Healthy animals are insulated from the harsh winter weather by a layer of snow. Photo by Dustin and Cassie Holland
Ranching in Montana’s Harshest Season
For the average Montanan, particularly for those of us who live in burgeoning Bozeman, winter in Montana brings to mind so many things: world-class skiing (alpine and Nordic), skating, sleigh rides, and maneuvering on snow- and ice-covered roads to get from one place to another. It kindles a desire for fires in the wood stove, warm woolen socks, and curling up under covers with a good book. To live with the seasons, the long dark winters are a time for us to remember to turn inward.
But for the farmers and ranchers in our midst, it’s different. On the days when it’s 35 degrees below zero and the windchill further drops temperatures to minus 50, when the tractor gets “gummed up” and won’t start, and when water in the creek bottoms freezes, local ranchers and farmhands don’t have the luxury of cozying up and waiting for the harsh weather to pass. They’ve got cow–calf pairs to check, water lines to get running, and mounds of snow to clear so they can feed the animals in their care.
Bozeman native Dustin “Dusty” Holland has worked all over south-central Montana, on ranches, for feedlots, for all sorts of cattle operations. He moved to Livingston to take the reins as ranch manager of the Hayhook Ranch on U.S. Highway 89 North to be closer to family. His wife’s relatives are in the Shields Valley and his own parents still live in Bozeman. He’s been the position for four years now.
On the days when it’s 35 degrees below zero and the windchill further drops temperatures to minus 50, when the tractor gets “gummed up” and won’t start, and when water in the creek bottoms freezes, local ranchers and farmhands don’t have the luxury of cozying up and waiting for the harsh weather to pass. They’ve got cow–calf pairs to check, water lines to get running, and mounds of snow to clear so they can feed the animals in their care.
Ranching is a family business and even the youngest get involved with winter work. Threeyear- old Sawyer Holland keeps watch from the truck during winter feeding at the Hayhook Ranch.
“A lot of times [during] these big snow years, at this location, we get the Livingston wind,” Holland says, thinking back to last winter’s heavy snows. “We really get snowed in. That’s just a struggle every day—keeping water open for cows. When it’s 30 below for a week the creeks freeze solid.”
Since Holland joined the Hayhook, he’s been working to set up new water systems for better winter watering so they aren’t relying on creeks. “We’re also starting to do some creek restoration projects and trying to save creek banks and fisheries and doing a lot of stuff like that so we have consistent winter water.”
Just down the road from the Hayhook is the Sundling Ranch, a second-generation family-owned operation with land (both leased and owned) from mile markers 1 to 39 on Highway 89 just north of Livingston. The Sundlings are dealing with a lot of the same weather systems as Holland at the Hayhook. Winters are cold, windy, and on heavy snow years they are a lot of work.
“In winter, we spend a lot of time poring over weather predictions because that’s going to determine the feed we use, whether we need to put straw out for insulation, or what equipment needs to be checked,” says Peg Sundling, co-owner with her husband, Tim. When it’s 35 below, machinery breaks down and seizes up. “Winter is all about problem solving … and coffee—there’s lots of coffee.”
“Most people in ag lack hobbies. Our vacation time— our day to day—is dictated by the weather and the livestock. We’re not too worried about skiing, although we can find ways to fit it in, but there’s always something to do.” —Rancher Tim Sundling
From top: Mother cows warm in the sun at the Sundling Ranch. Cassie Holland rides horseback to help move the herd to a new winter pasture.
Peg, who also works off the ranch as a broker for Berkshire Hathaway, laments, “I don’t see Tim as much in the winter as I do in the summer. When we are snowed in, Tim is up before dawn, coffee and a breakfast burrito in hand, plowing out and then spending the day making sure the water lines are running and that the cows and calves are safe.” She adds that the hard work of winter carries through into springtime when Tim is monitoring the calving.
“Most people in ag lack hobbies,” says Tim. “Our vacation time—our day to day—is dictated by the weather and the livestock. We’re not too worried about skiing, although we can find ways to fit it in, but there’s always something to do.”
“If you don’t put all your energy into those cows, some won’t flourish or reach their full potential, some may die,” Tim says. “For centuries, livestock have been bred to flourish with human intervention. They are dependent on humans to survive. No matter what, the cattle come first.”
And when spring grasses shoot up in the summer heat the hard work is all worth it, according to Holland. “It’s finally when the snow is gone and we’re turning the cattle back on to grass. Watching the new calves run around after calving and taking care of them all winter—it makes it all worthwhile.”
