People might have expected that Mark McClintock would become a trainer or a jockey after growing up on a horse ranch in southern California — but Mark was always more interested in cattle than in the horses on his father’s ranch. And he turned that lifelong love of cattle into a career and eventually, into his own business.
Mark started raising dairy calves as a youngster and showed beef cattle through high school. In 1977, he earned an animal science degree from California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, where he was a member of the livestock judging team.
After graduation, he went to work as a herdsman for Bright Brothers Hereford Ranch in LaGrand, Calif. Three years later, he accepted a herdsman’s position with Lone Star Hereford Ranch in Henrietta, Texas, where he was also in charge of sale cattle.