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25 YEARS
25 YEARS
FALL TOUR HIGHLIGHTS
by Tim McCray Tim@ABPmag.com
North Dakota in October can be surprising. Clearly Mark Twain never spent any time here. Otherwise San Francisco would not be getting the credit. This year’s angus tour around Minot started off a 2-week journey. Fall cattle tours have sort of turned into my last travel opportunities before the busy pre bull season starts. Oh, and all those other holidays too that bring people together. With Doug & I in Minnesota, and Derek in California it has been challenging not having face time with coworkers. However, this proved to be a great opportunity to bring us all together. After some fresh oil and tires Derek arrived in Minot first, and even a full day earlier than he needed to. Upon arrival, he was told the sun had not been seen for days due to the large number of fires in the West. Afterall, he had been traveling quite extensively through fire country. Minot is a pretty cool town actually. Derek was born only a few hours from there. Despite being too young to remember that time, he described this feeling of being at home. I too realize that feeling of home. North Dakota and it’s people are very hospitable, even if the weather is not. However late September for the Angus tour proved to be well planned. It’s decided that Doug will ride the tour bus, while Derek, I and the 2 dogs will follow in the Ford. Morning comes and we find ourselves in a remote pasture or two. Quick speeches were given and proud owners have lots to share. Ash Coulee ranch, Feiring Angus, Glasoe Angus, & Overland Angus were the stops of the day. At the final stop, Derek & I are told that we need to visit Writing Rock. No one really told us what it was, but insisted we visit. At this point, we’re only a few miles East of the Montana border, and also only a few miles south of Canada. So, a detour we shall take while everyone else heads to the dinner stop. We also headed North to visit our other neighbors, and just to make sure they’re actually closed. Yup, 30
photos by Derek Sample Northern border all secure. I Should also mention at this point, that other than a random few wearing a mask here and there, you wouldn’t know we’re in a pandemic of anything. SO we headed to the “Old School” center for our dinner stop, and to catch up with the rest of the tour. As is usual on these tours, you aren’t walking around hungry, or if you are, it’s your fault. No exception here. After a delicious dinner of beef and potatoes, bus is loaded, Dogs are back in the car and we’re headed back to Minot for the night. Next day finds us visiting Sundsbak Farms where Derek and I needed to head off to our next destination as the tour went on to Hall Stock Farm. Over these two days of the Minot tour, we find ourselves immersed in Angus, all Angus, all day. What a great group of people. Most of those touring are Angus ranchers themselves and just want to compare notes and perhaps share tips and especially look at cattle. These tours are immense work to put together and put extra hardships on those hosting tour stops. But wow, what a great experience to have. With so many stops in a day, and travel time between, it usually doesn’t give much time for “visiting” other than a quick introduction of who and what we are – always nice to meet someone in person, rather than just a voice on the other end of the phone. So it was a welcome break from the road to visit Topp Herefords near Grace City, ND on our return to the twin cities area. You’ll be able to read more about our visit here in our next issue coming in January. After a few days of recuperations, and catching up on work. The three of us set off in different directions for the next tours. Doug American Beef Producer
would return to Minot for the All Breeds tour, personally the one I look forward to every year. Derek, myself and his two dogs Willow & Maverick (who have also been with us the entire time) head off to Nebraska… Doug’s visits on the All Breeds tour included Frey Angus, Double T Simmentals, Klain Simmentals, Presser Red Angus, Bruner Angus, & Hager Cattle Co. on day one. And Hansen Simmental, Sys Simmentals on day two, and a final stop at Forte’ Livestock. The North Dakota Stockmen’s Association always do a tremendous job with this tour, and they really deserve to be applauded for their commitments and hard work. As Doug was heading back to Minot, Derek and I we’re making our way towards McCook located in South West Nebraska for our final Angus tour. I like to be able to take advantage of travel situations as much as I can, and covering that much distance, gave me a lot of opportunities to arrange stops along the way to, around, and from MCCook. So our first scheduled stop on the way was to Herbster Angus near Falls City in SE Nebraska. I need to point out here that Derek & I travel well together. We’re having a lot of fun with this magazine at this point, and sometimes the fun leads us to new and exciting adventures. Having such a good time on the road, we completely missed our exit to take us to Herbster’s. So a little 1 hour late detour, gave us little light to work with. But we were immersed in the history of Herbster Angus from our Meeting with Mandy & Ed Raithel that evening. Also at Herbster’s, Maverick was able to immerse himself in something, shall I say skunkish. So he earned the nickname of smelly dog from me. I had attempted to make contact with several prospective stops November 2020
