They were bred heifers. A couple years ago there were 40 or so taken from the same general area, no idea if anyone was caught. I hope some traffic camera caught a cattle truck passing to give a clue.
Can you insure herds? $75000 or 80000 according to reports. We have been out there, it is pleasant to see the range land, what is left of it.
Up in my favorite recreation/hunting ground is an old limber pine with a very stout branch hanging at the horizontal about twelve feet off the ground. It has a USFS sign bolted to the trunk which reads "Hangman Tree".
My uncle ran cattle in the area, starting with his Dad at about age twelve in the early thirties. He said the rope was still hanging from the tree when he was a kid.
The story was that local ranchers found a "Chinaman" sitting over a fire near that spot Feasting on a freshly killed beef.
But that was 100 years ago, and Idaho was hardly what one would call "civilized" in those days.
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
This was referenced above, Kansas/Oklahoma. Rustled in southeast Kansas. Sold at OKC salebarn (4 hours away). Salebarn worker recognized the brand and called the rancher.
Oklahoma law officers arrested two rural Labette County residents Tuesday morning at the Oklahoma National Stockyards Co. in Oklahoma City for allegedly possessing 17 cattle stolen from a Southeast Kansas pasture.
Col. Jerry Flowers, the chief special agent for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Law Enforcement Agency, said at 9 a.m. Tuesday 17 head of 450-pound cattle showed up at the stockyard in downtown Oklahoma City to be sold that day. An employee noticed the brand on the hips of the cattle as that belonging to a customer from Kansas and contacted the customer. The Kansas cattleman said he had reported the steer stolen that morning to the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department so the stockyard employee contacted Flowers’ agency, which investigates agriculture crimes statewide. The agency is commonly referred to as the Oklahoma cattle cops, Flowers said.
The commission company that was going to sell the cattle that day let the cattle go to auction and the stockyard was going to buy them, Flowers said.
Flowers said stockyard staff didn’t know who dropped the cattle off so they had to sell the cattle so the people who brought them would claim their check for the sale at the billing office.
Anthony F. Whittley, 27, 23085 Wallace Road, and Jasmine A. Boone, 27, also of rural Parsons, showed up to claim the check and were intercepted by Flowers and his agents. Once the agents determined the cattle were stolen, they arrested Whittley and Boone, Flowers said. Agents also notified Kendall Lothman, the Kansas livestock investigator with the Kansas Attorney General’s Office. Lothman traveled to Oklahoma City to sit in on interviews with Whittley and Boone about that theft and other cases. The cattle brought to Oklahoma City were valued in excess of $10,000, Flowers said.
Agents are investigating to see if Whittley and Boone had roles in other cattle thefts in eastern Oklahoma and Kansas, Flowers said.
The investigation is in process, Flowers said.
Whittley and Boone remain in Oklahoma County Jail on bonds totaling $27,000 each. They are held on suspicion of bringing stolen property into the state, concealing stolen property and possession of an offensive weapon (a pistol) while committing a felony.
The stockyard is making arrangements to return the 17 cattle to their owner, Jim Gaither.
The Labette County Sheriff’s Department assisting with the investigation as needed.
The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the cattle theft.
Cherokee County Sheriff David Groves said his department received a call about the theft of cattle from a pasture in rural Columbus early Tuesday morning.
“I’m excited about the way this case came together, very quickly, thanks to rapid and accurate information sharing along with collaboration between the cattle owner, representatives of the sale barn and all law enforcement involved, including the special livestock investigators in Kansas and Oklahoma,” Sheriff Groves said in a prepared statement.
“At this time our office is seeking charges in Kansas for felony theft and criminal damage to property, but we also anticipate the filing of additional charges with regards to a similar case from late November, where eight cows were stolen north of Columbus,” Groves said.
"Allways speak the truth and you will never have to remember what you said before..." Sam Houston Texans, "We say Grace, We Say Mam, If You Don't Like it, We Don't Give a Damn!"
They were bred heifers. A couple years ago there were 40 or so taken from the same general area, no idea if anyone was caught. I hope some traffic camera caught a cattle truck passing to give a clue.
Can you insure herds? $75000 or 80000 according to reports. We have been out there, it is pleasant to see the range land, what is left of it.
You can buy insurance for massive (death)loss but it is expensive, we got a quote of around $10k/year and I don't know if it covered theft.
Right now good bred heifers are selling for $1800-1850 per head(in MT), so 50 head of average stock, say $1500/hd, would be worth $75k.
Brand the heifers, calve 'em out, sell the calves next fall, wait a few years and sell the cows....
In Montana you don't need a bill of sale to sell cattle so long as they have your 'old' brand on it. You obviously wouldn't want to try selling a bunch of cattle with your fresh brand(and someone else's old brand) and no bill of sale.
these are branded with a heart above a W (snaky) and at least some of them have a freeze brand number too. Naturally the calves will not have a brand if they are dropped on someone elses land.
If they catch them, the penalty won't be steep enough. We have a local guy that used to fraud the banks out of money by getting 4-5 loans on the same cattle trailer, Drive around and show bankers "his" cattle and borrow money against them, stole a whole poultry house full of tractors and hay equipment, drove out into Kansas and leased some land and the guys cattle, sold the cattle never to be seen again... and he only served a few years with all that sh*t on his record. Time after time, and it doesn't matter.
You can have insurance on cattle, My grandpa had 20 some head hit by lightning huddled under a tree when I was a kid. Don't know what coverage ran him, I'm not smart enough to carry it, but I was about to crap myself this week when I had 5 bulls disappear from behind the house. 3 days later I found them alive and well.
Couple years ago we had some sh*tbirds 15-20 minutes north of here running around with a trailer, some portable corral panels, and some good dogs. Park on the back road, cut the fence, and herd the cows straight out of the field down the road and into the trailer. Local sheriff made a plead to them over the radio to stop and the farmers were carrying guns and not asking questions. To my surprise it stopped. Not sure if they were caught or made enough money, but the ending didn't make the paper. I must say, as much as I despise thieves, these guys really had the world by the tail.
And 50 bred heifers. 900-1000 pounds average around here. 1 pot load or maybe 5 20ft cattle trailers. Ball park figures.
