I purchased 8 cows one fall from Misty Hills and as Okotoks said, they were excellent cows and excellent mothers.They had perfect udders, were very fertile, totally sound in their feet and legs and were great mothers. Every one of them worked here. In regards to the conditions this ranch operated in, I think it has to be one of the harshest places I know of. When the herd was turned out in the spring, many of them were not seen again until they came back to the ranch headquarters in late October. Occasionally, some cows came home in the fall that had not been there the previous winter, so they had survived on their own for a year and a half. Chrissy Scafe ( Jim's daughter) worked for me, and she told stories of cows coming home with huge pieces of flesh gone from grizzly bear attacks. She said there was no way to check the cows as the forest was too thick. She said that the cows had some trails and if you rode horseback through the forest you could be literally 10 feet from a cow and not even see it, in many places. There were some meadows throughout the forest that the cows grazed in, but they also ate a lot of refuse under the trees. This forest reserve was so big that it had no fences and the cows were just turned into it. They could go for miles and miles. Somehow, the cows seemed to know that winter was coming and most of them would find their way back to the ranch headquarters in late October. Their purebred cows were bred at home before they were turned out and they calved in January and February. If they calved later, they were sold as commercial cattle as there was no way to know what bull they were off. ( now they could DNA if they wanted to). Because of a severe problem with scours one year, they moved their calving to late spring and as a result they have gone almost completely commerical. After Jim's wife, Louise, died suddenlyfrom a brain anuerism, they decided to reduce their cows but I think they still have 200-300 cows. They purchased another 2 bulls from us, two years ago. Chrissy Scafe has spent considerable time in Australia and has flushed several of their cows for some people in Australia. I know she has sent embryos there from our old Ready Go herd sire as well as some from their Elephant son . If I remember correctly I think she shipped about 50 embryos down there when she was working for me.
I remember talking to Jim Scafe, after his steers has do so well in the feedlot, and he said that they had not even sorted out the best ones. They just gathered up the first ones that came home in the fall, and when they had enough to fill a couple of trucks they sent them to the feedlot in Southern Alberta. They also had a small feedlot of their own several miles from the ranch that was operated by one of their sons and several more were fed there as well.
Jim Scafe was not afraid to try anything. I remember him stopping here and staying overnight when he was driving to New York to get the 4 bulls he had purchased at Sangamon. He was driving a 1962 two ton truck that had probably 500,000 miles or more on it. He had about three spare tires hanging from the truck box, and most people would have thrown them away long ago. He had a few blankets and a basket of food in the truck with him. When he got to our place he was already over 1000 miles from home and he had another 2500 + miles to go. When he left our yard, my dad said" well, I doubt if we will ever see him again. " It was over 2 weeks later when he phoned and asked if he could unlaod his bulls and stay for the night on his trip home. The bulls looked great for having been packed in that truck for several days. They would be considered excellent bulls today. They were moderate and very thick. That old truck took him for many more trips for several years after that and Chrissy told me that she thought there was over 800,000 miles on it when it was finally parked for good, and it was still the original motor.
