NAPOLEON, N.D. -- Chad Weigel is convinced that 20 calves were rustled from the family ranch pasture near Napoleon, N.D., southeast of Bismarck, and he hopes a $24,000 reward will entice someone to tell authorities who took them.
The cattle market is at an all-time high and the calves are more valuable now than ever before, at somewhere in the range of $1,500 each. The apparent theft of so many calves has Weigel puzzled how someone could make off with what was probably a horse trailer-sized load without anyone noticing or seeing something.
"I'm surprised it hasn't happened more," he says, given what they're worth.
Napoleon Livestock office manager Marsha Schlecht says the loss is so large, she thought the Weigels were kidding when they made the report.
"I thought they were just messing with us," Schlecht says. "I've been here 15 years and I've never heard of this amount missing; one or two, but never 20 at a time."
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To make matters worse, the calves were not branded, making them easier to sell and harder to identify. Schlecht says it's not common in the Napoleon area to brand spring calves before turnout and a brand is usually applied only to older replacement stock. Weigel says it's likely whoever took the calves knew the calves weren't branded. Passing off branded cattle as their own would be harder because livestock brand inspectors require proof of ownership if a brand is not registered to the seller.
"We can't prove they're ours if we could find them. The only way is if someone comes clean," he says.
He says he'll be rethinking his branding tradition from now on.
"For $30,000 (loss) I'll brand everything out here," he says.
The Weigels -- father Duane Weigel and sons Chad and Damon Weigel -- noticed the discrepancy about five weeks ago when they sorted off 91 cows and came up with only 71 calves. Weigel says the family decided to try a reward only after conducting an aerial and ground search and hoping that someone in the area would identify them as strays. There was no evidence of coyote kills in the 500-acre pasture right along N.D. Highway 3, or any tell-tale black and black baldies mixed in with the mostly red Angus in pastures around theirs. He says the calves weren't likely to wander far from the mother cow, their primary food source.
The Logan County Sheriff's Department is handling the investigation, but after advertising the reward for about a week, no tips or information has come in, says sheriff Andrew Bartholomaus. The Weigels put up $10,000 and the North Dakota Stockmen's Association put up $14,000 in the reward package.
Stockmen's director Julie Ellingson says the association has a standing reward fund for information leading to the conviction of someone who steals cattle, horses or mules. She says there are geographical differences in how and when producers brand their animals. She says the 22,000 brands registered in North Dakota serve as a return address and proof of ownership, both extra important now with the high value on any lost or stolen animal.
Anyone with information can call the Logan County Sheriff at 701-754-2495.
