Last yearling sale is the end of an era on Clear Creek

 

August 24, 2022

Mark Billmayer, of B & B Sales, visits with Don Ross who was selling the last group of yearlings Don and wife, Tanis, were selling from the Ross 8 Bar 7 Ranch. Don's great, great grandfather, Alex Ross, homesteaded along Clear Creek in 1889 and brought the 8 Bar 7 brand with him from the Butte area. The Ross family began selling cattle to Russell Benson in the mid-1950's and continued after Mark joined B & B.

About two weeks ago a working relationship in Blaine County ended between two long standing agricultural businesses. Don and Tanis Ross of the Ross 8 Bar 7 Ranch, Inc. sold the last yearlings they will raise from their place south of Chinook on Clear Creek Road. Mark Billmayer of B & B Buyers (cattle buyers) bought the Ross' last load of yearlings. That ended a business connection that started when Russell Benson (Mark's father-in-law, now deceased), the other "B" of B & B Buyers, started buying cattle from the Ross ranch back in the mid-1950's. Here's a bit of what I learned about the two families' long term relationship in the cattle business.

The beginnings of the Ross 8 bar 7 Ranch, Inc.

Alex Ross was one of the first settlers to stake a claim on Clear Creek when the area opened to homesteaders in 1888. From Canada he had immigrated in a circuitous route ending up at Butte, Montana where he was a carpenter building supports to hold the roof of underground mines. He quickly learned it was more profitable (probably safer as well) to raise and sell beef to the miners.

Per Alex's great, great grandson, Don Ross, Alex got the brand currently used by the ranch when he first started raising cattle near Butte. In the 1960's, when the ranch incorporated, Tom Ross, Alex's son, insisted the historical brand be a part of the ranch name. Over the years the Ross ranch added surrounding land nearby landowners moved off the land. The Ross family has been ranching along Clear Creek for 133 years.

After World War II

Russell Benson came back to this area after the war and started trucking. Among other commodities he hauled ice from the Fresno Reservoir. Sometime in the 1950's he began buying cattle for Peterson Grain and Cattle, a company based in Spencer, Iowa. According to Don Ross it was also during this period that Warren Ross, Don's father, began selling yearlings. Don explained that where their ranch is located on Clear Creek was ideal for raising yearlings because of "ample grass, hay and water." When the Ross family began raising yearlings, Russell began buying the yearlings as well. Later Russell Benson's son-in-law, Mark Billmayer, joined him as a cattle buyer and they formed B & B Sales. Mark Billmayer still operates B & B Sales.

Another important milestone helped cement the business relationship between the two families early on. Don Ross told, "I sold my first calf at a 4H sale in 1964. The calf went for the lowest price per pound at the fair. Russell Benson bought the animal and told young Don, "That's a good animal you produced. I'm going to make up the difference from what I paid for it and the average price of the sale." Benson gave that money to Don and, likely, cemented a business relationship for life.

Don Ross said, "Russell was a serious buyer but he also had a sense of humor. One time I showed up with a load of cattle in the summer and the flies were terrible. At the scale house Russell handed me a sorting stick and said, "Keep waving that stick over the cattle while I weigh them. I don't want to be weighing and paying for any flies." Another time when a state brand inspector was fussing about how hard it was to read the Ross' brand, Russell Benson stuck his head in the scale house and said, "A blind guy could read that brand, you can even hear the 'eight bar seven' brand going by."

Russell Benson took care of his business as well. Mark Billmayer, Russell's son-in-law and cattle buying partner, told a story that happened after B & B Sales leased their current holding pens at the southeast corner of Chinook where Factory Road and Stockyard Road intersect. Mark said, "The yard was full of cattle and during the night someone opened all the gates and the livestock wandered all over the place. Russell and Cora (his wife) moved a camper down to the stockyard and stayed every night for nearly a month to keep an eye on things."

What's next for the Ross family and the 8 Bar 7 brand?

On the day Mark Billmayer was weighing the last load of yearlings from the Ross ranch, I asked Tanis, Don's wife, how she felt. She responded, "I'm happy and sad. This bunch of yearlings were real 'stinkers' so I was glad to see them go in many ways." She quickly added, "Noe I'm looking forward to getting to use our camper." Later she told me, "On the way back to the ranch on the day we sold the yearlings I looked at the field where we had kept them and felt a real sense of loss that they were gone. I guess it's a kind of the empty nest feeling."

The Ross family raised mainly Hereford cattle and asked that the photo of the last yearling sale show the brand on a Hereford. The brand is on the right side and the inset shows the brand's image as it appears in the state brand registry. Russell Benson once told a state brand inspector who was complaining about the difficulty reading the brand, "A blind man could read that brand, you can hear it when a cow goes by!"

Don said he was glad that he and Tanis were 'staying on the place.' They plan to lease most of the ranch land to neighbors, Don added, "We'll still be here if the neighbors need help with something." "And," he said, "I'm really looking forward to not having to wrestle overprotective momma cows anymore." Don listed several projects he already had on a list of things "I need to catch up on" now that he's no longer raising cattle.

Both Don and Tanis were looking forward to some travel. But the old instinct to 'check on the cows' doesn't go away quickly. Tanis said, "We'll be going to Torrington, Wyoming, where this last load of yearlings went, to see how they are doing." Don and Tanis are still curious to see how the yearlings performed based on how they were raised. Don admitted he got that habit from his father who was always checking on the performance of the animals he raised after they left the ranch.

After 133 years in the cattle business Don and Tanis are not likely to simply turn their backs on ranching. But, they added, "Soon we will have the best of both worlds: still have our fingers in to ranching but also enjoying a break from responsibility."

 
 

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