History of Cattle on Mahlstedt Ranch

The first cattle on our ranch were just like most of the cattle in the homestead era - not the best.  Most of the people that homesteaded had a milk cow or two and that became the basis for their cow herds.  In the late 1930's and early 1940's, rains came and some prosperity came to the area and many people began to improve the quality of their cow herds.  George L. and Hannah Mahlstedt began their registered Hereford herd in 1941 with a Harry Dion bred cow (Dulcie Domino A 2840810) with a heifer calf at side and a bull (Bodon 2D-2826257) purchased from Lowe Brothers near Glendive, MT.  A variety of good quality bulls were used over the years.  Some of the later ones were Britisher and Line One bloodlines.

George was a member of the East Montana Hereford Assn. in the 1950's and sold bulls at consignment sales sponsored  by this association in Glendive, Sidney, and Miles City.  Bulls were also shown and sold for many years at the Glendive Spring Exposition.  In 1961, the Mahlstedts joined the Montana Beef Performance Association and had cattle tested through that organization until 1986.  Montana's original all IPR bull sale was organized at Circle in 1961 by area bull producers.  We consigned to this sale for all of its 11 years.  The ranch also had bulls at Midland Test in Billings for its first few years.  Mahlstedt Ranch consigned bulls to Nemont Agribition at Wolf Point, the NE Hereford-Angus Show & Sale at Glasgow and various other consignment sales.  We held our own annual production sales in Glendive from 1974 to 1985.

We will always have a soft spot in our hearts for Herefords, but economics pointed us in a different direction.  When the Hereford breed began declining in popularity, we looked to the Continental breeds.  George A. had been AIing since 1972 so in 1983, he AIed a few heifers to a Salers bull.  The calving ease was a great improvement and the their conformation and body type were excellent and we were hooked.  Many of the first Salers in this country had the reputation for bad dispositions, but most responsible breeders culled this out and we enjoy working with our Salers cattle.

From this small beginning, we have steadily focused more on Salers genetics using AI to access the more prominent bulls of the breed.  In addition to the AI influence, we've also purchased bulls from top producers.  From our Hereford base, we advanced to a large number of purebred and high percentage Salers cows.  We have continued to sell bulls every year private treaty. 

Due to the continuing popularity of Angus cattle and the influence of our son-in-law, Chad Armstrong who raises purebred Angus, we began to breed a few purebred Salers cows back to Angus bulls in 1998.  We purchased bulls from Armstrong Angus Ranch and have used several other Angus bulls through AI.  These half-blood bulls have been very popular and the heifers have really impressed us as they've come into our production herd.

Although we have produced bulls for many years, our operation is predominantly a commercial herd.  For several years in the late 1980's we shipped our calves to a feedlot in Nebraska and fattened them to finish.  Financially, this worked better some years than others.  When that feedlot closed, we opted to background our calves till January or February.  This has worked well and we have continue this practice today.