ABOUT THE MASON'S

Tim and Kristi Mason are the proud owners and operators of Mason Angus and SimAngus. Tim and Kristi have two children, Logan and Kaitlyn, who grew up working cattle, helping run machinery, and showing cattle. Throughout the years Logan and Kaitlyn have chosen replacement heifers to add to their own herd. Though Logan and Kaitlyn have started their own herds they entrust the care of the herd to their parents. The family expanded even more when Logan married Katie in 2018 and even more when their sons Jett Timothy Mason was born in March 2020 and Crew Robert Mason was born in June 2022. Logan and Katie currently live in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where Katie is a preschool teacher and Logan is a Claims Representative for Omaha Public Power District. Kaitlyn recently moved back to Custer County and teaches second grade at Anselmo-Merna. Logan, Katie, and Kaitlyn like to come back to the family ranch and help when they can and have made a point to be around during the family's bull and female sale. The story of Mason Angus and SimAngus may be short but is nevertheless important.

In 1927 Tim's grandfather, Harry Mason, purchased 480 acres 7 miles northeast of Anselmo and moved his family from the Hampton area for the start of what has become the Mason Angus and SimAngus ranch. Most of our 3300 acre ranch lies in the southern edge of the vast Sandhills region. In 1953 Tim's parents, Marion and Angelia, married and took over the operation adding more acres over the years and transforming marginal farm ground back to native grass pastures in which the soil in this area is most suited for. Tim's maternal grandfather, Clark Wilkinson, raised Black Angus cattle and Tim's father was impressed with the positive traits that that breed possessed, so the transition was made to raising Angus cattle. In the early 70's Marion and Angelia purchased Tim's first registered Angus cow from the Minert Angus Ranch. In the mid 70’s with the influx of European cattle into the USA, Tim's parents experimented with several breeds in their new “crossbreeding program”, but through this kept their foundation of a registered Angus herd and improved it with every new bull purchased. By the early 80’s after several crossbreeding trials we were convinced that Angus and Simmental were the best two breeds for us. The Angus was and would always be our foundation breed, but the Simmental added another dimension to our herd and complemented the Angus breed very well. Kristi and Tim were married in 1984 and entered into the operation with Tim's parents and at that time the ranch name, Mason’s Lazy S Ranch was formed. At this time we introduced Artificial Insemination to our cowherd. Through all of the improvements that we have added to our operation over the years and generations, AI has had the biggest influence, by far. In the late 90s we introduced embryo transfer into our Angus and SimAngus herd, we have had some success and look forward to expanding upon what we have started and improving it.

Our cowherd consists of very productive registered Angus and registered SimAngus momma cows. We put extreme emphasis on structural correctness, docility, the heifer’s EPD’s and the history of the cow family when making selections for replacements for our herd and for our Production Sale each March. The final piece to our replacement heifer selection puzzle is they have to be phenotypically attractive. We currently AI 100% of our replacement heifers as well as our mature cowherd to the very best bulls available that fit our criteria.

After several years of marketing our seed stock animals through various avenues, in 2017, we decided to host our first Mason Angus and SimAngus Bull and Female Sale. We chose to hold our sale on the first Saturday of March every year at Broken Bow Livestock, Broken Bow, Nebraska. Mason Angus and SimAngus's goal is to continue to provide reliable and quality stock for producers to incorporate into their own herd.

Our ranch is located 2 ½ miles north, 2 ½ miles east, and 1 ½ miles north of Anselmo, NE. We welcome any and all visitors to our ranch to look through our cattle and have a visit. We like talking about our family and our cattle, after all they’re our passion!