For five generations, Cooper Hibbard’s family (including WSE’s own Tyrrell Hibbard) has cared for the land, livestock, and wildlife on their ranch nestled in the foothills of the mountains outside of Cascade, Montana. We recently had the good fortune to attend a Winter Grazing Workshop hosted by Cooper and the cow boss, Dave Ward, at Sieben Live Stock. It was so much information crammed into a cold and blustery day that we thought our heads might explode, but in the very best possible way.
Cooper’s deep ties to the land and his family were evident as he talked about his family’s journey from when his Great-Great Grandfather Henry Sieben established the ranch through each generation until now. The common theme was that each generation worked hard to survive in a rugged country with often unforgiving weather and unpredictable livestock markets while working to grow their family, livestock, and forage base so that all things could thrive. While Cooper is proud of his heritage, he realized at a young age that he wanted to learn how ranchers operate in other parts of the world. So he explored until he was made aware that it was time to quit exploring, come home, and get to work.
That genuine curiosity and desire to do better struck us as a driving force behind this generation’s success on the ranch. However, Cooper would clarify that it has been a team effort. Dave has been a key component of that success as well. Their teamwork was easily evidenced by how they kept a group of 53 individuals from as far north as Canada and as far south as Wyoming enthralled for hours on a not-so-nice day. We’ll try to summarize their shared knowledge, but we can only hit the high points as they shared lessons learned over about 20 years.
Their cattle run from the land down in the foothills in the winter to mountain pastures in the summer. As they utilized electric fences to modify their grazing to achieve a greater density of animals per pasture for a shorter duration, with more extended rest periods between grazing events, their carrying capacity during spring, summer, and fall grew tremendously. However, winter feeding still created a bottleneck for many years, limiting their overall carrying capacity. As they worked, experimented (sometimes with dismal results), and learned over time, they formulated a plan to continue their intensive grazing throughout the winter on stockpiled pastures.
With a “Hope for the best and plan for the worst” thought process, the ranch always has plenty of hay stockpiled to care for livestock when winter weather requires extra forage and/or a nutrition boost for the herd. Dave explained that the cattle will work through a lot of snow in the right conditions to get to the grass underneath, but they keep a close eye on the cows to ensure they meet their nutritional needs. This winter, the snow and cold set in with a vengeance and required them to feed about three times the amount of hay that they generally feed all winter.
You might be wondering how the heck they can intensively graze all winter. It’s really not different from their summer grazing, except it’s on dormant feed. They used some tried and true calculations to determine cow days/acre when they started. Now, Dave can generally look at the pasture and consider the cattle’s attitude from the previous day to plan the next day’s pasture. They use ⅜” fiberglass rods for posts and drive them in with a cap and hammer. The single strand of Gallagher turbo wire is looped snugly over the post and secured with a half-hitch every few posts to maintain tension. The charger is grounded, and they do not need an additional ground wire. When they take down the fence, it’s a simple maneuver to pull the wire off the top of the post and pull the post. The paddocks are strategically placed so the herd can always access fresh water. That means the herd generally travels back through the pasture they have grazed, but this does no harm when the plants are dormant.
For a large part of the workshop, we stood in the middle of 600 head of cows in a 3.5-acre paddock, and they were absolutely calm about this group of strange people shivering in their midst. When Dave opened the gate for them to move into the next paddock, the cattle moved with purpose, but there was no mad rush. They just filed past all of us interlopers like we were not trespassing on their dinner.
You might wonder if running an electric fence daily in our balmy Montana winters is worth it. The Hibbard family sure thinks so, and these are some of the reasons they go to that extra work:
They have increased the forage harvest and production rate by 300% in the last 8 years.
All their pastures receive a 9-18 month recovery period between grazing events.
They have been able to build a forage reserve in case of drought or other challenges.
Tips for “Improving the ground she is grazing on and effectively turning grass into beef”:
- EXPERIMENT before changing everything!
- Gus Hormay’s 3-year pasture rotation method is a good place to increase pasture recovery time without immediately jumping into daily moves.
- When you begin more intensive management, smaller paddocks and quicker moves will provide more feedback from your cows, making your mistakes less severe (and you will make mistakes!).
- Always move cows when they are full to reduce stress.
- Because cows like consistency, try to move them at roughly the same time during the day, especially for daily moves.
- When uncertain whether the herd needs to move, err on the side of moving them early to protect animal performance.
- Access to water is critical – more than ⅔ of a mile from grazing to water can negatively affect body condition. More water also equals more milk!
- Feed before storms, not during.
They have found that going from 2-day moves to daily moves increased cattle efficiency by 30%. However, you must work within your own ranch context and consider where the cows are in their annual life cycle. For example, grazing management during the calving season looks far different than it does later.
Their grazes range from one day to up to six weeks, and they modify their system and timing during calving.
The ranch team utilizes many of Bud Williams’ stock handling techniques, emphasizing stockmanship because building trust with your herd is vital for success. (Happy Cows = Happy Ranchers)
The Sieben Live Stock team has also invested much time, energy, and research into their breeding program. They breed in the fall, which is challenging because the feed has fewer nutrients, and shorter days affect hormones. They shared some of the following information – much of which was learned the hard way:
If cattle calved in a body score of 6+, they are likely to breed back at 90% or higher.
If cattle are less than a BCS 6 at time of calving, then provide a high energy supplement starting 3 weeks prior to breeding season, and they are likely to breed back.
If providing a protein supplement high in urea during the breeding season, it can produce cows that look wonderful. However, it can cause a change in uterus pH, which results in early abortion, AKA dry cow at preg test.
They feed Bovibox for three weeks before breeding season and continue it for about three weeks into the season with very good results.
Most supplements lack ENERGY.
The easiest time to increase body score is after weaning.
They have developed their own composite bulls to gain the advantages of several breeds, including Aubrac. A true composite cross with diverse genetics produces a tighter bell curve, which makes a more uniform calf crop and locks in heterosis from one generation to the next.
They will put their best bulls in with 1st calf heifers 30 days post calving for one month, pull the bulls then put bulls back in 3 weeks later. The calves of those who catch in that first cycle are retained as potential replacement heifers or herd bulls. The goal is to grow a foundation of highly fertile cattle that thrive in their specific landscape, and they are now selling bulls to other producers looking for functional genetics. For more information on Cooper’s bull program, listen to our recorded January 2025 Bull Session at westernsustainabilityexchange.org or our YouTube channel.
Cooper’s parting advice: Fail fast, Fail cheap, Fail forward!
Watch the WSE website next fall for information on the next round of Winter Grazing Workshops at Sieben Live Stock.
