5 very dry states in 8 days...2,971 miles...78 hours in a truck

by Tim McCray Tim@ABPmag.com -- Photos by Derek Sample Derek@ABPmag.com

A mythical road trip of legendary proportions was something I had referenced in an article back in February. Of course, at the time, it was part fantasy and part idealized. Getting back to “normal” was something not only all Americans were hoping to get to, but the rest of the world as well. Some still are. Last year brought many challenges, but we still managed a few trips in the process. Derek and I had decided that we needed to take advantage of our so called down time between publishing our May/June and August issues and visit a few ranches to pay some attention to a few customers, plus stock up on some photo’s as well. We travel well together considering he’s a whole year older than me and since we’re both are quite childish in the end. We both thought it a good idea to head South into Missouri, possibly Oklahoma, Texas, then head back north through Kansas and the Dakota’s before returning me home to Minnesota.

Richard Wiese checking his Angus at WR Bar Ranch, Pequot Lakes, MN

photo by Derek Sample

But the guardian angels that watch over us on our travels apparently wanted to go North first, so that we did. I tried lining places up to the south, but just couldn’t get er done. So North was our new direction for now. We started towards Pequot Lakes, MN. However, we had one little unscheduled stop by a state trooper first. I was driving at least 20 mph over the posted speed limit, and I knew it as soon as I made the curve and saw the patrol car on the side of the road. Derek just looked at me and said “I guess it’s your turn”. Eluding to his speeding ticket on our last road trip, somewhere at 2am in South Dakota. I already had the window down and license in hand as the officer approached. “Where you going”, he asked. “Pequot Lakes” I responded. “What are you doing there” he asked. I responded simply – “checking on cattle”. He gained a puzzled look on his face, as I turned my cap around so that it showed our ABP logo – “Does this help”? I asked. Again he looked, asked a few more questions and told us to wait there as he took my license back to his mobile office. He returned about five minutes later, handed me my license, and mentioned that he had just taken a few steers in to process, and he was hoping to build some shelters but the price of lumber was too much…. You boys have a nice day, was all he said, not even a warning! Wow am I grateful to whatever angel was watching over me that day.

Dustin and son Owen at Flying W Ranch, Pequot Lakes, MN

photo by Derek Sample

Sunset at Keyes Angus near Brewster, Nebraska

photo by Derek Sample

Our first scheduled stop was WR Bar ranch, where Richard Wiese took us around his property as we checked on some of his Angus herd. His grandparents moved to the area in 1935 from Nebraska, when his father Eldon was 10 (now 98), and they have been there ever since. Our next stop was Richard‘s nephew Dustin, who began running Flying W ranch from his father Danny a few years ago. Dustin & his son Owen took us out to a few of their pastures, and we learned along the way that Owen had not seen anything but Black Angus until only recently. It’s nice to witness what we hope is the next generation of Wiese taking an interest with his Dad. From there, we headed straight west to the Bismark & Mandan area. Over 8 hours on the road and just over 500 miles in to our 7 day trek. I had scheduled 2 days around the area, as there are just so many people we could see. We could actually have probably spent 4 days – but there’s always another trip. Next morning Derek showed up at my room, bags packed and ready to get on the road. Our first day in the Bismarck area was spent primarily as a visit to Ellingson Angus. Chad was the only one around, or he picked the short straw for hanging out with us for the afternoon. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Chad Ellingson for a good number of years now, and we’ve met quite often, but this was the first time we had gotten the chance to visit his place outside of an official tour, or running into them at another function. So it was refreshing to find that he stands behind that philosophy of his that he allows others to see into his program to get an understanding if they want to utilize their genetics and how they could apply to their own herd. Something Derek and I got to witness first hand as he also had another couple from MN that were picking up some cattle from his Father in Law. Afterwards we headed into St. Anthony for a delicious lunch break at

Chad Ellingson giving a tour of his Angus ranch

photo by Derek Sample

Rusty’s Saloon and grill. Which from what I understand has an always changing menu. As I said, we don’t like to make time commitments when we travel, because we just don’t know how the visits might go. They can be 1 hour meet and greet photo ops to 49 hour windows because there’s such a good rapport. Derek was on his way back home after one of our tours last fall and showed up for a 1.5 hour meeting and ended up staying for 2 days. He still talks about how much fun he had on that visit. This is why we leave things open-ended. After we left Chad, we headed back towards Mandan to visit Chimney Butte Ranch. Doug & Carol Hille provided a relaxed visit and possibly the most unique of all of our stops. It was the one stop we made where we didn’t see any cattle. Instead, we toured their land and conversed about the lack of rain, quality of grass, and enjoyed an iced tea on a hot summer day. I’m just wanting to express I never knew North Dakota to be so hot, as its usually starting to get chilly by the time the fall

Tim Amdahl at Amdahl Angus and Herefords in Piedmont, South Dakota

photo by Derek Sample

Mt Rushmore as seen by Derek, this photo crashed the South Dakota Facebook page, too many likes!

photo by Derek Sample

Chad Ellingson giving tour on his ranch, take 2

photo by Derek Sample

tour rolls around. After we bid our farewell to Doug & Carol, it was time to return to Mandan for some dinner, and some much needed rest for our last night in town. Following Derek’s usual morning coffee run to a local shop and a fast food breakfast, we headed to Hatzenbuhler’s Diamond J Angus. This was supposed to be a rather quick visit as Stephanie had informed me they were working cattle that day. But some much needed rain finally showed up that morning, and provided some relief to the dry land that surrounded us. It also gave us much more time than expected to speak with her & John about their ever changing needs. Stephanie was the one who first called this the Drought Tour and that just stuck with us the entire trip. With hay at a premium, they’ve had to get creative in their feeding efforts and are supplementing with some liquid feed options this year to get them through.

great old barn in North Dakota

photo by Derek Sample

Tim McCray of ABP Magazine and Chad Ellingson of Ellingson angus

photo by Derek Sample

the famous art mural at Ellingson Angus

photo by Derek Sample

top Charolais Bulls, Patriot and Guardian, at Lindskov-Thiel Ranch in Isabel, SD

photo by Derek Sample

I first met the Hatzenbuhler’s on a tour stop at their ranch a number of years ago, and I continue to be amazed by their ability to accomplish so much with primarily the three of them. Because of the rain, we ended up spending about an hour and a half inside their sale barn just talking about anything that came to mind before we left them to get back to their chores, and we started heading South. Our next stop was 2 days in the Black Hills area, but we ended up with another unscheduled stop in Isabel, South Dakota. Chad had suggested we might want to visit Brent Thiel on our way to South Dakota. We were thrilled that Brent asked if we wanted to see his Angus herd or Charolais, so we opted for the Charolais as we had seen all Angus by this point anyway. Brent was very helpful and knowledgeable about his area, and of course his herd. I look forward to another visit there possibly when we’re not so constrained by travel. I was a little concerned about hotels in the Black Hills, and good thing I looked before we set off on this trip. I was shocked to find a very limited selection of hotels, and the ones that were available were around $400+ per night per person – much out of our budget. I did end up finding a less than desirable place in Belle Fourche for less money but it was good drive away from where we wanted to be at this point. After checking into our hotel, we decided to drive a bit more, looking for some food, and ended up in Deadwood. Great spot to waste a few hours, as time spent away from that hotel, the better. The next morning we headed to Amdahl Angus & Hereford’s in Piedmont. Amdahl’s have been raising beef in South Dakota since 1884. They have a rich history of marketing their cattle and beef through out the Midwest. Tim seems to be continuing that tradition as he mentioned they recently went door to door with some fliers on ranch raised beef. In an attempt to get some new local buyers to buy freezer beef direct from them. JD even spoke about expanding on that idea some more in the future. JD, Tim & Marcia are gracious hosts. We had a steak lunch, spent around 5 hours looking at cattle, touring his property, talking about their history and of course their lives on the former Baker Hereford ranch they’ve called home since 2014. You can look forward to more from them in our November issue this year.

Charolais at Lindskov-Thiel Ranch, Isabel, SD

photo by Derek Sample

We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around in this beautiful country, enjoying the views of Mt. Rushmore through the tunnels on the needles highway, of which Derek had never been. See Derek‘s Mt Rushmore photo at the top of page 14, it earned so many likes in the first hour that it crashed South Dakota‘s facebook page. Our next stop wasn’t until the next afternoon, so we returned in the morning to the area again, as we still hadn’t seen one buffalo. Just about as were starting on the wildlife loop, I received a text fron Bo Slovek that we could head his way. So turning around, we headed east toward Wall. Bo, along with his Father Bill run Slovek Angus ranch today. 4th & 3rd generation respectively, the Slovek’s have been on the land for more than 100 years. They’re located 23 miles from Philip, and 32 miles from Wall. This visit taught us a whole new meaning of remote. In fact we gave Bo the prize for most distance traveled between pastures. We spent a bit of time around their homes and the herds there, before heading to their other pasture on the edge of the badlands, probably 40 miles away. We could have easily spent another 2 hours with Bo, and his wife Aubrey & their newborn son. But we needed to start heading south as we were due in Kansas the following morning. Slovek’s also deserve a return trip at a future date, as there’s much more to see in their operation. Our next scheduled stop was with Justin & Jade Herl of Diamond H Ranch in Victoria, KS. Most of their 200 pair were pastured elsewhere, and Justin working in town, which made for probably a quicker visit than we were planning, but we made it all the way into Kansas nonetheless. It was impressive to see what this young couple and younger family has done since they started just 14 years ago. As their bio states, it all started with a dream, very little infrastructure, a newlywed budget, a lot of determination and hard work.

ready to check the Red Angus at Diamond H Ranch in Victoria, Kansas

photo by Derek Sample

Leaving Diamond H, we headed back North to Nebraska on the exact route we took to get there. Our second visit to Kuck ranch was something both Derek and I had planned since our first visit here last fall. When we stopped during harvest last year, there was little time to spend with Abe Kuck as he was quite busy with getting the crops out. But his make believe wife Stacy showed us around, and we had enough of a visit with Abe and his father Kallen that we both knew we had to come back. Abe we’ve now nicknamed the Cow Whisperer after seeing him operate around his herd of Angus. We also got to meet grandma Loretta this trip and learn some back story on this incredible family. Loretta loves to tell stories of their past, and we sat and talked for well over 3 hours to nearly midnight. So watch for more about the Kucks in a future issue as well. After driving a short distance and spending the night in Holdrege, we continued on our journey North to Calvo Red Angus in Bassett. Along the way, we stopped in briefly to introduce ourselves to Sherry Andrews at Spring Valley Ranch in Rose, NE. Sherry is Richard Wiese’s daughter, and we almost thought of calling this the Wiese family tree tour. We spent the first hour at Calvo Angus just chatting with Rick & his son Joe in their living room and enjoying the air conditioning during this hot spell that, considering it was 100+ in the pacific NW at the time, was pretty bearable. They have a female sale scheduled for November this year, so we decided to look at some of their offering. The pasture they wanted to take us to was 23 miles away, so we opted for the closer one, which I think was 22.8 miles away. We left their place which we thought was fairly remote and drove even deeper into the sandhills before we all hopped into their ranger to drive probably another 5-10 miles into their pastures to find their cattle. After some hunting, we finally found some broken fence, and discovered a very mixed herd with some neighbors that, as Joe said, turned into a pretty bad day. So after dropping us back at our vehicle, we left him to sort that mess out.

Angus calves rompin' about at Slavik Angus

photo by Derek Sample

En route to the pasture, I had noticed we drove right by A&B Cattle. So another unscheduled stop and a quick meet and greet with Adam. A short but memorable visit, as it was unscheduled and he was just leaving. But we’re glad we stopped and made the connection. Onward to our final stop of the night, Keyes Angus. Kevin Keyes and his Angus has recently relocated from Springfield to a picturesque location near Brewster. Kevin and his wife Theresa (who happens to be Weise’s cousin) had recently purchased this ranch as their prior location was bought out by what is becoming known as Silicon Prairie. Facebook & Google are both setting up headquarters in land surrounding Springfield and allowed Kevin a rare opportunity to expand his business, in ways before he could only dream of. I’m excited for them to see their operation grow and change in their new location. I’m expecting to be hearing a lot more from Keyes Angus in the future.

Herefords at Amdahl's, Piedmont, SD

photo by Derek Sample

Sale Barn at Amdahl Angus and Herefords, Piedmont, SD

photo by Derek Sample

Dark was rapidly approaching and we probably could have stood and talked for another hour, but I think the mosquitos were starting to regroup and plan a full on assault of us humans so that forced us to leave and find a resting spot for the night. After staying in O’Neil, we had one final stop that I insisted we make as I had noticed it the last time I came through this area in April. Monowi, NE has had some national recognition in the past couple years of being the smallest town in the US with a population of 1. Elsie became the sole resident after her husband Rudy passed away in 2004. Together they ran the Monowi Tavern for the past 50 years. Elsie, now 87, still does, as many of her other jobs of mayor, clerk, etc. Fascinating woman who will cook you lunch and talk your ear off, who I’m speculating she’s probably tired of answering question about her new found fame. If you’re in the area, be sure to stop in.

our favorite Cow Whisperer, Abe Kuck at Kuck Ranch, Bertrand, Nebraska

photo by Derek Sample

Slovek's Ranch at the Badlands

photo by Derek Sample

Kevin Keyes showing us his prized Angus near Brewster, Nebraska

photo by Derek Sample

Diamond H Ranch, checking on the Red Angus

photo by Derek Sample

getting the horses ready for ridin' @ Diamond H Ranch

photo by Derek Sample

Red Angus at Calvo Angus

photo by Derek Sample

It was nice to be back in MN after a long journey. I shoved Derek onto an airplane, and returned to normal life. We covered 5 states in 8 days, 2,971 miles and close to 8o hours sitting in our truck traveling from place to place. I‘m sure we drove by countless of missed opportunities for other visits, but I‘m sure we’ll be back in those same areas again. As we cross people off our list of places to visit, we just keep adding more and more back in for future visits. By the time you are receiving this in the mail, we’re already on the second leg of this tour which will take us to California, Oregon, and Washington and perhaps beyond. But you can read about that next month. ABP

Sunset at Kuck Ranch

photo by Derek Sample