MSGA member, Hinman Angus, sells $350,000 bull
Legendary northwest Montana bull sells for $350,000
By Tom Lutey / Billings Gazette
Malta, Montana — With a $350,000 sales price Tuesday, a northwest Montana bull known as HA Cowboy Up can fairly be referred to as the Ferrari of the black Angus, though rancher Dave Hinman says the number that originally excited folks is much smaller: 4.25.
The most expensive bull anyone can remember first turned heads as he gained 4.25 pounds a day, a staggering amount of weight for any bull, but particularly for one with a medium frame. It’s a big part of what made Cowboy Up the rancher’s version of the Powerball.
Buyers from as far away as New England gathered Tuesday at Hinman Angus Ranch near Malta to bid on Cowboy Up, a bull that had the Hinman family’s phone ringing for 60 days leading up to the sale. There were literally groups of buyers scrambling to pool their resources to come up with enough money to make a serious offer. In the end, the successful offer was assembled by the owners of N Bar Ranch about 35 miles southeast of Lewistown, Mont.
Cowboy Up was carefully transported to Origen Beef outside of Billings, where his semen will be collected, frozen and used to create generations of cattle long after Cowboy Up has passed into legend. And legend is the right word for a bull of this caliber, insiders say. The animals only come along maybe once a decade, rarely from the same ranch.
“It is that rare,” Hinman said. “We may never get another one in our lifetime. These bulls don’t come along very often.”
Hinman and his wife, Yvonne, have been raising seed stock bulls since 1973. They started out on a rented ranch in Willow Creek near Bozeman, their hometown. They raised two daughters and eventually moved their operation to Malta. Daughter Heidi Lulloff and her husband, Billy, are partners in the ranch. Four generations are now tied to the business.
Cowboy Up tipped the scales at 1,619 pounds in January. That’s a lot of heft. But his medium frame means that his offspring are likely to be born small and then put on pounds later. That’s important because small calves are easier to give birth to.
The auctioneer who sold Cowboy Up was Joe Goggins, whose family also runs the historic Public Auction Yards in Billings. PAYS, as the business is known, is no stranger to legendary bulls. There’s a trophy mount in the PAYS lobby of Leachman Right Time, a black Angus bought by Vermillion Ranch in 1992 for $160,000. Vermillion is the Goggins family ranch.
Right Time is one of maybe four Montana bulls the PAYS crowd could remember deserving to be in the same conversation at Cowboy Up.
“We sold a terrible lot of semen from that bull,” said Bob Cook, PAYS manager. “We calculate between his semen sales and the value point of his sons and daughters, artificial insemination certificates, we sold $2.5 million in progeny and semen.”
And Right Time seed is still being sold because of cryogenics. Right Time died about 10 years ago. If Cowboy Up is as successful, he too could be shaping the cattle industry for decades.