A Legacy of Educators and Lifelong Learning Fuels Williams Ranch

AINSWORTH, Neb. – Will Williams gives a lot of credit to teachers for keeping the Williams Ranch at Ainsworth, Neb. going. It’s fitting, because he is a descendant of teachers and married one too – Rachel (Baack) Williams, a special education teacher in their community.

“In the ‘Dirty 80s,’ (that’s what my dad William called them), my mom Lou Ann went back to teaching to make things work,” Will noted. “Also, in the ‘Dirty 30s’ if you want to go back that far, my Great Grandfather died, and his second wife took off with the money. My family was kicked off the ranch for six months. But, my grandmother had a teaching certificate, and her career was why they were able to get a loan and get back on the ranch.”

This spirit of education, lifelong learning, and love for the Sandhills led Will and Rachel together as well.

“I grew up on a farm near Utica, Neb. and always enjoyed it,” Rachel recalled about her formative years with her parents Carol and the late Mike Baack. “I also always knew I wanted to be a special education teacher because my mom babysat kids with special needs. We would play school, and I just enjoyed being with them. I just always knew that was what I wanted to do.”

Rachel also knew she wanted to live in a rural area, “Some of our family vacations were spent with my mom’s sister, my Aunt Lorraine, and Uncle Fred Pozehl who lived in the Ainsworth area and worked for different ranchers there. I always felt drawn to the Sandhills landscape and the relaxed way of life – I knew I was a country girl and not meant to live in a metropolitan area.”

A day after graduating from Wayne State College in Nebraska, Baack spotted an ad in the Omaha World Herald for a teaching job in Ainsworth. It was destiny, “I knew that was the job for me.”

Rachel had found her job, but it was still quite a few years before she met her cowboy, “I kept myself busy working as a teacher and always had another job or two as well. Then I met Will in Ainsworth during alumni weekend when everyone was going out. He asked for my number, but I wouldn’t write it down for him. I told him he had to remember it.”

“Luckily I am good with numbers,” Will pointed out.

“He called me a day or two later and the rest is history,” Rachel added.

The couple married in July of 2013. By then, Will had been ranching on his own for quite awhile, “I had lived in Ainsworth all my life. I am the fourth generation here. I headed to the University of Nebraska – Lincoln after high school to study Ag Economics and Farm and Ranch Management. Then my dad passed away in 1994 two weeks before I graduated, so I came right back home to take over.”

Will worked hard to fill his dad’s role while his mom continued managing the ranch finances until 2017 when she passed away as well. Will’s Uncle Dean, a retired teacher, also worked with the family until he died in 2018. Will’s entire life had been shaped by the ranch, “Growing up, if we weren’t at church, we were at the ranch. I would sometimes get envious of the town kids because they were in more sports and got to hang out at the pool in the summer. We were in 4-H and were able to take swimming lessons, but mostly it was the ranch life for myself and my two older sisters.”

“My favorite part of living on the ranch was when my cousins would visit. It was something fun to look forward to,” he said.

Since Will’s father passed away, the ranch has nearly doubled in size, “Included in the operation is 1,500 acres of row crops that we lease out. I was always going to be a farmer but have really switched gears and moved more towards growing the cattle herd. I enjoy that more.”

Will has also taken a great interest in learning more about the practices that enhance soil health on the farm and ranch, “It started when a young farmer came to me and told me he wanted to farm some of my ground. He wanted to grow corn, soybeans, wheat, and then cover crops that were grazed. I was surprised because a lot of the farmers around me thought cattle compacted farm ground too much. It was a huge paradigm shift for me, but then I began to see the benefits.”

Another stepping stone into the soil health arena was hearing Dr. Ray Archuleta speak, “I didn’t like the chemical usage in agriculture and after hearing Ray talk, I knew we could get away from that.”

Currently, the Williams work with five tenant farmers, “We are working together really well, better than I ever dreamed. One of my tenants is a farmer who works at the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service). He has been farming no-till for 20 years and is also open to change. It’s great!”

Building strong relationships with tenant farmers gives Will more time to work with the cattle. He has been striving to raise his herd in a more natural direction for around 20 years, “At one point, I was having a few calves premature and then I read an article in Beef Magazine by a veterinary pathologist out of Kentucky who said don’t short the salt. He was talking about the same issues I was having with my premature calves. So, I emailed him, and he emailed me back. It turns out he had a brother in Cedar Rapids, Neb. who was farming and ranching doing all sorts of research and testing. They got me completely off commercial mineral and feeding all-natural minerals that started turning things around.”

Raising a herd that works in-tune with the environment, also led Will to inquire about Graze Master offerings, “I heard a commercial on the radio featuring my friend Larry Hafer of Hafer Cattle Company saying that he had Red Angus bulls for sale that are certified Graze Master. I called and asked him about what it means to be Graze Master certified.”

“I also had purchased the book published by Graze Master, ‘Hope Stories for the Heartland,’ for Will to read,” Rachel noted, about the book that features stories about farmers and ranchers who have implemented an array of innovative practices that renew soil and water resources.

“After reading Del Ficke’s story in Hope Stories for the Heartland about raising cattle more naturally and also focusing on the family and building your ranch for the next generation, I was like, ‘Okay, Graze Master is where I want to be,’” Will admitted.

“I also purchased two bulls from Larry Hafer too,” he went on. “I think they are the best bulls we’ve ever had on the place. He’s a worker and knows what he is doing. I always wanted to buy bulls of that quality, but never wanted to pay the high price. Longevity is important as far as the bulls and cows go on the Williams ranch. They need to be able to survive on what I give them and what the ranch has, and we are trying to stay away from the antibiotics and pour-ons too.”

Rachel and Will are looking forward to seeing the calves out of their Graze Master certified bull in April of 2026, in the meantime, they are looking at what other resources Graze Master may have to offer and are always planning on the future.

“We want the kids to be able to come back and be part of the ranch,” Rachel said. “I am always having them look at creative ways they can support the ranch and help keep it going.”

Jensen Williams has his own trucking business based out of Ainsworth and Jenna (Williams) Temple and her husband Colt live in Sturgis where Jenna is a respiratory therapist and her husband is also in the trucking business. Rachel and Will said their grown children are home many weekends helping out and are very interested in the ranch’s success.

“The other day I went out to service a pivot and Jenna wanted to go right along,” Will said. “She told me, ‘Well dad, I am going to need to know how to do this someday too.’”

Currently the Williams run around 250 cattle, Will said, “200 is a good number in a drought and 300 is a good number to pay the bills. Our main focus right now is the grass and water. We’ve added some pasture ground and are grazing more paddocks with the use of temporary fence. We are also getting the water figured out so we can increase our stock density. We are considering grazing under some pivots too. We are also heavy into cover crops.”

At the end of the day, Rachel and Will are grateful for the chance to keep their love of learning alive so they can keep living the lifestyle they love on the ranch. Will admitted, “I am basically kind of a janitor out here with 250 cows. I have the keys to everything. I keep the relationship with our tenants going, do all the maintenance, the fencing, and try and keep machinery going. My friends and I talk about the fact that it would really be hard to go to a 9-to-5 job where you couldn’t drive down the road just to go out for lunch sometimes and you also have the chance to just stop for 30 minutes somewhere to b.s.”

“We take for granted where we live sometimes,” Rachel admitted. “That’s why we love having visitors out here to remind us. We have family members that choose to come here for their family vacation. They could go anywhere else, but they come here to do things like help feed cows and tame chickens. Things that we just do on a daily basis, they love to come help us with – like checking cattle and stopping to see the wildflowers.”

Just like all those teachers who have helped keep the ranch alive with their careers, learning right on the ranch every day, will keep it alive too, Will said in closing, “Being out in Mother Nature every day and learning about her – well, I have to be really thankful that I can.”