That's the whole point. A herd that thrives in hard conditions on limited forage is a herd worth building, and worth learning from.
We're applying the same criteria to our cow herd. Progress is a little slower since cattle work on a longer timeline, but the philosophy is the same.
What I Share
Nearly everything I figure out, I share. Fence infrastructure, breeding decisions, nutrition, herd selection, regenerative grazing in an arid climate, the practical management that actually works in real ranch life, not just on paper.
That's what the Goat Wise podcast is built on. That's what this website is built on. Not a perfect system handed down from above, but honest documentation of what works, what doesn't, and what the land keeps teaching me.
A Note on Faith
This ranch is a stewardship. I didn't build it, I was entrusted with it. That shapes everything from how I treat my animals to how I make decisions about the land. I'm trying to leave it better. That's the whole assignment.
Welcome to Dry Creek Pastures. Stay for a while and have a look around.
The best way to keep up with what's happening here is the weekly newsletter — ranch stories, livestock management, and whatever the land is teaching us this week. Join the herd below.