Another stop on the Western Livestock Journal

Red Bluff Daily News (CA)

- Saturday, June 17, 2006

Author:

Jean Barton

Our next stop on the Western Livestock Journal ranch study tour was to the

Matador

Cattle

Company, near Dillon, owned by the Koch family of

KochIndustries

operated by them since 1951. There are two other

Matador

ranches; one in Kansas and the other in Texas.

Koch Industries

also owns Georgia Pacific lumber company and other businesses.

Matador

is about 300,000 acres with a third deeded land, a third state landand a third federal lands with the home ranch at 5,900 to 6,000 foot elevation.The temperature is variable since 10 days previously it was 15 degrees andearlier in the week it was 90 for three days. In wintertime it can be 20 to 40below until a Chinook comes and it is 20 degrees above.Rainfall is about 12 inches, but thanks to water rights that go back to 1866,there is water for irrigation from creeks with a 12 to 20 horsepower engine tofeed the pivots on 3,000 acres. There are three men on the farm crew for feeding hay and irrigating.This is one of the oldest ranches in Montana, established in 1865, elevenyears before Custer's Last Stand. The large barn was built about then inDutch style with mortise and beams. The original floors were split half logs.The oldest brand in Montana is the square and compass of this ranch.Poindexter North started the ranch and owned it until the late 1930's. Theyhad to trail the

cattle

to get to the markets, and even raised turkeys in hopeof saving the ranch. Selling price was $17,000 to Mace.Ranch manager Ray Marxer and his wife Sue have been at the ranch since1974 when Ray started as a cowboy, and assumed the manager position in1990.Many tours visit the ranch because they will be educating 5,000 to 8,000people per year about ranching. Country Magazine will have five to eight tour groups visit this summer.Ray said that telling our story to the public is a challenge, because so manypeople no longer have ties to a farm. Sue has taken groups to a branding

because society needs to understand the need for a brand. It is the returnaddress for an animal.They run about 6450 head of

cattle

, including 280 bulls. 3,700 cows willwinter at 6,000 foot elevation using the meadows and willows for shelter andto calve in, starting March 20 on the meadows. They do not feed them haybut they get protein cubes. At branding time (middle of May through June)they will have a 96 percent calf crop. The bulls are put with the cows June 16and removed Aug. 1.He said a modern genetics cow will die here because she is so large andneeds so much feed to survive. Their cull cows (she didn't raise a calf or hasbad udder or poor feet and legs) will weigh 1,100 pounds. "The cows are notfat, but their job is to convert poor quality forage into beef."The cows and calves will summer on federal land that run to the Idaho border.They will trail the

cattle

35 to 70 miles, and sell the steer calves up there inSeptember averaging about 575 pounds. It is profitable, even though a lightweight. Most of the steer calves go straight to feedlots, while the heifer calves are on home place meadows until November or December when thereplacements are selected and the balance are sold.The cows are preg tested in November and then trailed home from themountains.This ranch has eight full time

cattle

employees and during branding or calvingthere will be two part time, plus the farming crew. During summer onecowboy's job is to keep the cows off the riparian areas of the federal lands.Safety is stressed by

Koch Industries

, so they have changed their behavior and not reverted to old habits on the ranch. The cowboys have to weigh therisk in getting a job done so there are no mishaps. Last year the threeranches in MT, KS, and TX had no recordable accidents. They had justfinished artificial inseminating 1,500 heifers in four days using Angus LowLine semen. They will be turned out on meadows with one bull to 45 heifersfor 45 days, since they AI only once.Our buses drove through the feed lot where the heifers were, and we weretold the blue eartags meant they were three quarters Angus and a quarter Hereford, and in the future they would be bred to Hereford bulls.During the month and a half of calving the first calf heifers the men would ear tag and weigh each calf at birth, and then at weaning.