How it all began and came together...

In the early 1980’s Dennis Dale took a job for Kenny & Rosie Staab working and eventually managing the farm and ranch operation on what is now the South Loup Ranch southeast of Pleasanton NE. Mr. Staab had already built a large herd of full blood simmental cows by the time Dennis went to work for him and was one of the first people to integrate the simmental breed into beef production in the US. Kenny will even tell you about buying cows at an elite sale at the Grand Ole Opry in Tennessee where the cows were led onto the stage and auctioned. This was in the early to mid-1970’s and the sale feature fullblood simmental cow sold for

$100,000 !!!!

Over the next 20+ years that Dennis worked for the Staab family he slowly started building a cow herd of his own primarily purchasing commercial black angus heifers and breeding them to black purebred simmental bulls. Dennis, his wife Becky and their oldest daughter Judy farmed and ranched together until 1996 when Judy graduated high school and went to college in Chadron, NE.

In 2004 Dennis was able to purchase some irrigated and dryland farm ground and some pasture from the Staab family including the 400 acres that the Dale & Trent Ranch headquarters are located today and where Dennis and Becky currently reside with their daughter Justine.  They also purchased the entire cow herd from the Staab family and leased the rest of the pasture, farm ground and facilities from them. 

Judy Dale (Dennis’s oldest daughter) met Kenneth Trent in 1996 and they were married in the summer of 1998. Shortly after the wedding they moved to the Gallatin Valley of Montana where they spent 9 years. Kenneth had grown up on ranches in Southwestern South Dakota and always kept his roots in agriculture. In 2007 Kenneth and Judy and their two children Adriana and Pacen moved back to the Pleasanton area to give the kids a chance to be close to grandparents as well as give them the opportunity to grow up on a ranch (Both children put in a great amount of time working on the ranch early in life and clear through high school).  It was at that time Kenneth worked different full-time jobs at local CO-OP’s running liquid fertilizer plants and in fertilizer and seed sales, but also helped Dennis every chance he got with the cows and farming. In 2008 Kenneth and Judy bought their first set of commercial cows. In 2010 Dennis suggested that Kenneth and Judy should buy some registered Simmental and simangus cows and he would buy the bulls from them, so they purchased 3 bred heifers on the Forster Farms annual production sale, a purebred, a ¾ blood and a ½ blood. And so, It began……. 

By 2012 Ken & Judy had bought a few more registered cows and Dennis & Becky started purchasing several registered cows as well including the cornerstone of today’s program the FF LUCKYMAN X022 donor cow also known as the original “Maggie”. It was also in 2012 that Kenneth went to work full time on the ranch as well as forming Dale & Trent Ranch Simmentals. Dennis put Ken in charge of both the commercial and the registered herds and the breeding program. 

In 2014 the lease agreement Dennis and Becky had with the Staab Family expired and the current ranch headquarters northwest of Pleasanton was built. By this time Ken was starting to sell between 5-10 head of registered Simmental and simangus bulls every year by private treaty. In 2015 at barely 10 years old Pacen Trent (the only grandson), saved up his 4H steer money and bought a Red Bred simangus Heifer on the Forster Farms sale and the next day bought a red open simangus heifer at Triangle J ranch and joined the family business of raising registered cattle. Pacen still maintains that his red cows are better and dad and grandpa’s black cows!!!!

 In 2023 Kenneth and Judy officially joined the operation as co-owners of Dale & Trent Ranch LLC and Dale & Trent Farms LLC. Dennis, Ken, Judy and Pacen are all very active in the management and day to day operation of both businesses. Starting in early winter of 2023 a total of 25 head of yearling simmental and simangus bulls were offered in a small bid off sale and by private treaty. 

Starting in December of 2024 we will be kicking off an annual production sale in conjunction with Nelson Herefords of Burwell, NE. Both programs believe wholeheartedly in culling deep and only offering animals they would use themselves. As the herd has grown and genetic improvements have made huge strides there are plans for the Dale & Trent Ranch to start extensively flushing several cows and be able to offer a larger group of quality animals in the very near future. 

Notable bulls that have been raised & sold to date include DTR SOUTH FORTY 250J purchased by Schnabel Ranch Simmentals of Eureka, SD.  and DTR HUSKERLAND 370L purchased by Forster Farms Simmentals of Smithfield NE.