Sheep Industry News August 2025

Montana Ram Sale, A Hundred-Year Legacy Brent Roeder MSU Extension Sheep and Wool Specialist J ack McRae, past ram sale manager and Targhee consigner for forty-five years, discusses the history of the Montana Ram Sale. In 1950, the Montana Wool Growers first spon sored the sale, then known as the Montana State Ram Sale, in Miles City. There are complete records from that date forward. In talking to older members of the Wool Growers, they recall the record for the most Targhee rams sold at the Montana Ram Sale more than a decade after retiring from the sale. Chase says the Montana Ram Sale was likely the first major sale in the United States to embrace the use of NSIP-generated EPDs. Before the advent of EPDs, and early in his sale career, MSU was a leader in assisting sale consignors with keeping good performance records and followed that with a central ram test where the performance of rams could be compared against one another. Then, with the advent of the National Sheep Improvement Program and computer-generated EPDs, the information available to ram buyers was better than ever. The next step forward was the creation of an EPD-centered index that focused upon the limited but important trait of “number of lambs born to ewes exposed.” the ram sale in Miles City during the 1930s and ’40s. Then a picture showed up of the 1928 ram sale in Miles City. In researching that picture, it was learned that 1928 was the third sale for the Eastern Montana Ram Sale. The picture of the rams was probably to show off the new barn, as report ed in the April 1928 Montana Wool Growers magazine : “Due to the efforts and careful planning of J.H. Bohling, Secretary of the Eastern Montana Fair and Ram Sale, the contract has been let to build new and permanent pens with roofs, and a covered sale ring for the Ram Sale held in connection with the Eastern

“We were on a jet plane before improving the economic traits of rams with application of EPDs, but with the new index, we boarded a rocket ship!” Having said all of this, the challenge and “art” of this was to combine these powerful EPD tools with the old-fashioned “look good—feel good” traits that all of us old-timers grew up with, and of course, with basic animal soundness and traditional wool traits. This would include a proper fleece with good crimp, density, staple length, uniformity, color, and character. And proper conformation with good feet and legs, thickness, depth of body and proper wool cap. Easy, right? Seldom can you do it all, but you do the best you can. Retired Montana State University Sheep Extension Spe cialist Dr. Rodney Kott says recordkeeping among Montana purebred livestock (beef and sheep) producers has always been largely influenced by MSU’s extension, teaching, and research program and began many years ago (likely in the late ’50s). There has always been a strong partnership between the Montana Ram Sale and MSU. To assist the buyers, there has always been an effort to limit information posted to verifiable and relevant performance information. MSU’s role was to develop and recommend a standard set of records that could be posted on pens of sale rams.

Montana Fair. The building and ground will cost $3000.” This sale was sponsored by the Eastern Montana Wool Growers in its early years and later by a group of Miles City businessmen and local sheepmen. By 1950, they were ready to turn it over to some one else, and the Montana Wool Growers have run it ever since. Prior to 1950, the Montana Wool Growers had sponsored state ram sales around Montana, and for a while, there were several Wool Grower-sponsored sales each year in different

parts of the state. The earliest of the “modern” Montana Wool Grower magazines started in 1928

(we also have issues from the 1880s and ’90s), and it reported that the 1928 sale would be the 11th Montana Ram Sale. Chase Hibbard, of Sieben Live stock Company, sold 3,031 rams over 65 years and still holds

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