2024 Fall Cattle Journal | Deep Creek Angus Ranch

Building Good Cows

T.J. and Jeanine Gabriel operate Deep Creek Angus Ranch in the heart of west-central South Dakota. Their mail comes from Midland now, but the ranch used to be the town of Kirley, South Dakota.  

“My great-grandmother had the Kirley post office for 40 years, and they hauled mail out of her house,” Gabriel said. “If you look at an old map and find Kirley, that is our ranch.” 

They may be a long distance from anywhere, but Gabriel’s family has called that corner of Haakon County home since 1906. 

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“The ranch was started by my great-great-grandfather who came from Norway. He didn’t speak any English when they came. As the story goes, he got killed by a runaway team down in Deep Creek, and my great-grandfather took over the ranch. I’m the fifth generation and our kids are the sixth, all on the same ranch.” 

A beautiful hip-roof barn, built in 1912, is still a functional feature of the facilities.  

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“They logged cedar poles out of the creek and freighted lumber 55 miles from Midland to build it,” Gabriel said. 

T.J. grew up on the ranch, then operated by his mother’s parents, until his parents divorced and the family moved off the place. But he returned to work on the ranch for his grandparents throughout his high school years.  

After graduating from Western Dakota Vo-Tech with an Ag Business Management degree, Gabriel worked for Tim and Ree Reich of Reich Charolais.  

“I fell in love with the seedstock business working for them, that’s what started me off on the path,” he said. 

Gabriel “moved home” in 1997, and in 1999 bought part of the ranch from his grandparents. Deep Creek Angus Ranch was born.  

“During that time, I worked for Bonnie Sivage; she had a really great Angus herd in the Four Corners area. Bonnie was my mentor, I learned a lot from her,” Gabriel said. “We got our start buying cows from Bonnie over the years. We hosted our first seedstock sale in 2000; this year was our 25^th.” 

 T. J. and Janine married in 2008, and have three children: Dylan, Kori and Kyler. Dylan is a diesel mechanic in Pierre, but makes it back to help out on the ranch as often as possible. Corrie is in nursing school, and Kyler is in eighth grade. Aside from hiring a little calving help, the Gabriel family does all the work to care for their cattle.  

“It’s just us on the ranch,” Gabriel said. “We’re one of the few families left that use horses to handle our cattle. Some guys’ cows haven’t seen a horse in 15 years. When I was a kid that’s all there was, I guess I’m kind of old fashioned. We don’t have a four-wheeler, but I broke down and bought a side-by-side for fencing. 

 
T.J. also started Deep Creek Cattle Service in 1999. 

“We were broke,” Gabriel said. “We started out because we needed the money to cash flow. A good portion of our customers are also bull customers. As we’ve grown, I keep doing it to have more of a connection with them.”  

The side-hustle helped pay the bills, and in time has forged long-standing relationships. 

“I pregnancy test, ultrasound and AI all over western South Dakota. We do a tremendous number of cows in the fall and AI a pile of heifers in the spring. We help ship a lot of calves too, but mostly preg test and AI. It has helped us provide a service to our customers and keep in touch with them. It has been a good deal,” Gabriel said. 

Gabriels run about 250 registered cows along with around 70 replacement heifers. Taylor and Emily Weigel, Ipswich, South Dakota, do custom embryo transfer work for Gabriels. 

“They put in 40-50 embryos for us every year, and they do a great job.” T.J. said.  

Deep Creek’s annual bull sale is held in Phillip, South Dakota on the last Tuesday in February. They offer 70-80 yearling bulls with an unconditional first breeding season guarantee. In most cases, if someone has a problem, they can get a new bull to the customer within a day. 

“We have a great guarantee and we focus on customer service,” Gabriel said. “If you have trouble with a bull, we’ll take care of it right away.”  

The Deep Creek herd is focused on traits geared for the commercial cattleman.  

“We focus on maternal traits,” Gabriel said. “We want good udders, dispositions, feet, fleshing ability and performance, but it’s all maternally driven.”  

They have incorporated a lot of mainstream genetics in their herd. When selecting from popular bulls, Gabriel said, “It’s got to be maternally charged.” 

Bonnie Sivage’s herd had a lot of Rito and Ambush breeding, much of it coming out of Bud Sieverson’s program.  

“That’s what we started with and built from there,” Gabriel said. “Bonnie had a really maternal herd. She didn’t look at the EPDs, just at the cows. She told me once, ‘I mate every cow so I want to have a heifer calf.’ I said, ‘Why do you do that? We’re in the bull business.’ She said, ‘If you have good cows, the bulls will be there.'”  

Gabriels have kept up with the technology side of the seedstock business, carcass ultrasounding and DNA testing everything, and lately adding the use of “HeatSieker” patches, including a transmitter in the barn and a phone app that tells them who is riding and when to breed. 

“We synchronize our first calf heifers prior to AI’ing and ride on the cows every day for 40 days. The patches make that a lot easier,” Gabriel said.  

Gabriels expect their cows to get their calves up and sucking, even in sometimes adverse weather conditions. Cows need to be fertile and breed back on time. They push for an extra dose of longevity in the cow herd as well. Cattle need XXX structure that enables them to travel and thrive on the prairie throughout the year, while maintaining condition and weaning a calf at 55-65% of their body weight. 

“We just run it like a commercial outfit,” Gabriel said.  

A highlight was the sale of Deep Creek Legitimate for $105,000 and Deep Creek Square Deal for $50,000, both of whom now stand at stud, Legitimate with GenX and Square Deal with Select Sires.  

Another perhaps unique feature at Deep Creek is the use of their own bulls.  

“Most all of our calves this year are sired by our own bulls,” Gabriel said. “We only used a couple of outside bulls. We try to pick a few of our bulls back every year.” 

T.J. gleaned this practice from Bonnie Sivage as well.  

“If my bulls aren’t good enough for me to use, why would anyone else want to use them?” was her response when he asked why she used her own bulls.  

“If you’re not raising bulls good enough to use in your own herd, you’re probably not doing it right,” Gabriel said.  

When marketing poses challenges, Gabriel said you have to set yourself apart. 

“People have all sorts of options, and you really have to get your niche established,” he said. 

Advertising has shifted a lot over the past few years, with younger customers looking for information on social media. But Gabriel said their older customers are still looking for ads in print. Balancing the two is a challenge. 

“Times have changed,” he said. “When we started, our advertising was all in the paper; there was no internet or Facebook.”  

The frequent contact with their customers that comes with the cattle services Gabriels provide gives them a special connection.  

“Build the program you want and your customers will find you,” Gabriel said. “Setting yourself apart is a challenge, but once you do your customers will find you.” 

If not for their business, the family would have missed out on a lot of great friendships and relationships. 

“When we started, we thought the business was about cattle, but it’s not. It’s about people,” Gabriel said. “It’s about our customers and the relationships we build with them. They are an extension of our family. We’re there preg testing their cows, AI’ing their heifers, shipping their calves; we’re there on sale day and we look at sale reports for their names like we would our own. I love my cows and we enjoy that part too, but it’s really about the people.” 

All of the Gabriel children help on the ranch.  

“We do all the work in their free time,” T.J. joked. “They all come if we need help. Dylan helps a lot even though he’s working full time at Titan in Pierre. I get him on weekends. Everyone helps out at bull sale time.” 

“All three kids have their own cows; they are invested too. We hope the kids come home but it has to be their choice. Kids need to go out and work for somebody else, see how the real world is, and that dad isn’t always wrong and maybe he’s not such a bad guy to work for.” 

Gabriel said he enjoys seeing the quality of cattle herds improve. 

“There are so many good cattle in this country,” he said. “When I was a kid, there was so much mixed up stuff [crossbred] cattle. We want people to want to come to us, not just because our cattle are good but because we treated them good.”