Quality and Efficiency: Bar X Ranch raises high-quality Black Angus bulls bred to excel in the real world
The Bar X Ranch is a multi-generational operation with a long history in Goshen County.
Kyle Kilty’s great-grandfather Earl Vanderhei homesteaded about 15 miles west of LaGrange in southern Goshen County.
After settling the homestead, Earl went to fight in World War I, where he learned how to engineer with teams of horses.
“When he came back from the war, he started a contracting business based in Cheyenne and spent a lot of time between Cheyenne and Bear Creek between ranching and building roads,” Kyle shares. “He had registered Hereford cattle he bought from the Wyoming Hereford Ranch, where he’d built one of the dams near Cheyenne.”
Kyle’s father Kerry Kilty established the present-day Bar X Ranch, which does not sit on the original homestead.
“My father grew up on my great grandfather’s property in Cheyenne, but after building houses in Cheyenne, he and my mother Julie moved to rejuvenate the family ranch in the early 1980s,” Kyle explains.
In 1995, Kerry’s family decided to sell the property, so he and Julie worked to scrape together enough money to buy out what they could of the ranch and the rest was sold.
“My parents ran a successful cow/calf operation, along with selling hay, putting up small square bales for horse hay and selling it in Cheyenne and northern Colorado,” Kyle adds.
Returning home
At the age of 18, while attending college, Kyle’s father passed away.
“After his passing, I took a semester off from college to help calve and get through a season before my mom dispersed the cattle herd and I went back to college,” he says.
“All through college I helped at the ranch and put up hay in the summer. I still put up small square bales to sell hay to the customers my father had acquired selling horse hay,” he says. “In the fall, I’d only take 12 credit hours of classes – just enough to keep my scholarship and load those classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. As soon as Thursday classes were over, I’d go home and spend four days on the ranch, then go back to school on Tuesday.”
Through his hard work and dedication, Kyle saved up enough to buy his own herd of cows.
“I came back to the ranch and purchased my own cows,” Kyle shares. “I started by leasing the ranch from my mother – she still owns the main part of the ranch. After I came back, I picked up other leases from local landowners.”
Today, the operation is located between LaGrange and Hawk Springs, where Kyle, his wife Taryn and their two children Zoey and Lakson reside.
Lessons learned
Kyle notes him and Taryn have been slowly expanding the operation with the help of Mike Vinton, a lifelong friend who previously worked for Kerry.
“My ranching career has been a school of hard knocks because no one was there to tell me to do things a certain way or not to do something,” Kyle admits. “Lessons learned the hard way are good lessons, and honestly it’s been great.”
Kyle says over the years he tried a multitude of different things to find out what worked best for his situation.
“When we first started, we were calving in April,” he says. “Now, I’ve gone opposite of everybody else who keeps moving their calving later in the spring and summer. Instead, I now calve in February.”
Although the area gets a few cold snaps in February, Kyle says the weather is usually not too severe and proves a good month to welcome baby calves.
“April is wet. March is wet and cold and February is just cold, but cold is easier than mud,” Kyle says.
He notes the registered cows calve first, starting early in February and the commercial cows calve later.
“In the past, it was more spread out. Each month we had a different group starting. Now we try to pack everything into an eight-week stint instead of calving for four months,” Kyle adds. “Within each group, we shoot for a 45-day calving window.”
Additionally, Kyle shares ranching has been a continuous series of new adventures.
Around three years ago, the Kiltys started an embryo transfer (ET) program.
Kyle shares, although it takes years to see the result of this, he finds animal genetics incredibly exciting.
“It’s all a rush to patience,” he says. “We are constantly rushing everywhere to do everything, and then we wait.”
Inaugural bull sale
Through their expansion efforts, the Kiltys started running Black Angus cattle and will host their first bull sale on April 12 this year at the ranch. Prior to this, all of their bulls were sold private treaty.
Kyle notes many of his bull customers are local ranchers, although he also sends a handful of bulls to Idaho every year.
“I sell them to a rancher in St. Anthony, Idaho who has a ranch in Oregon and a big forest allotment in New Mexico, but most of the bulls I sell stay here in Wyoming,” Kyle says.
He adds, “The auction will be a whole new experience. We decided to hold an auction because I wanted to bring in a sense of community. The sale will be held in the afternoon at 3 p.m. with a steak dinner to follow.”
Kyle hopes this will allow the community to come and visit for a while without having to rush back home to get something done. He hopes the sale will be more leisurely and encourages everyone to bring their families.
“I’ve also scheduled DVAuction, so the sale will be available online for people who can’t make it in person,” he says. “A local auctioneer, Lander Nicodemus, will do the sale. This is a whole new chapter and adventure for us.”
Current operations
In terms of herd management, Kyle says he tries to focus on raising efficient cattle so the Bar X Ranch runs their registered cows the same way they run their commercial cows.
The ranch is located in a wide-open area on fairly flat ground and fields and pastures are easily accessed with vehicles. Cattle can be readily moved with ATVs.
“Most of the land we run on is private property, with just a little bit of state land. The cattle are easy to move from pasture to pasture,” Kyle says.
“In the winter we take them to cornstalks and winter roughage on a farm I have north of here about 30 miles,” he adds. “We haul them there and trail them back right before calving, usually in two days. We usually overnight them in a pasture about halfway between.”
Additionally, the Kiltys use an extensive ET program with a focus on top-end genetics.
Calves at Bar X Ranch are sometimes retained and backgrounded, and other times, they are sold right off of the cow.
“It depends on the market,” Kyle states. “A local farmer and cattle feeder has bought our steers for the past five years, so we just do whatever fits his schedule. We are also lucky because we are close to a reputable local auction barn and don’t have to go very far to send our cattle to market. This is really convenient because some ranchers have to haul their cattle quite a long distance.”
Kyle also says the goal at Bar X Ranch is to graze year-round, letting cows harvest their own feed as much as possible.
Most of the winter grazing is done on crop residue – everything from cornstalks to hay ground and a lot of irrigated fields – which saves on input costs for winter feed.
In summer months, the Kiltys rely on Horse Creek – the lifeblood of the ranch – to irrigate meadows and put up hay, which provides another source of income.
“Regarding the hay we put up, we generally feed half and sell half,” Kyle says. “When hay prices are high and cattle prices are low, we have an income stream from the hay. When cattle prices are high and hay is cheap, cattle are the main source of income.”
“This year will be little different,” he admits. “We are not going to sell much hay because hay is in short supply everywhere.”
Kyle concludes, “One thing I love about ranching and farming is whatever you have to do, it’s a short stint. Whether it’s haying, calving, irrigating, etc., we are not doing it for 12 months.”
“I am fortunate to have a great wife and a great family. A farm or ranch is a wonderful place for kids to grow up,” he adds.
For more information about Bar X Ranch, visit barxranch.com.
Heather Smith Thomas is a corresponding writer for the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
