If there’s one thing Brittany Rawlings knows, it’s that when you do something you love every day, it never feels like work. She is also passionate about making the world a better place, and she intends to do just that with the help of her Boone County family farm.
Rawlings, the product of a father who works a 10,000-acre ranch (her stepmother works alongside him) and 2,000 head of cattle, came to the arena of hard work honestly.
She grew up in southern Indiana before heading to college in Missouri on a rodeo scholarship.
“That’s when my family moved from Indiana to Missouri,” Rawlings said. “My dad is a true cowboy. On the cattle aspect of things with farming, well, I grew up in that world.”
After college, Rawlings met and married her husband, Jeff. He too attended college on a rodeo scholarship, in Kentucky.
“So with the farming aspect, my husband grew up in that arena,” she said. “When I moved back to Indiana after college and we met, he was running a trucking company. My parents owned a restaurant so I worked there. My stepdad was ready to retire out of the family farm so Jeff and I bought his portion. My father-in-law used to service dairy farms, so Jeff had become extremely knowledgeable as well. So when we got married, I said, ‘Let’s get some feeder steers and see what happens.’”
Fast-forward to four years ago, when Rawlings made a decision. “I was finally like, ‘Let’s go big or go home,’” she said. “From that moment on, life and work and the farm, it’s all been a whirlwind – a really good whirlwind.”
The whirlwind includes the couple farming nearly 4,000 acres and 80 head of cattle. In 2024 the couple built a new barn to house 150 head of feeder steers, and the latter is what Rawlings has her sights on as the next chapter of her farming story.
“I am honestly hoping to build more,” she said. “Now we have 60 head of feeder calves and 20 head of momma cows. We are really trying to take the farm further, but take our beef further. I started to notice a trend around the time of COVID, and it’s young people. I’ve noticed that even since that time, it seems 20- to 30-year age groups especially have started this movement of buy local, eat healthy.”
Rawlings says the more she delved into the subject, the more she knew she needed to contribute to the cause.
“Our steers are all natural, grass fed and grain finished,” she said. “We are growing some of the finest breed of beef that you can purchase. I think bringing people this knowledge that you do not have to buy your meat, of any kind, only from a grocery store chain – in fact, you can buy from real people who are farming their own land and offering you as a consumer the highest-quality product – that is really my mission now. I told my husband we have to tap into this, because it is important.”
You can purchase Rawlings USDA inspected beef at select Leo’s locations including Noblesville, Lafayette and Lebanon. More information can also be found at Rockin R Ranch on Facebook.
