Shipping calves this week

October 20th, 2025

A letter from the ranch,

We have been hit with a dusting of snow in Montana. 

Fall has settled in here at the base of the Bears Paw mountains and today marks the start of one of the most exciting weeks on the cowboy calendar.

Sunday morning we will be saddling the horses at first light and gathering pairs (mama cows and their babies) from the pasture. Once we have the herd rounded up we will move them down to the corral.

It's time to ship calves and haul them to market. Our dream is to know each and every family we raise beef for by name, but until that day, we continue to run a cow-calf operation to remain sustainable.

Every bit of the years work: winter feeding, calving, branding, fixing broken fence, moving pairs from pasture to pasture, fixing water tanks, and caring for the animals all comes down to Sunday.

Over the coming days we will be busy getting things in order: mending gates, clearing the yards for semis, and setting up the corral. Meanwhile, the kitchen will be busy too — there’ll be a crew to feed! On shipping day, our neighbors will show up to lend a hand sorting and loading calves, just as we’ll do for them when their turn comes. Each ranch family selects a different shipping day so we can be there to help one another. It's one of the things I love most about this life. Out here, work gets done through good neighbors, hot coffee, and a shared love for "old ways".

In our prayers each night this week we will be thankful to live in country that could only have been created by God, to have the opportunity to raise cattle for fellow Americans, and we'll be hoping for a good weigh-in come Sunday morning.

Best regards,

Lauren Darlington

Your Montana Rancher