|
History
In 1975, my father, Leo Brady, started a registered Horned
Hereford herd. His ranch was located about 7 miles up-river
from a small town called Duchesne, in remote eastern Utah.
The winters were cold, the summers dry, and the environment
was a tough one on cattle. The average annual precipitation
there is around 9 inches. In fact, the country that the L1
Miles City herd runs on is very similar to the conditions
my father's ranch dealt us.
His decision to enter the purebred Hereford business was not
made on a whim, through inspiration, or on the spur of a moment.
Rather, it came about after years of hard work and experience
gained from his commercial cow-calf operation of some 20 plus
years. An operation in which many beef breeds were used at
one timer or another. Charolais, Angus, Simmental, and Hereford
to name a few. In the fall of 1974 my father became discouraged
with his herd. He longed for uniformity - something his herd
lacked, obviously in color, but also in kind. Shortly thereafter
he announced his intention to the family to sell the herd
in its entirety. In late spring of the following year that's
exactly what he did. He then went to the bank and borrowed
a little extra money. And that year (1975) he began the search
for the straightbred herd he now longed for.
It turned out that most of dad's search was concentrated along
the strong western slope of Colorado. He responded to several
ads that were published in the Western Livestock Journal and
spent quite a lot of time looking at cattle in that part of
the country. Our county agent at the time and dad's close
friend, Joe Austin, accompanied him on these trips and dad
respected Joe's knowledge and judgement.
In their travels they found out that buying good females is
not an easy thing to do. I have found that there are only
3 basic ways you can buy a good female.
|
You have a lot of money |
|
You get into a dispersal sale
(you may still need a lot of money) |
| |
Someone decides they like you and consequently
wants to help you out
(very rare) |
Well, my father definitely didn't qualify under "number
one", but as you will see the other two possibilities
came about and afforded my father his start in Herefords.
So Leo (dad) and Joe got to see quite a few herds in Colorado
that summer and fall. Most of these left them unimpressed
as they didn't particularly care for the type of cattle
they were shown. But before leaving these places and upon
thanking the respective hosts they would always inquire
about the possible other herds they might visit before returning
to Utah. They came across a fellow by the name of Andy Rebek
who had decided he wanted to retire. Mr. Rebek had a set
of yearling heifers that looked pretty good and had purchased
a yearling bull from Dick Davis. They liked that yearling
bull also, so my dad bought those bred heifers and that
yearling bull and brought them home. That was his first
purchase for his new herd.
In these travels, the name of Ferry Carpenter kept coming
up - mostly in a negative report. One breeder called his
cattle "big and rough", and advised my father
and his friend that they wouldn't want those kind. I guess
these numerous referrals to the Carpenter ranch pricked
up their interest and finally Joe said to my dad, "lets
go look up Ferry Carpenter" and so they did. They made
the trip to Hayden, Colorado soon thereafter.
The Carpenter ranch was a beautiful ranch along the Yampa
river, a tributary of the Colorado river, just out of Hayden.
Leo and Joe introduced themselves to Ferry and Ferry gave
them the tour of his ranch. Dad let him know he was looking
for cattle for his own start and Ferry told them he hadn't
planned on selling any cows but offered them pick for $1500
a pair. That was more money than dad could afford to pay
so they left. As they went up the lane to the highway Joe
turned to my dad and said, "Leo, you got to have some
of those dudes."
Dad went back to the Carpenter ranch about 30 days later,
told Ferry he sure liked his cattle but still couldn't afford
them. Ferry said to come back and visit him towards fall
and he would see what he could do. Again, this time in late
August, dad made the trip over to Hayden. Ferry again quoted
$1500/ a pair price, and my dad left again - discouraged
that he couldn't pay that kind of money.
Then in September something great happened. The phone rang
and it was Ferry Carpenter on the other end. He said, "you
want to get into the cattle business bad, don't you Brady!"
He said, "you are persistent, and if you'll come back
over I want to help you get a start of these cattle."
Dad told Ferry he would come but also reminded him that
his funds were limited.
Well, to make a long story short, Ferry helped my dad with
the production records, and together they picked out 14
cows. They were well above average in their performance
history, mostly 8 and 9 years old, all with heifer calves
at their side. Ferry then sold them to dad for the whopping
price of $600 a pair. That was meat price or slightly below
at the time. These were big cows too, weighing 1400 pounds
and up.
Now Leo Brady didn't know Ferry Carpenter, but he later
learned to know him quite well. Money was not a motivating
force in his life. He simply helped dad get his start because
he said, "I like you." These females went on to
become the dominating force for the future herd.
Anyone who has a sense of history on Hereford performance
would know that the Carpenter-Williams cattle pretty much
dominated the midland bull test throughout the 70's and
into the early 80's. (In 1979, their Midland sale consignment
of 5 bulls averaged $15,900.) One of these grand old cows
gave birth to a super-good bull calf the following spring.
Dad sent the calf to Midland to see how he'd stack up against
Ferry's calves and 186 other bulls (Hereford) that tested
there that year. "CR MASTER DOM 6040" finished
the test 3rd high indexing bull overall. 6040 was brought
home and went on to become an outstanding performance herd
sire. 6040 was sired by the landmark bull FRC SIR 1.
Ferry Carpenter and his ranch foreman Mel Williams became
life-long friends. Dad stayed in the cattle business another
20 years when for mainly health reasons he sold most of
the herd and ranch. He kept a nice piece of land, built
my mother her dream house where they reside today, up the
Duchesne river not far from Duchesne, Utah. Through those
20 years in the registered business dad added several top
bulls, mostly from the Carpenter-Williams herd. In regards
to the present day herd, a significant purchase was also
made in the fall of 1981. This was when he paid $5,000 for
L1 DOMINO 80630, a son of L1 DOMINO 77618, from the Livestock
and Range Research station at Miles City, Montana. A bull
whose blood runs thick behind our current-day best cow families.
|
|
