Tim Krantz is both a fourth grade teacher as well as a cattle rancher. He operates along side his father, Denny Krantz and brother, Justin Krantz. Each of the three has their own herds but work them as a whole, roughly 180 pairs.
Tim received his teaching certificate from the University of Montana, shortly after graduation he moved to Seattle. After living there for 2 years he was given the opportunity to run part of the ranch, so he left and came back to St. Ignatius. He then began to work at the Elementary school along side teachers he had as a child. In fact one of them, being his fifth grade basketball coach.
His wife, Dede is the assistant to St. Ignatius’ veterinarian and naturally has a love for animals. They live an infusion of a traditional livelihood through contemporary perspective. Not many cattle workers of Montana make it to the Decemeberists concert in Missoula.
Tim is the teacher of one, of only two fourth grade classes in St. Ignatius. His class consists of 21 children. In class he shares all of the going-ons of the ranch and even makes some of what he does into math problems for the kids to solve.
As October ends a third dimension of Tim comes to life, in the form of sixth grade boy’s basketball. Tim alongside another teacher, coaches the team of about 20 players. It’s a coincidental time of year, Tim ships his calves and basketball season begins within two days of each other.
On October 25th, the Krantzes sell their calves to a local middleman where they are eventually processed. The round up began at Tim’s brother Justin’s place, where they first had the task of separating the calves from their mothers. Once separated from their mother, the calves are separated again by sex, the hefers from the steers. This separation is necessary for when they go to sell them, as steers are worth more and must be weighed separate from the hefers. The calves were then loaded into stock trailers and taken to the middleman to be weighed. The whole process was then repeated to Tim and Denny’s herd. This year was the most profitable payout the Krantzes have ever seen.
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