Seated in their beautiful 1888 brick home on the family ranch south of Boulder, John and Nancy Heide can see out to the fields where they devoted their lives to nurturing a line of top quality Montana cattle. It has been a lifestyle they would not trade, they say, but it has also taken hard work.
Ready to slow down after fifty years of ranching, they held their final registered Angus bull sale in early March. The registered herd they had so painstakingly built over the past 35 years was sold earlier.
But thinking of the changes as more of a “change of pace” than a retirement, the couple is keeping about 20 commercial cows.
After more than a dozen years as ranchers, the Heides started in the registered cattle business in 1982, when their 11-year-old daughter Paula bought a registered black Angus heifer as a 4-H project. Heides credit Keith Evans, recently deceased Boulder Valley rancher, as a major influence on Paula. He gave Paula her first horse and had his own herd of black Angus, the first rancher in the Boulder Valley to switch from Hereford to Angus cattle.
Now Angus dot the Boulder Valley, leading the way on many of the family ranches that spread out between Boulder and Whitehall.
Paula’s first cow, Mattie, gave birth to 16 heifer (female) calves and one bull (male) calf over her lifetime. Heides point out that steer calves weighed around 400 pounds at weaning when they first started in the business. Now steer calves weigh between 800 and 900 pounds at weaning, due to careful breeding and good genetics.
In 1989, Paula tragically died at the age of 18 from an asthma attack.
It was a life-changing blow for the family. The Heides say they could not have kept ranching without Steve McCauley. McCauley, now a high school teacher by occupation, has worked for and with the Heides since Paula’s death.
“He’s there to do whatever needs to be done. His whole family has been great to us,” says Nancy. Heides consider the McCauley children to be their adopted grandchildren.
Over many years, Heides improved their herd, building on what Paula had started, by using artificial insemination, careful record keeping, and trial and error. Nancy kept track of the statistics required for registered cows, and laughed that she won’t miss the “paperwork, paperwork, paperwork.”
Taking great pride in the quality of the animals they sold to others, Heides only kept the top third of their male calves for bulls, and guaranteed buyers that they would replace bulls that had any problems.
When asked why their bulls are gentle, Heides credit both nature and nurture.
The blood lines of bulls they favor score high on docility. Docility is tracked and recorded along with other statistics such as birth weight, weight at weaning, and long list of other attributes.
But not all of it is science, they note. John is out among the cattle every day, treating them well and petting them as he feeds.
Heides say they have strong feelings about how animals should be treated. For a while, they marketed their bulls through an association, but that meant the bulls were fed somewhere else. They didn’t like losing control over how their bulls were fed or whether they had shelter, so they started selling their cattle directly out of their ranch. They said buyers like to see the mother cows of the bulls they are buying.
While John fed cattle, hayed and took care of cows giving birth, Nancy kept meticulous records, did the ranch books and baled hay every summer. She also worked in the hardware store, made decorated cakes for 31 years, and most recently, cooked at the Boulder senior center.
When asked about hard times, Heides named low cattle prices as a major factor.
“When prices are low, things look pretty grim,” Nancy said. As they looked out at a spring snow storm, they also noted “weather determines everything” in ranching.
With happy cows and calves visible through the ranch house windows, the talk turned to retirement. The ranch couple said last year’s calving season, health issues and the physical demands of ranching caused them to decide to slow down. They sold their registered herd to Kim and Deward Strong, who formerly ranched in the Boulder Valley and now ranch in Oklahoma.
“Kim and I would like to thank John and Nancy for letting us share in their years of hard work,” Deward Strong told a magazine devoted to cattle ranching.
Looking back at their time spent ranching, Nancy said she can’t think of a better lifestyle for raising kids and in general.
She summed it up by saying, “That’s why everyone wants to be a farmer or rancher…for the lifestyle.”
