With a love for livestock and the ranching lifestyle, becoming a large animal veterinarian seemed like a natural work fit for 27-year-old Matthew Lewis, though he wasn’t sure what career path he would take at one point.

For the last year, however, Lewis has served as an associate veterinarian at Central Texas Veterinary Hospital, a mixed animal practice that sees both large and small animals, located on U.S. 183 North in Early across from SEAL Gymnastics. Dr. Fritz Speck opened his practice in 2013 and Logan Speck is also an associate veterinarian.

“It’s a little different from my classmates and the normal story of people who wanted to be a vet their whole life,” Lewis said. “I did grow up always loving animals. That was fostered through the relationship I had through my grandpa on our ranch. I spent a lot of time with him and that’s really my passion, ranch and livestock and then all the animals involved. That was a big part of my life always but I didn’t really consider vet school until later in life. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I was in high school and I had a friend at the time that mentioned with all my interests, I should be a large animal vet which I hadn’t really thought about before. I started to consider it more and more, and the more I thought about it compared with other things I might do in my life I didn’t think there was anything much more fitting.”

Lewis is also co-owner of Lewis Ranch Livestock, an opportunity afforded to him for returning home after graduating from Texas A&M.

“The other great thing and big blessing about being back, I’m a fourth generation operator of the Lewis Ranch and co-owner of Lewis Ranch Livestock, the LLC that me, my wife and both my parents have put together,” Lewis said. “My grandpa and his dad were the original operators, so it’s awesome getting to do that and also knowing that my wife and I have two 2 1/2-year twin daughters, we’re getting to expose them to all that and have them be a part of it and continue on with the fifth generation of Lewises.”

Matthew and his wife Chandler, an RN BSN at Hendrick-Brownwood who works in the ICU, have 2-1/2 year-old twin daughters, Lynnleigh and Olivia.

“Chandler and I are both 2014 graduates of Brownwood High and we met in third grade at Woodland Heights,” Lewis said. “We always looked forward to coming home and raising our family here. Our daughters were born while I was in vet school in the middle of the 2020 pandemic, so that was something else, but they’re a big blessing and a lot of fun.”

Regarding the ranch business, Lewis said, “The big focus of the ranch is commercial cattle operation. We also raise goats and some show lambs as well. As a whole, we’re focusing our efforts on regenerative agricultural principals and just trying to do the best we can with the land available, and help the land benefit us in return. Our goals for the future are to, whenever possible, transition into a situation where we’re able to retail our own beef and potentially, if there’s enough of an interest, some of the meat products from our goat herd. We’d love to branch out into other enterprises as we go, but that’s what we have going on right now and we’re all enjoying getting to do it as a family.”

Outside of work, the Lewises are members of Coggin Avenue Baptist Church and help with Chandler’s parents at Duke Street antiques.