Bull fetches $350,000 in legendary sale

With a $350,000 sales price Tuesday, the Malta bull known as HA Cowboy Up can fairly be referred to as the Ferrari of the black Angus, though rancher Dave Hinman says the number that originally excited folks is much smaller: 4.25. The most expensive bull anyone can remember first turned heads as he gained 4.25 pounds a day, a staggering amount of weight for any bull, but particularly for one with a medium frame. It’s a big part of what made Cowboy Up the rancher’s version of the Powerball. Buyers from as far away as New England gathered Tuesday at Hinman Angus Ranch to bid on Cowboy Up, a bull that had the Hinman family’s phone ringing for 60 days leading up to the sale. There were literally groups of buyers scrambling to pool their resources to come up with enough money to make a serious offer. In the end, the successful offer was assembled by the owners of N Bar Ranch about 35 miles southeast of Lewistown. Cowboy Up was carefully transported to Origen Beef outside of Billings, where his semen will be collected, frozen and used to create generations of cattle long after Cowboy Up has passed into legend. And legend is the right word for a bull of this caliber, insiders say. The animals only come along maybe once a decade, rarely from the same ranch. “It is that rare,” Hinman said. “We may never get another one in our lifetime. These bulls don’t come along very often.” Hinman and his wife, Yvonne, have been raising seed stock bulls since 1973. They started out on a rented ranch in Willow Creek near Bozeman, their hometown. They raised two daughters and eventually moved their operation to Malta. Daughter Heidi Lulloff and her husband, Billy, are partners in the ranch. Four generations are now tied to the business...more