County: Stanley
Years in Firsthand Foods Network: 2017-2021
Bruce Hudson
Cross Creek Ranch
OUR FARMERS
COUNTY
Montgomery
Montgomery
YEAR FOUNDED
1990
1990
FARM SIZE
588 acres
588 acres
FARM OUTPUT
Beef Cattle
Beef Cattle
- Bruce Hudson
When Bruce and his wife Cheryl finished college, they headed into what they term the fast-paced corporate world and soon realized that “status and income” were not that meaningful.
Rather, what they craved was a good quality of life. That’s when Cheryl went back to school to become a certified teacher and Bruce started farming. Rather than make the big equipment investments required for row crops, Bruce decided to raise cattle. Beginning with land that was once his Grandfathers, the Hudson’s have slowly acquired the surrounding acreage that comprises their farm. Their boys grew up working cattle and doing chores on the ranch and Bruce is fond of saying that “our kids are the best thing we raised on this farm.”
Bruce runs 140 momma cows, selling more than two-thirds of his herd as young calves and the remainder as finished beef to either Firsthand Foods or as whole or half carcasses to neighbors and friends in his community in and around Albemarle. Bruce didn’t grow up on a farm so has learned through trial and error.
It wasn’t until recently now that their children are grown and gone that Bruce and Cheryl had the resources and time to build a home on their ranch and move there permanently. Bruce has always had multiple irons in the fire as a means to support his family and the ranch, including trading futures and running a trucking company that specializes in emergency deliveries. The fact is, “farming is a great life but a poor living.”
