hardingranch

About the Ranch

General Overview

The Harding Land & Cattle Company Ranch is located 37 miles east of Miles City, Montana on Highway 12. The headquarters unit is located at mile-marker 37 when traveling from Miles City to Baker. The other ranch unit, known as the Talquezal unit, is located near mile-marker 35. Both ranch units are located on the left-hand side of the highway as one travels east towards Baker.

A Look At Ranch Activities...By Season

Winter

During the months of December, January, and February, the ranch is typically in the thick of its winter feeding activities. If no snow is on the ground, the cows are kept in winter pastures, where they are able to utilize left-over forage from the past growing season. Since the grass is usually deficient of its typical nutrient levels found earlier in the summer, supplements in the form of lick tubs are given to the cattle to help keep their condition high. If significant snow falls, or the weather becomes so cold that keeping the water open for the cattle becomes a real issue, they are typically moved to the winter feeding grounds where they are started on hay. Surplus hay from the HLCC farm along the Yellowstone River is hauled to the ranch to help with the winter feeding. Hay that was produced in the meadows at the ranch along with additional purchased hay are also used in supplying the ranch with adequate feed. A typical winter in this region could generate the need for over 4,000 tons of hay at the HLCC ranch.

There are always certain issues that arise to interrupt the normal summer routine. There may be an injured bull that needs to be loaded into a trailer and brought home. A cloudburst from a thunderstorm could have washed out a water-gap (spot where the fence crosses a creek). Every rancher always keeps a vigilant gaze on the horizon when dry thunderstorms pass over, for fear that a fire may have started somewhere.

As the summer progresses, the green hue that early summer sometimes is adorned with gives way to the yellowish-brown color of mature grass. The summer heat usually sets in as well. Any riding or cattle work of any kind is usually performed early in the mornings. This means that the cowboys are usually in the saddle by 5:00 a.m. The heat of the mid-day sun is not pleasant for man or beast on many of the July and August days under the “Big Sky”.

The Locate Creek meadows are usually harvested sometime in early to mid July. Since most of HLCC’s equipment is tied up at the farm along the Yellowstone, the hay at the ranch is put up using a custom cutter. The hay is all grass, mostly brome and crested wheat, and the yields are usually from 1 to 2 tons per acre.

The HLCC ranch is a very historic ranch—to read about the ranch history, go to The History of the Ranch. Besides it’s history, the ranch is also very scenic. The terrain varies greatly from one end of the ranch to the other. Rough, timbered hills cover much of the ranch, with areas of badlands, gently rolling breaks, and open grasslands making up the remaining landscape. The ranch borders the Powder River on its western edge. The Powder is not as pristine as western Montana rivers can be, but it has a certain rugged beauty that one has to admire. After all, any running water in eastern Montana is greatly desired during many times of the year. The Powder River is commonly referred to as the river that is "a mile wide, an inch deep...and runs uphill"! This phrase points out the fact that the Powder River is seldom ever clear, and that the water usually appears to be thick and muddy.

Like most of eastern Montana, the Harding Ranch is no stranger to the undulating extremes that the environment can place on its inhabitants. The summers are typically hot (100+ degrees) and the winters cold (-30 below zero and colder). Additionally, the weather conditions can change almost immediately, making it hard for plants and animals to adjust so quickly. Snow depths vary from winter to winter, though it is not typically a heavy snowfall region. Most of the average annual precipitation of around 12 inches comes in the months of May and June. This part of Montana also experiences severe thunderstorms fairly often during the summer months.

The rugged nature of the ranch dictates much of activities that are carried out year around at the Harding Ranch. From fixing fences and water-gaps (places where fences cross creeks), to gathering cattle in the fall and feeding them in the winter, the terrain and extreme nature of the climate direct every facet of the way management plans and executes day-to-day activities.

Spring

While the ranch workers are busy with the winter feeding activities, they also start preparing for calving season, which starts towards the end of February with the first-calf heifers. HLCC has a very nice enclosed calving facility that can typically accommodate close to 25 mothers and their calves at one time. Anywhere from 150 to 300 heifers are calved out each season. The two-year-old heifers require special calving attention due to the fact that they are carrying their first calf and complications are more likely to occur during the birth process than with older mature cows. A night-calver has the responsibility of watching during each night for heifers that may be having trouble giving birth.

The mature cows start calving towards the end of the month of March. The Harding Ranch calves out around 1000 cows each spring. The RanchStar herd (around 250 cows) is calved out around the headquarters facility and the commercial herd (approx. 750 cows) is usually placed in several pastures surrounding the Talquezal unit during each calving season. The commercial calves receive only one ear tag at birth (with the mother’s number on it). The RanchStar calves have to have their birth-weight recorded as well as an individual RanchStar number (they are managed much like a registered herd). Any RanchStar bull calves weighing more than 95 pounds at birth are immediately banded (rather than castrated at branding time) to ensure that the high weaning weights are culled out of the herd.

Summer

The last holdouts generally finish calving by the middle of May. During the month of May and June, the pairs are taken out to pasture. The Harding Ranch is cross-fenced in such a way that there are 20 separate pastures of significant size. The largest of these pastures is almost six sections. The month of May is also a busy time because each of the 1,000 calves has to be branded and vaccinated before heading out to summer range. HLCC uses a branding table and a crew of five workers to brand all of its calves.

All of the cattle work carried out on the Harding Ranch is done with the use of horses. During the spring, fall, and summer months, horses play a big role in the ranch operation. The HLCC employees at the ranch are careful to take good care of their string of horses, since few cowboys are very fond of riding a horse that is already tired and worn out from the previous day’s work. Each employee at the ranch tries to keep a string of at least 3 sound horses during the times of heavy use.

As breeding season approaches, the ranch employees at HLCC gather the RanchStar herd and prepare to sort them into their different breeding groups. After receiving inbreeding coefficients on each cow/bull combination in the entire RanchStar herd, management at the Harding ranch meticulously sifts the data and separates the cows into eight different breeding groups, ensuring that there is no threat of inbreeding. Since the RanchStar herd is a closed gene pool, Hardings have been very careful to maintain a certain number of what they call “families” within the herd’s population. Therefore, the best performing bulls from each family are kept as replacements each year so that the animals within this population can maintain a certain distance with regard to their genetic makeup. The RanchStar herd is split into about eight different breeding groups, each consisting of around 25 to 30 cows and every group is placed with one RanchStar bull.

These breeding groups require close attention during the breeding season to make sure that the bull is healthy and in the pasture he is supposed to be in. In this respect, the RanchStar program is very similar to other registered programs in that the close records are retained regarding who the sire and dam are for each new calf.

The commercial cowherd is handled in the conventional way during breeding season and exposed to multiple bulls. The RanchStar bulls are turned into the pastures on June 20 at the rate of 15 to 25 cows per bull.

As the summer progresses, employees at the HLCC ranch settle into the regular summer routine of checking and fixing fences, putting out mineral and maintaining the water systems, and monitoring the forage levels in each pasture where the cattle are. The ranch has had many improvements in the form of water availability. Miles of waterline have been distributed in an effort to better utilize grass in all areas of the ranch. Many of the water troughs are kept full using propane-powered generators. These generators are mounted on mobile trailers and are pulled to various well sites around the ranch. From these well sites, the generators pump the water into strategically placed cisterns, from which the water flows to the different troughs as needed. It takes some practice to be able to gage how the timers on the generators should be set to run in order to fill up the cisterns without needlessly wasting water through the overflow pipe. Around 13 windmills are also scattered throughout the ranch.

Fall

As fall approaches, the ranch starts thinking about the opportune time to precondition and wean the calves. The drought during the past years has made HLCC management strongly consider weaning the calves earlier than usual, in an effort to save grass in the pastures and allow the cows to store flesh for the coming winter.

A set of corrals six miles straight north of headquarters, known as “cow camp”, is greatly utilized during the fall activities of gathering, preconditioning, and weaning. During the fall of 2004, all of the calves were weaned at the ranch. After being hayed, the meadows west of headquarters offered the ideal place to keep the calves, while feeding them a ration of weaning pellets. Because the calves were not confined in the corrals, sickness was virtually unheard of. The location that the calves are weaned, and the means by which it is done changes from year to year, as different circumstances are adapted to. During the fall of 2006, nearly 500 calves were weaned and hauled 30 miles to the feedlot near Terry, in one day. This was done from the corrals at cow camp.

After the calves are shipped to the feedlot near Terry, MT, the pace at the ranch slows somewhat, as the weather starts to become cooler and the days shorter. The weather and the amount of grass determine how late fall grazing can be carried on. An early November snowstorm can bring an end to the grazing season and facilitate a start to the feeding season in a real hurry. By the middle of December, regardless of the weather, all of the cattle are usually being fed hay. A ration of 30 pounds of hay per cow per day is fed, depending on the temperatures and wind-chill factors.

The HLCC headquarters unit consists of (as mentioned before) an enclosed calving facility with a vet room and heated delivery and chute area. Also at the headquarters is a heated shop with a full concrete feed and storage room attached to it. The large ranch house is still there and fully functional along with two log cabins that date back to the turn of the century.

Want to Visit HLCC Ranch?

Harding Land & Cattle Company welcomes anyone that would desire to visit the Harding Ranch or take a tour of the cattle and the operation. To schedule an appointment, call the Terry office at (406) 635-5788 and ask for Rick, Jeff, or Pat.