Open House at Open Gate Ranch

As I've mentioned recently, I've been working on overhauling the look and utility of my blog. It's taking me some time because I'm not great with change, and I'm even worse with computer skills. You'll continue to see changes and tweaks here and there but I'm going to keep writing and updating posts in the meantime, as well. Writing is my creative outlet and one of my own personal forms of "therapy," along with running. Before I get on to the meat of today's post, I just wanted to point out that I've been working on adding some navigation tabs, or pages, that you can find in that green bar just above this text. I've got three done so far with several more in the works. I would love it if you'd take a few minutes to check out those pages and let me know what you think. Keep an eye out for more pages coming soon!

On our drive down to Helena for Governor's Cup, we stopped along the way at Open Gate Ranch near Fairfield, MT for their open house and customer appreciation day. Open Gate Ranch is where we buy our bulls when we need a new bull and we bought two earlier this spring. They are Simmental breeders and a family owned business and our family has buying bulls from them for a number of years. Jeff and I have never gone to one of their customer appreciation day events before, but since it worked so well for us to stop by the ranch on our way to Helena, we made plans to attend this year.

The entire Richert family was present for the event and as soon as we stepped out of the car, Julie, one of the Richert daughters greeted us warmly and thanked us for coming. We made our way to the shop/quonset where they had refreshments and chairs set up for a few speakers. The speakers were relevant to cattle ranching and most were quite interesting. The lineup included:

• Cale Bjornstad--talking about potential changes to animal feed regulations.
• Karnell Perry-- discussing mineral supplements for cattle
• Ty McDonald with Waddell and Reed to talk about investment planning
• Ryan Perry with Northern Livestock Video sale to talk about marketing cattle through video auction
• Dr. Tony--A veterinarian who was there to discuss an injectable dewormer product for cattle called LongRange

Inside the quonset, preparing for speakers at Open Gate Ranch.

I learned something from each speaker (which is especially easy for me because I still have A LOT to learn about farming and ranching!) but the one I learned the most from was Dr. Tony. Yes, he was promoting his product, LongRange, but what I really learned the most from his presentation is how keeping a cow parasite free affects their health. When the cow is healthy and parasite free, she affects the health of her calf and of the fetus inside her (if she's bred). The animals are less stressed, better able to fight other infections that may arise, retain a healthier body weight, produce more/better milk, and calves gain weight better, when free of parasites. It makes sense, of course, and it was just really interesting to me to think about the biology of healthy vs. unhealthy cows. 

While the speakers were presenting, delicious smells of grilled food wafted into the shed. Some of the Richert family were outdoors grilling up steaks for everyone in attendance. That's right, we received a free steak lunch, hot off the grill! After the educational portion of the day, we made our way to the beautiful, shady yard by the house and enjoyed our lunch. As a member of Team Beef, I'm here to tell you that eating that steak definitely powered my 10K run the next day at Governor's Cup! There is seriously nothing quite like a steak right off the grill. So good. 

Lunch is served! They also served Moose Tracks ice cream cones for dessert! I was in heaven!

Their yard was really peaceful and serene with nice green grass and wonderful shady trees. The Richert family was so effusively hospitable and friendly toward us and everyone present. Several of the family members stopped to talk to me and Jeff, and seemed genuinely interested in our responses. They asked after his parents and how we were doing first, before asking how our bulls were. They talked to me just as much as they talked to Jeff, which is typically not the case at farm and ranch events. Everyone present seemed to value not only our business and loyalty, but to value us as people. I just kept thinking throughout the event that this was what Montana hospitality is all about. 

Each table had a nice floral centerpiece and vintage salt and pepper shakers.

As Jeff and I left and continued our drive south to Helena, through the beautiful Rocky Mountain Front area, I felt lucky to be part of the ranching lifestyle and to be living in Montana.

And just for kicks, here's a cow joke I saw recently in one of the local farm newspapers...