Where would you rather be?

[Blkbuckaroo]

I like right where i'm at,Great country around here,lot's of lakes,rivers,mountains,Reno hour away Sacremento couple hours away,lot's of cattle.Like H said,it's fun to travel,but i love coming back home to my little outfit. :wink: :cboy:

 

[Hereford76]

What did you think of the Kettle River Valley?

it wasn't really unlike any other mountain river valley west of the continental divide. it was a pretty area and the people that owned the place looked to be excellent operators. their place was right by beaverdale or something like that south of kelowna or penticton right on the kettle river. the part of the river at their place was very powerful - i can remember thinking a guy would not want to wade out into it. The 300,000 acre crown grazing lease is what attracted me at first but they didn't run that many cows and they all had to winter in this narrow river valley that he had irrigated (1200 acres) and it looked like the cattle would feel cooped up all winter. i had a feeling inside that a guy off the rolling prairies of the front range might get a little claustrophobic.

i liked it - it was different country and seems like it was right along some tourism trail or something like that. we were looking for a place that my wife and i could run cattle on that would have the potential to grow numbers, raise the kids and my folks could retire on and maybe run some kind of B&B or fishing or whatever.

i decided to drive home and cross the border just south of osoyos. that was different country. maybe sell the cattle and try my hand making wine.

Pretty much what I thought about it, especially the claustrophobic part. :wink:
That is also an expensive part of BC to invest in. Go North young man.

I think it was maybe three years ago I was making plans to go look at two different places one on the horsefly river and the other by ft st john, but both places were took off the market before i got the chance. i guess the place on the horsefly the crown gave them a 3 year contract to haul timber through their property off crown land. it was something like 300K/yr contract. they also had a gravel pit that generated some dollars and a small rental/fishing business. sounded interesting. the place by ft st john was owned by a texan and he decided to keep it as a wildlife sanctuary or something to that effect if i remember right.

still looking

 

[Silver]

it wasn't really unlike any other mountain river valley west of the continental divide. it was a pretty area and the people that owned the place looked to be excellent operators. their place was right by beaverdale or something like that south of kelowna or penticton right on the kettle river. the part of the river at their place was very powerful - i can remember thinking a guy would not want to wade out into it. The 300,000 acre crown grazing lease is what attracted me at first but they didn't run that many cows and they all had to winter in this narrow river valley that he had irrigated (1200 acres) and it looked like the cattle would feel cooped up all winter. i had a feeling inside that a guy off the rolling prairies of the front range might get a little claustrophobic.

i liked it - it was different country and seems like it was right along some tourism trail or something like that. we were looking for a place that my wife and i could run cattle on that would have the potential to grow numbers, raise the kids and my folks could retire on and maybe run some kind of B&B or fishing or whatever.

i decided to drive home and cross the border just south of osoyos. that was different country. maybe sell the cattle and try my hand making wine.

Pretty much what I thought about it, especially the claustrophobic part. :wink:
That is also an expensive part of BC to invest in. Go North young man.

I think it was maybe three years ago I was making plans to go look at two different places one on the horsefly river and the other by ft st john, but both places were took off the market before i got the chance. i guess the place on the horsefly the crown gave them a 3 year contract to haul timber through their property off crown land. it was something like 300K/yr contract. they also had a gravel pit that generated some dollars and a small rental/fishing business. sounded interesting. the place by ft st john was owned by a texan and he decided to keep it as a wildlife sanctuary or something to that effect if i remember right.

still looking

Thw one by me (Fort St John) is for sale again :wink:

 

[movin' on]

There are a couple areas I have always thought looked like great ranching country.

* Clayton to Raton, NM

* Sheridan to Ranchester, WY

and, that country between Guthrie and Childress, TX is very good ranch country.
This past week of chopping ice and biting north winds has made moving north seem less desirable.

Right On! I've always thought that looks like a really, really nice place to be.

 

[Northern Rancher]

I don't think I'd ever move my home place but if I had the coin I'd have some yearling outfits scattered all over good country. Next to here my favorite place in Sask. to ranch would be the Cypress Hills-I know it's probably the wrong attitude but I worry as much about the hunting as I do about everything else. I really like the ground betwen Buffalo and Sheridan Wyoming. Utah and Idaho have some pretty country too but I'mthinking Soapweed is on the strongest grass.

 

[gcreekrch]

I grew up in Horsefly. If you want washy grass and a 200-220 day feeding period it is definately the place to be.
The Chilcotin and the Peace are both good areas. Fraser river breaks south of Williams Lake is the best cow country in BC in my opinion but most of it is taken up by large concerns.
PM as to what you are looking for, may be able to point you in a better direction than the realtors. :wink:

 

[Faster horses]

The grass around Sheridan, Wyoming is very powerful, plus that area and north receives nice rains. That's why we like the Parkman, Wyoming area.
The late Chris Mangen (Mangen Angus at Broadus, Mt.) told me one time that if you really wanted to raise 800 lbs. calves, the Sheridan country is the only place he thought that was possible. (We're talking calves here, not short yearlings, BTW ).

It's been said the very best grass country is the Rotten Grass country which is west of Lodge Grass on Rotten Grass Creek on the Crow Indian Reservation.

We've travelled through that country for years and most of the time, in
the spring, you'll go through more rain there than just about any
other area.

And NR, I'm sure you have noticed the area between Sheridan and Buffalo is covered with a lot of houses. And a fella involved with Coca-Cola said at one time he would own the whole face of the mountain from
Crazy Woman Canyon to Sheridan. He was getting it done, too, when he
died suddenly. :shock:

 

[Northern Rancher]

I don't think therre's hardly a private ranch of any size between the two now. I'll have to relate our foray up the Crazy Woman Canyon road to you sometime-I think our Wyoming guide left thinking Canadians are a bit crazy- he didn't tyhink we could turn a Dodge 3/4 ton around on itself on a mountain two track lol.

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

Posting this for Faster horses.......

 

[Faster horses]

Thanks, Jersey Lilly. That's Crazy Woman Canyon and the mountain two-track where nr turned his pickup around!!! It's south of Buffalo, Wyoming going west up to the Big Horn mountains.

 

[Northern Rancher]

Your just missing the two feet of snow we got stuck in 3/4 of the way up the mountain-my buddy told outr peerless Wyoming guide don't ever send us out here with only a dozen beer. We just cranked the wheel hard left-ignored the sheer drop off and pinned it while three guys pushed on the right front-it spun right around on its self.

 

[Big Swede]

We had a family move into this area after he sold out in Colorado. They were ranching on the eastern edge of Denver and sold out for a very good price. They put about 10,000 miles on their vehicle traveling around the country looking for a ranch to replace it and ended up about 15 miles south of me. They looked at dozens of places and settled in this area. Kind of makes a guy feel like he might be in a pretty good place already. :wink: They are a great family and a welcome addition to the community.

 

[mytfarms]

Sometimes we get to feeling sorry for ourselves when weather gets a little rough. Where does everyone think they would rather ranch? Never been there but NE New Mexico has always intrigued me. From some pictures I've seen it would be similar to this place but with nicer winters. And of course there's always Hawaii!!

Well, somewhere where I could farm would be a plus. Burlington, CO is a pretty big step up in my mind. Kansas and SC Nebraska are also places I'd like to live. Can't quite get used to all those trees in northern Iowa on the family farm. Makes me feel a little claustrophobic. And hot and sweaty and full of bug bites. But hey, that's the price paid for good farmland I reckon.

 

[Denny]

If not here a little farther north more brush less people.

 

[coyote]

Heaven, it would be perfect there, but I don't want to die.

 

[PureCountry]

I was through Deer Lodge, Montana many years ago as a boy, and thought that was beautiful country. I have ancestors buried there. Not sure how congested it is now.

We've come close to relocating a time or two. Even got a little real estate insider's advice from NR on Northern Sask properties in the past. It still crosses our minds from time to time, although we're tied down here for a couple years with opening a store in town and all.

Some of the prettiest country I've been through is BC, and Northern Saskatchewan. The biggest concerns in the future will be topsoil and water, and there are getting to be fewer and fewer places that have a healthy balance of both, that still keep you within marketing range to some type of urban center.

 

[RSL]

I can't even begin to list some of the nice places I've seen. I like the west side of South Dakota, am partial to Nebraska Sandhills, pretty keen on the flint hills, Texas is nice in February, BC has some beautiful spots from summerland all the way up to peace country, AB, MB and SK too. I am also partial to Queensland Australia, and the parts around Armidale in the South.
I guess in some way or another I like every place I've ever been.
For me the best place is one with lots of native rangeland as I feel very connected and protective of that under-appreciated resource., near family and friends with a good school and opportunity for the kids. In fact other than high land prices I think I already live there. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Grassfarmer]

If we could eliminate 2/3 of the the people around here, just south west of Calgary would be the ultimate spot.

maybe somewhere on the Sheep river?

An old friend of mine in Scotland said that was the best cow country he saw on his first visit here - in 1929 :shock: He was over in a boat delivering Shorthorn cattle for his family as a young man. Sadly he passed away in his 90s about 5 years ago.
The big issue is Calgary of course - I believe from the Cross family history book* they said the population was only 45,000 at the end of WW2, now it's over a million. This old guy could remember the roads around Calgary when they were rutted muddy tracks and then he judged livestock at the Stampede in the 1980's - must have been amazing(and sad) to witness the change.

*That book "Braehead" would make a great read for any of you folks interested in the development of the west.

 

[Hereford76]

If we could eliminate 2/3 of the the people around here, just south west of Calgary would be the ultimate spot.

maybe somewhere on the Sheep river?

An old friend of mine in Scotland said that was the best cow country he saw on his first visit here - in 1929 :shock: He was over in a boat delivering Shorthorn cattle for his family as a young man. Sadly he passed away in his 90s about 5 years ago.
The big issue is Calgary of course - I believe from the Cross family history book* they said the population was only 45,000 at the end of WW2, now it's over a million. This old guy could remember the roads around Calgary when they were rutted muddy tracks and then he judged livestock at the Stampede in the 1980's - must have been amazing(and sad) to witness the change.

*That book "Braehead" would make a great read for any of you folks interested in the development of the west.

Do you know any of the Cross family. Pretty neat history behind that name and their hereford tradition. Someone told me that name was the first recorded birth in Canada. That family has had a couple herdsman over the years I think a great deal of - Don Jamison and Doug Finseth.

 

[Grassfarmer]

I know quite a bit about the late Sandy Cross of Rothney but unfortunately I never got to meet him in person as he was living in Victoria when I moved here. Sandy was a lifelong friend of my old neighbor in Scotland and was a Shorthorn, Galloway and the pioneer Luing breeder in Canada. Some of the old Luing cows I had were bred at Rothney. There are many tales of Sandy's adventures at the bull sales in Scotland from the 1940s through to the 1970s!
I don't know about the oldest name in Canada but Sandy's mother was said to be the first "white" woman born in Southern Alberta as she was the daughter of Colonel Macleod of the NWMP who founded Ft Macleod and later Ft Calgary. She of course married A E Cross of "big four" fame, one of the pioneer ranchers in southern Alberta. The original A7 Ranche at Nanton is said to have the oldest brand in continues use in Canada.
They do have a fascinating history for sure and one that intrigues me is A E Cross's brother (Harry?) who homesteaded in Wyoming about the same time as his brother came to Alberta. If I remember right they are right on the south western side of Wyoming and the ranch there was called Braehead after the ancestral home in Scotland.
I'm told that around 1930 when Charlie Flick from BC founded his "snowlander" breed of cattle by breeding a shorthorn bull to Highland cows the bull he bought came from the Cross's in Wyoming. In the 1970's the best of the Snowlanders were graded into the Luing breed here and Sandy Cross was the man behind it! It's a complicated web but one that fascinates me.