Matt Doyle: When I was a kid, I worked for gentlemen who had cattle operations … so I was involved in [raising cattle] from … 8th grade [or] 9th grade, and then went off to college and had a roommate [who] raised his longhorns, which got me into that.
Sean Doyle: I guess I’d have been 8 [when our family bought Shamrock Ranch in 1995]. So, [I did] a lot of riding around when I was young, just getting used to the cows and being around it.
Sean: When I got back from college is really when the cattle operation started ramping up. … [We] started growing the herd from there, and then we acquired some different tracts along the way … roughly 700 acres and close to 90 head [as of now].
Matt: I certainly love it as a hobby/operation. When Sean was showing heifers [at the Galveston County Fair and Rodeo], we became very competitive in that. So, I like knowing that we were able to produce things locally.
Sean: The competitive piece of it [when I was] young was fun—being able to raise heifers and compete at a very high level.
Matt: The bank takes advantage of [the ranch] too. It’s a great place for us to entertain. We do quail hunts on the place for our customers … and that’s been a lot of fun. … Sean takes his kids out and rides around down on the side-by-side all the time.
Sean: The kids enjoy it, and a lot of my cousins enjoy it. … I think [there’s] definitely a generational component to it that will go down for a few more generations and hopefully longer than that.