Ranchers send heifers to South Dakota
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Two Lake County heifers are headed to South Dakota as part of an outreach by the Western Montana Stockmen.
An early blizzard on Oct. 4 slammed into South Dakota following a series of 70 to 80 degree days, catching cattle still grazing on less-sheltered summer range with no opportunity to grow winter coats.
“Atlas,” as the freak storm was dubbed, began with soaking rain and then dumped up to three feet of snow in parts of the Black Hills. Winds were reported at up to 70 mph in some areas. The ground hadn’t frozen yet, so cattle had to deal with mud in the bottoms of coulees and gulches.
Thousands of cattle, sheep, horses and other livestock were lost. Some ranchers lost 60 or 70 percent of their herds, many of which were bred cows so their calf crop for this winter also perished.
To help, Ty and Rosalie Linger of Miles City founded Heifers for South Dakota. Their website said they’ve concentrated on “beginning ranchers who lost nearly everything, giving them 15 or 20 heifers.”
To support the effort, Greg Gardner of G & G Livestock and Kurt McPherson of Lazy JM Ranch in the Mission Valley each donated a heifer calf.
The plan is to auction the heifers off time after time and then send the heifer and the cash to South Dakota. The WMSA is encouraging ranchers and businesses to help, by attending auctions.
“A heifer calf would bring $1,000 anywhere,” McPherson said.
The Lazy JM heifer will go to auction on Dec. 5 at the Missoula Livestock Exchange, according to McPherson.
The Montana Livestock Auction in Ramsay will handle the sale of the G & G heifer. Both heifers and the funds raised will go to Heifers for South Dakota.
Then area rancher Danny Krantz will collect the heifers and feed them until a truck comes through to take them to their new home in South Dakota.
To find out more about the programs, go to Heifers for South Dakota or Rancher’s Relief Fund on Facebook.
