Cowherd
We have 300 purebred cows and 50 replacement heifers at our ranch in Helena, Montana.
Our goals are focused on breeding purebred and percentage Simmentals that will fit into a variety of breeding programs. We select and breed our cattle for calving ease, polled gene, and solid color with emphasis on maternal traits. We concentrate on balanced trait selection to produce cattle that are early maturing, moderately framed, sound and fertile. We strive for animals that will adapt to their environment and are well suited for both the commercial and seedstock breeder. We normally start breeding AI during mid-April and turn out our herd sires for the month of June. Our first calves are born around the middle of January.
We have found out that the commercial breeders in Montana prefer their cattle to have ease of calving, the polled gene, solid color and performance. This is our 50th year of performance records. We sell 95% of our bulls to commercial cattle breeders, therefore, we must produce bulls that will make them money and keep them in business.
We felt that Simmentals have plenty of growth, so we geared our breeding program to concentrate on calving ease, polled genetics, solid black and red cattle with high maternal traits. We take great pride in the disposition of our cattle. Our cows must reproduce in our environment year after year. Our registered cattle are managed the same as our commercial herd. We take our cattle to the mountains (10 miles on horseback) in June and home again in Early October. We check on water and salt twice a month in the summer but due to the rough country we still don’t always see all of the cows during the summer.
Our cows have produced many outstanding herd sires. Many of our herd sires and those purchased from us have been in various AI Studs. Some of these that you might recognize are: Polled Gallant, Polled Uslar, PPSR Red Baron, Ace of Spades, PPSR Polled Pride, PPSR Leggacy Return, Chief Red Bear, Charles Pride, Toby, PPSR Eight Ball, PPSR Chief Joseph, Montana Blak, Montana Blak 793A, PPSR Houdini, PPSR Infinity, PPSR Houdini Jr., PPSR Montana Red, PPSR Carbon Copy, PPSR Black Star, PPSR Black Avenger, PPSR Celtic 41J Pricly Pear 12M and PPSR Nophalt.