Cattle Ranch

Red Deer River Ranches is a 118 year old cattle ranch nestled into the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. The founder of the ranch, Harry Graham, would have selected the site in 1890 based on the same reasons it is such a good place to raise cattle today. First of all, he must have been swayed by the majestic view of the Rocky Mountains, the endless supply of fresh, clean water from the Red Deer River, Williams Creek, Brown Creek, and the numerous springs that run year round on the ranch. In addition, he would have seen the grass resource for raising cattle and horses, and the ample supply of timber for building houses, barns, and whatever other buildings he would ever need.

Today, we run the ranch first and foremost as what is known as a cow-calf operation. That means we use commercial or non-purebred mostly Red Angus cows bred to specifically selected Red Angus pure-bred and hybrid bulls to produce a calf crop.

Our cows are fed either at home or grazed on hay bales or swaths east of the home place during the winter months. In the early spring, the momma cows are brought to one of the large grass pastures and here is where we calve these cows out, on grass just as God has created them to do.

By the first week of June we are ready for branding. This is one of the best times of the year at the ranch. Friends and neighbors gather to help each other, and the cowboys get a chance to show off their roping skills in the branding pen as they heal calves and drag them to the fire.

By the first week of July we are turning bulls out and moving cow-calf pairs to the summer range, starting closer to home on 2 separate 1000 acre pastures. By mid to end July we are grouping up cattle and moving them to the higher country and to the far north and west ends of grazing land, which when added to the rest of our holdings totals 50,000 acres. The rest of the summer and early fall we are continually managing our grass resource and moving bulls and cow-calf pairs to better grass to ensure they are getting what they need and that we are being good stewards of the land.

October and into the first part of November are spent on round-up activities. Long hours of looking for cows on horseback and then driving them home along the trails is what we are about in the fall.

By the first week of November we are either weaning our calves here at home and starting them on their winter forage diet of good grass hay and alfalfa or putting them on trucks and selling them to the highest bidder. The fruits of our labour really show at this time of the year.

As you may have guessed most all of our cattle work is done on horseback and to that end we have many good geldings we use for moving cows, roping and doctoring sick animals and anything else it takes to get the job done.

Cattle Ranch

2010 season

Cattle Ranch