Schmitt Angus is owned and run by brothers Lane & Scott Schmitt with the help of our parents, Dr. Bob and Maureen Schmitt. In 2018 Lane received his veterinary degree from Washington State University and Scott received his engineering degree from Montana Tech. Lane practices veterinary medicine at Chinook Veterinary Clinic with a heavy emphasis on cattle and Scott works as an oilfield engineer in North Dakota. We need to thank our parents, Dr. Bob and Maureen Schmitt, for supporting us through the day to day activities as we completed school. We couldn’t have kept our cowherd without them. We plan to continue to expand our cowherd now that we have completed our formal education and returned home. Lane’s wife Taryn and son Chancin (4 months) look forward to being a bigger part of our operation.

Schmitt Angus started in 2002 when Lane, as a nine year old, purchased his first registered heifer from the NILE Angus Female Sale. We have expanded our herd to the present size of 40 registered pair and 50 commercial pair mostly through the retention of replacements. We annually market around 10 bulls through the Nissen Angus bull sale in Chinook, MT the first Wednesday of April. Our sincere thanks to Jeff and Christie for their friendship and allowing us to market our bulls through their annual sale. Females are for sale by private treaty.

We are proud of the strides we’ve made with our cowherd. We have relied heavily on AI and only recently bought our first herd bull, Shipwheel Signature 4541, in 2015. We are breeding for fertile cows with good feet and udders who can raise a big calf in our environment but not at the detriment of their future fertility and longevity. Every cow and heifer is synchronized and AI’ed and we market cows bred past 42 days and heifers bred past 21 days in the breeding season. We put a lot of pressure on the cows to conceive early in the breeding season as we only market bulls and register heifers that are the result of AI breeding. We believe this has allowed the cows to cull themselves and kept the type of cow needed in commercial operations. The heifers calve the end of February and the cows calve in mid March. You won’t find a fall herd, hoof trimming, or extreme growth bulls used here.

We run our cows 2 miles south of Chinook almost exclusively on leased ground. Our small home place is used in the winter to feed and calve. We are very thankful for and take great pride in taking care of the various leases and commonly build and improve old fences to open new ground to run our cattle. The grass consists of crested wheat, native short grass, and CRP. We are in an 11” precip zone and our cattle are impacted by the environment just like the commercial cattle of the area. We purchase all of our feed so extending the grazing season is very important. We do so as long as mother nature allows depending on snow and water availability.

Our brands carry a lot of significance and meaning to us. They were both put in for by our late grandpa, Lloyd B Schmitt. He was a rancher and banker from Stanford, MT and started one of the earliest bull performance testing stations in the country. Lane’s single reverse S brand was inherited at the time of Lloyd’s passing and Scott’s reverse S lazy reverse S was inherited through the generosity of his uncle, Ben Schmitt. Even though we do not reside on a 4th or 5th generation place, being a cattleman runs in our blood. We take pride in preserving the western tradition and do all our cattle work on horses. We strive to not only produce good cattle but to also build something we can pass down through future generations.

We look forward to showcasing our cowherd and 2018 calves by SAV Renown 3439, Sitz Response 405C, and Shipwheel Signature 4541 as well as our bred heifers by SAV Recharge 3436. Despite our size we try to maximize our sire groups and consistency by utilizing one AI sire for the whole herd.

Thanks again!