About Us


The Chapman’s got into the purebred cattle business in the early 1950’s when Grandpa Bill bought two old bred Hereford cows from a district farmer.  Two years later, he went to Pine Coulee Herefords by purchasing a good bull for $2500 and seven heifers from Bryce Campbell. 

Under the prefix “Atomdale” those seven heifers grew to around 130 cows through the 1960’s and early 1970’s with several herd sires originating out of the Bar Pipe program southwest of Calgary. 

Several champion Hereford bulls would come out of that original program and were marketed annually through the Calgary, Stettler and Coronation bull sales. 

The success achieved through the bull sales caught the attention of a Russian buying team, who at the time were coming to Canada each year to buy North American genetics.  Over a 10 year span starting in 1961, the Russians had purchased for export 150 heifers and 50 bulls from Grandpa – more than any other Canadian breeder in that era.  One of the last stories Grandpa told me was how over all those years he only dealt with the head cattle buyer through an interpreter; but it wasn’t until the final year when he was driving the Russians back to the airport in Calgary did the head buyer start speaking fluent English!

 

 

By the early 1970’s Bill was retiring and 30 registered cows went to his son Blake.  It was through this transition that the show ring became a marketing avenue for Chapman genetics, with the first female ever to be shown resulted in the Champion female at Canadian Western Agribition in 1975. 

Blake, under the KCC prefix, would exhibit cattle at every major show and summer fair until the mid 1980’s.  With success, and this exposure, it led to added interest in Chapman genetics, including exports across North America and Australia. 

An interesting shift in breeding philosophy occurred around 1976-1977 as Blake selected numerous line bred females from the Holden and Cooper herds in Montana; while utilizing genetics such as those developed at the Ft. Keogh Livestock Research Centre in Miles City, MT. where experimental line breeding created the prepotent L1 strain of Herefords. 

The ideology of line breeding cattle continues to this day through the breeding decisions made at Chapman Cattle Company. 

Throughout the late 1980’s the demand for Hereford bulls was in decline and the Calgary Bull Sale was still the main venue to market the top two year old bulls.



By the early 1990’s Blake added Red Angus to the mix with a purchase of Red Angus embryo’s from the OH Ranch.  Those embryos were sired by Leachman Front Runner 8241 and from the 3R Miss Unique cow the OH had purchased from Rogue River Ranch in Oregon.  Those cattle would carry on through the Miss Rio cow family, named after the Rio Alto Ranch that was the predecessor to the OH in the late 1800’s. 

Additional Red Angus females were added from Ken Fraser of Six Mile fame, Brylor and Crowfoot Cattle Co., and were mated with Leachman, SSS, Buffalo Creek, Crowfoot and Bar-E-L genetics.  Blake started contributing the two year old Red Angus bulls to the Crowfoot Cattle Bull Sale, through the late 1990’s, as well as custom grazing their cattle. 

It was also around this time that Silas sold the remaining Hereford cows and added the first Black Angus females with two cows purchased out of the Kluzak Dispersal in 1998.  The first was a two year old cow known as Sandy Bar Tilda 7F and a bred heifer named Kluzak Pride 25G.  Both were very productive cows and both the Tilda and Pride cow families resonate through sons and daughters to this day.  It was during this time the brand name Chapman Cattle Company was created. 

Crowfoot had recently purchased the entire Tom Walling herd of 400 Angus cows out of Winifred, MT as well as a pot load of heifer calves from the Cedar Hills Dispersal.  During the drought of 2001 we had 150 pairs of these Montana cows at our place on a grazing contract, and gained a real appreciation for the desired type we had been searching for.  They raised big calves, were moderate and held their condition.  It was during this time multiple age groups of the original Walling cow herd were purchased from Crowfoot and they became the nucleus of the current Chapman Cattle herd. 

Genetically we have tried to stay the course intertwining lineage tracing to RR Rito 707, Emulation 31 and DHD Traveler 6807. 

Tim Ohlde had several Traveler 6807 bulls in which Crowfoot incorporated early on and those 6807 sons, or derivatives, complimented well.  Many of the mature cows within our main herd today are direct daughters of OCC Legacy 839L, OCC Moonshine 740M, OCC Echelon 857E, OCC Joker 620J and OCC Magnum 749M.  Sons of OCC Kiddo 832K, OCC Missing Link 830M, and OCC Emblazon 854E were also used.  It would be remiss to not mention how many times the Dixie Erica of CH 1019 cow lines up in the pedigrees through many of these sires. 

Prior to the Crowfoot Dispersal, Chapman Cattle Company had also purchased several of their high selling bulls including Crowfoot Bruno 1670L {Stevenson Bruno 561G}, Crowfoot Venture 1698L {Basin Max 104J}, Crowfoot Joker 6172S {OCC Joker 620J}, Crowfoot Macho 4549P {OCC Magnum 749M}, Crowfoot Equation 5793R {OCC Legacy 839L} and Crowfoot EQU 268Z {Crowfoot Equation 5793R}. 

It was noticed early on that the most productive Walling cows traced back to the N Bar Ranch of Grass Range, MT., through bulls such as N Bar Transition and N Bar Impact.  By this time Sinclair Cattle Company were already propagating the best of the N Bar and Jorgensen genetics, so through AI, bulls such as Sinclair Net Present Value, Sinclair Extra 4X13, Sinclair Rito Legacy 3R9 and Sinclair Telecast 01S3 were used. 

In 2009, Sinclair Memento 8RL5 {Sinclair Rito Legacy 3R9} was purchased as the 2nd high selling bull and would be added and has had a profound influence through his sons and daughters. 

In 2010 five more Sinclair bred bulls of Emulation and Rito descent were added with the most prominent breeding tool being Sinclair Rito 9R7.  To bolster the line-up, five more Rito and Emulation sons would be acquired over the next few years from Sinclair.  Many of these original Sinclair-bred sires would originate directly from, or from daughters of the Ideal 4465 of 6807 4286 cow or legacy N-Bar donors. 

In 2004, we sourced McCumber Total Value from the long-established McCumber herd at Rolette, ND.  He was a VRD son from the Miss Wix 7111 cow who was a direct daughter of the matriarch Miss Wix 365 of McCumber cow.  In 2007 McCumber 536P EXT 7196 was purchased and was a son of Sitz JLS Emulation EXT 536P and out of a Pathfinder Right Time dam. 

A few years later in 2012, a valuable breeding piece was added in McCumber 8R101 Rito 161.  He was a Sinclair Entrepreneur son out of another Right Time Pathfinder cow.  We would go down to Rolette again in 2016 to acquire McCumber Titanium 5197, who is double bred Sinclair Extra 4X13 and lines up the Miss Wix 365 of McCumber top and bottom.

The Chapman Cattle Company breeding herd is comprised of around 600 registered Angus females with the Red Angus dispersed in 2014. 

After selling bulls for 50 years through consignment sales and private treaty, and as consignors to the Crowfoot and Happyvale Bull Sale, Chapman Cattle Company held its first annual bull sale in February 2007.  That sale led to a series of consecutive sales featuring Angus and Red Angus two year old bulls developed on grass and hay alone.

Don Raffan has been the Chapman Cattle Company auctioneer from day one, and I know he and many others weren’t sure how to foresee the direction we were headed.  It was a real paradigm shift in traditional bull development.  However, the bulls all sold that first year and some are still breeding ten years later.  Demand and interest continues to grow as those forage-developed bulls have done exactly as advertised: breeding more cows for more years with the ability to gain weight while working and mature into impressive herd sires. 

As Grandpa Bill wrote in his bull sale advertisement in 1965: “excellence in breeding, in conformity, in pedigree - uncompromised excellence is the standard we have set for ourselves”.  I would go further to say excellence is what we expect our customers to expect of us.

Silas Chapman


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