The Heart Behind Moss Rock Ranch
Cody & Erin Holst
Welcome to Moss Rock Ranch! I am Erin Holst and run the ranch alongside my husband Cody and two kids, Reese & Rhett. I grew up in Carthage, not on a ranch. I had no background in cattle whatsoever. After high school I went to college for Fashion Merchandising. I have always had a love for fashion, but I did not finish my degree in Fashion Merchandising. When I was in college it was a completely different time than it is now. Social media was minimal. Facebook had JUST come out. If you wanted to proceed in fashion you would have to live out of the area. I knew I would always be a small town girl, so I decided to take a break from school and started working full time as a bank teller. At that time I met my husband Cody. I had known of Cody for years, we grew up 30 minutes from each other. My best friend, now sister in law, was dating his brother. We started dating and were engaged within 6 months! 😳 I moved to Augusta, got a job as a teller at the bank here in town, and we got married. Cody was farming for his family and had acquired his own herd of cattle. His true love is cattle. With his grandfather, the late Dr. Hal Holst and his dad, Dr. Grant Holst, both Veterinarians, he has gained an extreme amount of knowledge on how to care for cattle. When you watch Cody and his dad work cattle it is truly amazing how talented they are with them. We all know just how frustrating of an animal they can be but they handle them with grace and patients (most of the time).
We were married in 2010, and had around 100 head of spring calving cows, as well as fat cattle. Every Thursday we grabbed a sixer and hauled fat cattle followed by pizza. We were young with big dreams. We lived in a small house in town. This was not ideal for spring calving but we made it work. At this time we did not have any type heated facilities for calving. We purchased an OLD job site trailer from a local auction and stayed in that during calving season. No bathroom, no water, just a baseboard heater, that was one of the biggest fire hazards I have ever seen! We would bring calves into the trailer with us to warm them up at night. One of Cody's dreams was to have his own cattle sale every year. The first year we were married was the first year we had our Annual Bred Heifer Sale. We continued this sale every year for thirteen years. Talk about ups and downs. We had some terrible years as well as record setting years, just like every other cattleman.
When we first started we were carrying on the name of Holst Cattle Co. from Cody's grandfather who had passed. Cody's grandfather also loved the cattle. The house that is on the ranch was built by Cody's grandparents. They owned the house and 40 acres around it. In 2011, 100 acres of land that surrounded the 40 came up for sale. We had absolutely no business buying it, but we did it anyway. We closed on the ground in July of 2011. We were so broke the only thing we could afford was a 12 pack of beer and a package of hotdogs to celebrate. So, we took them to the land we just bought and sat in the creek. This is when we decided to name it Moss Rock Ranch. The creek is a beautiful rock bottom creek with....you guessed it...moss covered rocks.
Shortly after we had Reese, who was born prematurely, we decided it would be best for me to quit work and take care of her. Cody also quit working for the family row crop farm and strictly raised cattle. Anyone familiar with the cattle industry knows money was tight. When Reese went to school, I went back to work. I decided to also go back to school and finish my bachelors degree in business. Then there came a day where Cody knew he needed an off the farm job. This was not an easy decision, but it had to be done to keep going. At this point we had Tommy working full time at the ranch and we wanted/needed to keep him employed. We were calving 250 spring heifers/two year olds who required around the clock watch. Cody was working at Sullivan Auctioneers, located in Hamilton, Illinois. He traveled through the week and ranched all the other hours he was home. Cody started to travel more and it became too much for Tommy to handle the ranch alone so we hired his twin brother Tanner as well.
I then had our son Rhett, but we knew at this time staying home wasn't an option. I was working as a loan officer at a bank in town. It was a great job and I was close to the kids. In 2019 we were able to purchase the house and 40 acres his grandparents built. In 2021 more ground came up for sale that connected to Moss Rock Ranch. This land was something we had dreamed about our entire marriage. The kind of ground that gets sold once in a lifetime (maybe). Once again, we didn't know how we were going to do it but we did it. They say Cody could sell ice to an eskimo, and he sure sold it to our loan officer. 😅 We bought the land and completed the ranch. We worked hard to get back on our feet and rolled some sevens. Cody was working off the ranch. We decided we were in a place where I could quit the bank and pursue my dream in fashion. Things were going well. We decided to start our clothing brand.
In the summer of 2024 Tanner was diagnosed with Leukemia. He passed within 90 days of being diagnosed. We have always been blessed with amazing cowboys. When Tanner got sick, Jason had just started to help us, but stepped up to the plate and didn't miss a beat. With everything else going on, we knew he was taking care of things at the ranch. We had experienced the hardships of financial ups and downs, hard calving seasons but none of them compared to the devastation of losing one of our own. Just as we had told ourselves over the years, we will make it through the fire.
In 2008 the house on the ranch burnt to the ground. There was a Frederic Remington picture that made it through the fire. We have it hanging in the rebuilt house. There is soot on it and some parts of the painting are hard to see. We have always looked at this picture in a motivational way, knowing we have to and will make it through the fire. That is where our slogan came from for the clothing company. Our goal is to inspire other ranchers and to let them know we know how hard they are working and how hard it is to stay motivated in this business. That we respect them, we are them and we know it isn't just a fad. I love fashion, Cody loves ranching, so we are putting that together and trying to build brand awareness and form new relationships.
