02/11/2026
60 Wilderness Ranch Black Angus Bred cows (ages 3-6) sell @ Brussels Livestock March 14 @ 1 P.M. 2026. Online purchase will available on DLMS https://www.dlms.ca/ on sale day.
Cows will calve May and June. Preg checking to be done prior to sale. Preg check info will be supplied at sale.
Bull turnout date July 31.
Wilderness Ranch is in part a vision that was formed out of the hard times of the BSE years and the grit and determination to succeed in the cattle business. First and foremost it has always been about being sustainable in the cattle business! Hence we have moderated our cow frame size to smaller more efficient cows. We think in profit per acre versus profit per cow. The more cows we can run on our given acres the more calves we can market. Smaller calves at the sale barn typically are worth more per lb then the larger calves, so optimize your land base with efficient cows not cows that will eat you out of house and home the rest of the year!
With these guiding principles of efficiency in mind we have developed our Program as follows:
• To date, Wilderness Ranch breeds around 500 cows yearly. We retail beef carcasses, retain and market bred heifers, market mature cows via this sale, and are continually expanding.
• We started our herd with a pot load of cows from OLE Farms (Athabasca, Alberta) in 2002. Since then we have continually retained heifers and bred to top end purebred angus bulls from OLE Farms for the past 24 years. We believe breeding maternal cows is profitable.
• Our cows are fed a grass only diet year round. The condition you see is strictly from grass only and a Vitamin Mineral premix. These cows have never been fed any grain!
• Summers the cows are grazing the pastures, winters they are fed balage bales rolled out and modified bale grazing.
• Wilderness Ranch cows are outside 100% of their lives.
• Bulls are turned out Aug 1st with a May 7th calving date. We expect 70% of the calves in the first 3 weeks!
• Wilderness Ranch cows calve 99% unassisted! Heifers are also bred to calving ease bulls and calve at 2 years of age.
• Calving season we pay little attention to the cows, a daily drive through to make sure there are no serious problems. Otherwise calving is done by themselves on pasture.
• Calves remain on the cows for 10 months. Weaning is typically done in March. With new calves coming in May. We do not creep feed calves. These sale cows were weaned on January 28th.
• Poor feet and udders are not tolerated at Wilderness Ranch. They lead to calves that can’t suck and cows that get footsore or worse. There has never been a hoof trimmed at Wilderness Ranch!
It’s exciting times to be in the cattle business these days. With the prices that calves are bringing right now cows can be paid off with less than 2 calves. I’m not sure that has been possible for a very long time!
We hope to see you at Brussels March 14!
