OUR STORY

GOD ~ FAMILY ~ COUNTRY

We're the Sanders family - Dan, Tami and our three growing kids! Dan and I both grew up on ranches near Big Timber, Montana. We got married and spent the next 18 years traveling the USA and the world as a military family. I stayed home with the kids, Dan protected our nation flying F-16's. We saw a lot of different farming and ranching practices during that time, from rice farming in Korea, to cabbage fields in Arizona and corn/soybean farms in South Dakota. We knew when he "retired" from his first career that we wanted to come back to Montana to raise sheep and cattle.

Along the way Dan started reading and following regenerative ag folks from all over. I was slower to get on board, but after having three kids and seeing a lot of different agricultural practices I really started thinking about what we were putting into our bodies and exposing our children to. Living in big farm country, we spent several days inside each spring/summer/fall while they sprayed the surrounding fields multiple times with different chemicals. It was such a different type of agriculture from what we had grown up with. We knew we wanted something different for our family. And we wanted to provide the same quality meats for other families, just like the meat we were putting in our own freezer. We started out raising grass fed lamb in South Dakota. We tried different breeds of sheep and settled on Texel cross lambs. We rented a ram at the time, yes that's a thing, you can actually "rent a ram" to service the ewes! The folks we got in contact with had some Texels and urged us to give them a try. The son told me, "Once you try Texel lamb meat you won't ever want to eat anything else." And boy was he right! Tender, juicy and mild flavored. It quite literally melts in your mouth! So, we've been raising Texel grass fed lambs for the last 8 years. Now that we're back in Montana we're expanding to Grass Fed Beef and eventually pastured pork and poultry.

So why Flying 7? Dan flew F-16's for 19 of his 21 years in the Air Force/Air National Guard. It's a big part of what has shaped us on our journey. Seven represents the 7 most important things we value: God, Family, Country; in that order. That's what shapes our decisions and drives us to bring the highest quality meats to your table.

1 GOD - We are so grateful for the creation God has provided that feeds our family and yours. But we know we are also just short-term caretakers of this land and need to preserve its resources to feed and house generations to come. We look at nature's way of doing things and try to emulate it on our operation.

Family of 5 - Representing our young family, the five of us are what make it all happen at the Flying 7 Ranch. We appreciate the opportunity to raise our family in the demanding but rewarding ranch lifestyle. We also both come from large families, many of whom are in the area, that we love dearly and are a big part of our lives and support our journey.

1 Nation, Under God - We are so blessed to live in this great country. While Dan has completed his time in the military, we also know this country will only continue to prosper if we are active, caring citizens that continue to give back. We strive to be productive members of our community. If we all do a little, we will do a lot together.

So there it is; a busy Family of 5, honoring and serving God while living in this great Country we call America - it all adds up to the Flying 7 Ranch - working to make the world and your dinner plate a little bit better.

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