story by Siri Stevens
There’s a whole village of people helping to oversee the Western States Ranch Rodeo Association. Two of those people are Brandon and Katie Nuffer from Winnemucca, Nev. Brandon flags for the finals, something he has done for the past ten years. Brandon was born and raised in northern Nevada on a ranch near Denio by Rob and Delia Nuffer along with his brother, Jared. Brandon left the ranch to go to college and rodeo. Shortly after the move he started a steel fence business which evolved into Nuffer Fencing LLC. Brandon travels the western states building corrals and arenas. He met his wonderful wife Katie on a trip home for a wedding and they moved back to Winnemucca where they raise two daughters Gemma (13) and Ruby (10). Besides fencing, Brandon team ropes and shoes horses.
Winnemucca is the crossroads for two major highways, I80 and Hwy 95. There are a lot of gold mines around the area as well as silver and a lithium mine. Both of their daughters are involved in basketball, competing in traveling leagues. “We travel all around Nevada and even into Idaho.” The girls also show pigs and goats in 4-H every year. When they need to travel, Brandon’s parents live next door and Katie’s parents are five minutes away. They live on 25 acres fondly referred to as “The Funny Farm” because of the menagerie of critters roaming the place. “We have a couple cows that we bottle raised, a few corrientes, goats, pigs, chickens, and horses.”
Brandon competed at his first ranch rodeo as a sophomore in high school and the soon-to-be 46-year-old started flagging team roping in high school. “I learned from experience as a roper as well as a flagger,” he said. He loves ranch rodeo and had competed in them for many years until the WSRRA asked him to be a flagger for the Western State Ranch Rodeo Finals. Brandon has been the flagger and judge ever since. He and his dad, Rob Nuffer, won the horse roping at the McDermitt Ranch Rodeo in 2010 and are competing together at the Jordan Valley Big Loop.
They are excited to watch and help the association grow. “We hope to add more teams and more money for the cowboys to win,” she said.
