The Creech family has been farming for over 120 years. Bill and Sherry Creech, and their children Connor and his wife Bailey and their children Rhett, Emily and Blair along with son, Ted and his girfriend Maryn Sutherland are the heart of Hill 70 Quantock ranch located 17 km north of Lloydminster. In addition to the home ranch, they also have land in two other locations in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Bill Creech loves ranching life and says at 70 years old he tells everybody he’s been like a kid in a sandbox.
“I’ve never really been to work, I’ve just gone outside,” Creech said.
His sons also enjoy ranching. Connor finds it gratifying work and Ted enjoys that he never truly knows what the day will bring. He’s typically never doing the same thing every day.
It may be a family business, but their ranch is no small operation.
“We don’t sell bulls as a side business,” Connor Creech said, “This is what we do.”
Every female they have is born and bred on the ranch. The Hereford herd started in late 1940’s with Bill’s father Frank upon his completion of veterinary school after fighting in WWII.
The Red Angus herd began with seven little Red Angus heifer calves that Bill Creech purchased from Montana breeders in 1972.
The Black Angus herd began in the early 1990’s.
Now, they have about 2,000 head of cattle including Red Angus, Angus, Hereford and Charolais.
They also breed Simmental and Gelbvieh hybrids with their Angus cows.
Their main goal at Hill 70 Quantock Ranch is to raise bulls for commercial operators, and for the Creechs, that means trying to create the same environment that their bulls will be going to.
“We’re trying to mimic the situation that they’re going into and test them that way to make sure that they’re going to hold up and that they’re going to last,” Connor said.
“We make the cows run similar to those commercial places that they’re going into, and we feel that gives us an advantage over a lot of other bull producers because we can run our cattle that way because we have some size and some scale.”
Customer service and the many customers who have been with them for years are important to the Creech family. This includes looking after their bulls right up until delivery.
“Last year we delivered anywhere from the Winnipeg Stockyards to Oregon coast, up to northern B.C. and all points in between,” Ted Creech said. “We do most of it all ourselves.”
Their 55th annual bull sale takes place at the Hill 70 Quantock Ranch home ranch on Saturday, Feb. 1.
Nicole Starker-Campbell
ECA Review