It was only after buying the ranch, in 1979, that she discovered the remains of her great-grandparents’ log cabin on her newly acquired land. She started taking in hands-on paying guests six years later and those here for the branding weekend are a diverse bunch, ranging in age from early thirties to late seventies. They include bankers, an osteopath, a teacher and two police officers. The one thing they have in common is that everyone, including ranch hands, is female.Jane cites several reasons for running a women-only ranch. “One was to give women the opportunity but I also like the way women handle livestock.

They work smart not strong.” For those of us less familiar with livestock, Jane issues two pages of bedtime reading to assist the workings of our female intuition, an agricultural report entitled Cow Psychology. It advises where to stand in order to move a cow and, importantly, how to get it where you want it to go.Herding – on foot, not horseback – is surprisingly easy. Just place yourself behind the cow, between 7 and 8 o’clock, and once you invade its circular flight zone – or body space – it will move forward to the right Between 3 and 4 o’clock and it will move to the left Step a few paces back and the cow stops. With these simple rules, seven novices separated 25 calves and 55 cows into different pens.Jane has 200 cows but over the summer about 1,000 cattle will graze in her sub-leased fields from as far away as Arkansas and Texas “This blue- stemmed grass is fantastic,” she explains. “Cows will gain over 2lb a day on the grass alone.”Karen Anderson, the ranch’s horse-wrangler (another name for a cowboy/girl who herds on horseback), believes the land isn’t just good for the cows: she speaks of its “healing” properties Karen first came to Homestead Ranch a year ago “I had a typical case of corporate burnout,” she explains The visit completely changed her life.

Now, in between running management training courses and professional ballroom dancing, she spends three months of the year at the ranch and plans to move permanently to the area. In a truck, on our way to the stables, she points out marsh ponds surrounded by trees, sand cranes and turkeys perching in the upper branches. “This is some of the richest grazing land in America,” she says. “The plains Indian tribes of Kansa and the Kaw lived here and herded buffalo. It was the Kansa that gave the state its name.” She reaches into the dashboard and pulls out a chalky-grey flint arrowhead “I found it by the creek and had it dated.

It’s 700 years old.” That’s a lot a years out West.At the stables Karen brings out the horses and teaches us some basic grooming techniques, such as removing mud and stones from hooves. The saddles are enormous and Western- style: heavier and sturdier than their British counterparts with a central raised mount Our ride across the prairie is spectacular Rolling green pastures stretch endlessly to the horizon Hooves crush clumps of spiderwort and wild indigo. In the distance, a skunk lifts up its tail to spray an unlucky victim The sky is immense. “It’s as if the sky comes down to meet the earth.” Mary Anne decides. “I tend to only hike in mountains so I’m used to the earth meeting the sky.”When not performing her duties as a cop with the Madison Police Department in Wisconsin, Mary Anne also loves to ride, but for 78-year-old Anne it’s a new experience: “It took three of them to get me up on this horse,” she giggles, “but the ride was wonderful.”Gene from Texas, 67, can’t wait to get her hands on the calves. “I can either sit home and dry out like a prune,” she states, “or I can enjoy myself.” She watches impatiently as I prepare for my allotted task, to innoculate a freshly branded bull calf. When my left thigh lodges the neck into position, I jab the needle and pump 5ccs of vaccination under its skin.