Spring Break under the Big Skies of Montana!

For spring break, from the 14th of March to the 24th I made the trip up to Montana with a mate from college to visit with her family and learn a little about their cow calf business… which in this case, happened to be a very nice Hereford stud. So for a week and a half of scenery change and a temporary change in hyde colour, we began the 15hour drive up to the Snowshoe Cattle Company (Pompey’s Pillar, Montana).

By the time we were through with lectures and all packed up, it was quite late in the day causing us to have left a little later than we had originally intended. We pulled up about 12 hours into the trip and stayed the night with some family friends of Rachael’s (the mate from college) in Wyoming

for the night. We made it to the Largent’s house in the very early hours of the morning so I didn’t actually get a chance to meet them until the sun came up. They were all very kind, just lovely, lovely people! We had a great chat over breakfast about Australia and where the best places to visit were (I’ll be expecting you all in March by the way!) and they are also associated with the Hereford breed so we talked a little about that also.

The other thing about arriving in the dark was that driving in, I had absolutely no idea just how beautiful Wyoming actually was. As we drove out in pursuit of the Snowshoe Cattle Company’s Bull Sale the next morning, I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY by the view surrounding the Largent’s home! It. Was. Amazing!

So we were headed to Pompey’s Pillar, just a little ways west of Billings, MT for the Buzanowski family’s Bull Sale on what was now the 15th of March. Prior to my trip up to Montana I was informed about the history of that particular town from my Ruminant Nutrition, Beef Science and Grazing Nutrition Management professor Dr KC Olson. He had said that it had originated from the time explorers Lewis and Clark had separated for a little while wherein, William Clark travelled a ways with Sacagawea and had named the large monumental outcropping in the area after Sacagawea’s son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, of whom he nicknamed Pompey. The pillar was closed for the winter, but here is where it pays to know the locals! I was still very fortunate to have had a look in and climb it before we made the trip back to Kansas. Now you want to talk about a good view! Pompey’s Pillar the monument, sat right at the edge of the Yellowstone River and looked out over the old railway line. What a humbling feeling to been standing there, where so much history had taken place.

The Bull Sale was in full swing by the time we arrived. There were 40 bulls to sell and it was the first of the company’s sales that was conducted on the Snowshoe Cattle Co home ranch. The ranch is located right on the edge of the Yellowstone River! It was just unfathomable to me for a start that I was actually checking cattle with these wonderful people right there on the edge of it.

I was fortunate to have a visit with ORIgen Breeder to Breeder Genetics Services whilst up in Montana where I was very lucky to have a full tour of the lab and the “bull library” if you will, out in the pens. I hadn’t ever seen or even had any reason to had been associated with a business like this one and I really enjoyed the opportunity to check it all out. The people here were absolutely fantastic! They took the time out of their busy schedules that day to show me through all of the semen tanks and the processes the samples all go through from jumping the bulls to assessing morbidity, motility and abnormalities in the semen so that it can be qualified for shipment in and out of the United States. I also had a look at the storage and classification system ORIgen performs within each semen tank and all that goes with. Following this, we were given a personal tour with Gary Wall through the Bulls they had on site.

On my last night in Montana we went into Billings to visit with the blokes from Vermillion Ranch and walk through the bulls the day before their sale. Unfortunately, we had to drive home the day of the actual sale but all the same it was just fantastic to meet these people, check out their sale bulls and hear a little about their business. The female sale was the day before and the averages for both sales were as follows… 457 bulls averaging $6,554.00 and 5,962 heifers averaging $1,136.

I also had the chance to do a few touristy things during my time up there. After the morning with ORIgen, we drove down to Columbus to the Montana Silversmith who was coincidentally having a quite large sale at the time. Needless to say, I sure did a number on that shop! Haha. I learnt all about bears and huckleberries that day also! On the way back down to Kansas we took a little detour through South Dakota for a quick look at the incredible Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument.

I. Mean. My. Goodness!

Trust me, the photos you see of these incredible landmarks just absolutely do not do them justice at all! I was amazed by how well preserved after so so many years Mount Rushmore was and how realistic it looked. I was just fascinated with the Crazy Horse Monument. We had a little chat with the guide who informed us that within the next 10-15 years they will have finished his left arm, his finger and will have started on the horses head.

As a side note, everywhere I go in Montana I am just amazed at how incredibly diverse and scenic it is! Montana is such a fantastic place to visit! I met some really brilliant people, saw some absolutely breathtaking scenery and along with everything above, we also made the trip up to Red Hill at the edge of the Rocky Mountains to pick up a load of hay for the cattle and check out a few touristy things up there too.

I really enjoyed my time in Montana and I’m very thankful to have met and been able to spend so much time with the Buzanowski family on their ranch this spring.