In 1943, Howard and Cora Spickler purchased the initial land that makes up Spickler Ranch. Their son, Harold, and his wife, JoAnn, took over the ranch in the 1970's. They had four children; Heidi, Justin, David and Nathan. Today, the ranch is operated as a partnership between brothers, Justin and Nathan.

Our family began raising and selling Hereford cattle in the late forties or early fifties. We were very active in the business until October 12, 1983 when our dad, Harold, dispersed the Hereford cowherd, deciding to run commercial cattle which would allow him more time with his family.

We ran commercial Hereford, Angus, and Baldie cows for 14 years. In January of 1997 our commercial cowherd was dispersed. It was during these years that we gained our respect for the Angus female for her nice udder, excellent mothering ability and superb fertility. Although we used some Charolais bulls in the 80's and early 90's, we always used Angus bulls, eventually switching to a herdbull lineup of strictly Angus bulls.

In the spring of 1995 we purchased two small groups of Registered Angus heifer calves, one from Farview Angus and the other from the Fast/Dohrman sale. These females represented the beginning of our Registered Angus herd,
After selling the Commercial cowherd on a cold, blustery day in January of 1997, we needed to restock our ranch. Dad sat us boys down and asked us if we wanted to raise registered Angus cattle. Dad really appreciated the Angus breed and especially the Angus female, and he had determined that this was the breed we should raise. Apparently raising registered cattle is in our blood. Even though we could hardly remember dad owning registered cattle, because we were so young, we jumped at the chance to be in the registered business again. In May of 1997 we arranged the purchase of a portion of the Gold Block Angus cows as well as a set of first calf heifers from Jim Turner of Green Valley Angus, Hobson. These purchases brought our numbers to around 150 registered Angus females.

1997 also marked the first year of our private treaty Angus bull sales, which continued until we determined that we had enough quality and numbers to have a bull sale. In the spring of 2000 we held our first Angus Bull Sale at Carrington, ND in mid-May where we sold 56 bulls.

Justin was in college at the time of our initial purchase and after graduation worked at the NDSU Beet Unit in Fargo. After working there for nearly two years, he was itching to get back to the ranch full time and ran across Darrell Spader and his Hayland Angus Ranch. Darrell was looking to retire from the registered business and we were able to work out a deal to purchase his cows. We are very thankful to Darrell for this opportunity. The Spader cow purchase took place in 2001 and brought our Angus numbers to 250 registered cows. 2001 also marked the birth year of S Eclipse 169, a double bred Traveler 6807 son who is having a lasting impact on our herd.

In February of 2003 we suffered a great set back as Dad lost his battle with Cancer. It was at this point that three boys realized that they needed to grow up fast and fought to remember all of the things Dad tried to teach us. One very important lesson we often fall back on is Dad's comment "in order to make progress breeding cattle you have to be honest with your customers, but most importantly you must be honest with yourself, identifying accurately which cattle you produce have the genetics to keep your program moving forward."

Later that year, in July of 2003, we realized that the Paws Up Angus Ranch, Greenough, MT was dispersing their entire cowherd, including a set of 600 fall calving cows. This dispersion was to take place in mid-August of 2003. We decided to try to sell the commercial cows and to replace them with registered cows. We were fortunate enough to sell the commercial cows in late July, thus allowing us to attend the Paws Up dispersion. One interesting aspect of this set of cattle was that when we purchased the Gold Block cows, the Paws Up later ended up with a portion of the remaining Gold Block cows. We had a successful trip to Missoula and were able to select 76 cows from the 600 fall bred cows that sold. These cows were purchased with the thought of selling older bulls in our sale, providing us with a complete set of bulls, not the bulls left over from the previous year. This purchase brought our registered cow numbers to around 320.

2003 was a busy year. In December we got the idea to have the bull sale at the Ranch. American Angus Association Regional Manager, Andy Rest offered some good advice and encouragement, and after much debate on December 31, 2003 we drilled holes through the frost, to set poles for an addition to our calving barn which would serve as our sale barn.

In 2006 Nathan graduated college and returned home full time to the ranch. Since that time our herd has been in an expansion phase as we have had some opportunities to lease different pastures near our ranch. 2006 was also a notable year as S Chisum 6175 was born that spring. He is owned with Genex/CRI and is a tremendous asset to our breeding program.

Today our cowherd has grown to over 600 registered Angus females. We calve approximately 450 cows in March and April and 150 cows in August and September. Virtually every female we have is covered either AI or serves as an embryo recip. In 2011 we will implant around 140 embryos into our own cows.  Our annual production sale is held the first Monday in May and has grown with the cowherd.  Presently we feature 170 fall born  coming twos and yearling bulls as well as 120 open yearling heifers.    We also sponsor a female sale for our customers and are very fortunate to work with the Tastad family of McCumber Angus Ranch in this endeavor. We have also been finishing all of our steers, cull heifers and even cull cows on site at the ranch, which has provided information that is very valuable to our operaton.  We are also constantly seeking new genetics to provide for our customer which is one of our most enjoyable tasks. We have been extremely fortunate to have purchased well managed cowherds that have served as our foundation female base. With several generations of AI breeding to proven, breed leading sires, we are starting to see genetic progress evolve from our cow herd.

Our desire is to provide our customers with trouble free genetics that add value to their programs.  Our customers are the basis for the success that Spickler Ranch has had.  They are the people that we work for day in and day out.  We are very aware that for us to be successful seedstock suppliers our customers must first be successful with the product we provide.  We must stand behind our cattle to the best of our ability, take care of problems that arise, offer as much marketing assistance as we are able, and most importantly constantly be aware of new genetics and the tools available to evaluate new and existing genetics that will enable our seedstock to enhance the programs that they influence.

Justin and Nathan  are partners in the operation.  Justin and Sara  and their four kids Wyatt, Will, Jessa and Watson make up half of the Spickler Ranch team.  Justin works with Nathan on all day to day ranch activities and Sara is the ranch bookkeeper.  Sara also performs many other activities on the ranch from checking pastures to raking and baling hay to moving cows from horseback.  She also has a very important job of being a full time Mom.  Justin and Sara both attended NDSU in Fargo which was where they met.  Justin has a BS degree in Animal Science and Sara has a BS degree in Ag Economics with minors in Food Safety and Animal Science, as well as a degree as a LPN obtained from Lake Region in Devils Lake.   

Nathan and Emily and their children Haylie, Trace, and Kadence are the other half of Spickler Ranch. Nathan works with Justin daily on all ranch duties, and Emily handles the advertising and marketing. Emily is also a vital part of daily operations from making hay to helping work cattle to checking pastures. Nathan and Emily also are both graduates from NDSU. Nathan has a BS in Animal Science with minors in Crop and Weed Science and Ag Business, while Emily has a Mass Communication major with an emphasis in public relations and minors in Animal Science and Web Design.

David is actively involved, always a good source of advice on any nutrition questions we might have. He has been working as Commodity Manager for Blue Flint Ethanol, Underwood, ND.

Heidi is currently employed as a teacher in the greater Minneapolis, MN  area.

JoAnn is remarried to Elroy Ellingson and both are invaluable members of Spickler Ranch.  They are always a good source of advice and support for their kids at the ranch. JoAnn is always caring for grandkids to help out when things get busy.  Elroy can fix anything and will always drop what he is doing to help the boys.

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