TM
The Largest Privately Owned Hereford Newspaper in North America
Vol. 27, No. 2
Serving Commercial Cattlemen & Registered Hereford Breeders
Published by: Hereford America, Inc. • 13823 Beaver Creek Place • Reva, SD 57651 • Est. 1996
Editorial Comments... Jill Bayers Hotchkiss September was an incredible month for Herefords. Several top-end female sales were held with strong demand for the Jill Hotchkiss females offered. The cattle markets are remaining strong and at least through September, the national cowherd was still rebuilding. We spent a full week in western Montana, close to where I grew up, and attended the Montana Hereford Tour and four Hereford sales. To top it off our friend Denis O’Brien from Ireland traveled with us and took in all the events. We had a great time together and Denis has a good eye for cattle. He is from Ballywire, County Tipperary, farms and raises cattle and horses and also works for the department of agriculture. We had a lot in common and he enjoyed seeing Montana, meeting some great people and seeing great cattle. Hats off to the Montana Here ford Association and breeders on putting together an incredible tour. The event kicked off with the MHA annual meeting and banquet at the historic Sacajawea Hotel in Three Forks, MT. I think it’s safe to say this was the most well attended meeeting and banquet in a number of years. It was really a nice event. For the most part the weather cooperated for the two-day tour event. The scenery and cattle could not have been better and it was a wonderful group of people on the tour. The tour hosts also knocked it out of the park displaying their very best livestock and sale animals along (continued on page 3)
October 2023
Dobesh Herefords: Faith, Family and Good Cattle Seventy-three years later Herefords and 4-H are still an important part of his life. The lifelong Hereford breeder is still actively involved on the family
ranch, even though he sold the last of his cows to his son Dane and daughterin-law Kristi in 2022. The Dobesh Hereford cattle go back to an historic Wyoming herd and a second breeding program in South Dakota. “Bob Pugh was born in Wales April 23, 1889,” Frank said. “He homesteaded near Colony, WY, in 1911. His main business was raising registered Herefords of the Prince Domino line. He sold most of his bull calves on the cow. Eventually, he sold his ranch and cattle to Walt and Della Crago, and it later became Crago Hereford Ranch.” Frank married Walt and Della’s daughter Marilyn in 1962. The four Blair boys walked along beside their folks’ wagon from Missouri to South Dobeshes bringing cattle out of the Forest Service permit in the fall. They run in one of the roughest forest permits in the hills according to forest rangers. (continued on page 4)
by Ruth Wiechmann “I started my herd of Herefords in 1950 with a heifer in 4-H,” Frank Dobesh said.
Montana’s J Bar E Ranch Celebrates 125 Years by Abby Reidle 2023 marked the 125th anniversary of the J Bar E Ranch located in Plentywood, MT. Around 400 people attended the event in August to celebrate with a steak dinner, wagon rides, and live music by the band “Fast Forward.” What is currently the J Bar E Ranch, owned by Lorrie Eggen, began in 1897 when Andrew and Mollie (Eggen) Fadness traveled from Fertile, MN, by covered wagon to present-day Plentywood. Originally, Andrew and Mollie stopped about a mile north of the current ranch in what is called the Chalk Buttes but decided to build on the Big Muddy River in the spring of 1898 due to the green grass they saw as they looked to the south and access to water. At this time, there were no fences and no other people in the area. This gave the Fadness family access to run their hundreds of head of cattle and horses from the North Dakota border to Scobey, MT and the Canadian border to Culbertson, MT. (the Missouri River). (continued on page 8)