Line One Herefords

In Montana during the early 1800's, 55,000 acres were set aside as Fort Keogh, an Army Outpost, later a remount facility for breeding Cavalry horses and finally as an agriculture research service to assist the agricultural industry in producing food supply. It was at this Miles City station in 1934 that a selection program commenced and the development of inbreeding several different lines with selection emphasis on yearling weights. Of all the different lines developed at Miles City, the most prominent to date has been the Line Ones. The foundation cows for the Line Ones traced back to stock purchased in 1926 from George M. Miles. The bulls used in the development of the line were half-brothers, Advance Domino 20 and Advance Domino 54, purchased in Colorado. These two foundation sires were strong in Prince Domino blood. Although the Line One cattle were developed at the Miles City station and they have remained a prime source of seedstock, a number of other breeders drew heavily on Line One sires starting in the 1940's, and these breeders became suppliers of the Line One seedstock in the early 1970's.

My interest in the Line-One cattle from the United States began many years ago. I often heard my father-in-law, Jimmy Basson, speak of their uniformity of type and good maternal traits and I wished for an opportunity to see them for myself. During a visit to the Denver Stock Show in 2005 I made contact with Jack Holden who was willing to let me buy flushes from some of his top cows. Later on in September I flew out to Montana to view the Holden cattle at Valier and also managed to view some of Mark Cooper’s cattle at Willow Creek. The result of my visit was 11 calves from the two flushes that were born here during December 2006 and were the beginning of my Ervie L1 Hereford Herd.

A further two importations since then has added another 33 Line One calves and we are now in the position to maintain a nucleus herd of pure-import-bred Line One cattle and to use L1 bulls from these to expand their valued genetics across our existing Ervie cow herd.

John S Douglas.