Wild Mustangs Turn Profit For Illinois Rancher

Wild Mustangs Turn Profit For Illinois Rancher LIVESTOCK Horses/Mules 27-2-7 Harold and Betty Barnard, and their son Todd, probably have the largest herd of Mustangs in the Midwest. They owe it all to the U.S. government, which allowed them to "adopt" 110 mares from wild herds in the West. U.S. Department of the Interior inspectors reviewed the request and evaluated the 2,900 acres of securely fenced fields and pastures, and then gave the Barnards a single mare. Instead, the Geff, Illinois family 119 mares. In return, they agreed to care for them for a ten-year period. "We didn't adopt them to break or train them," explains Barnard. "We use them as brood mares, breeding them to Mustang stallions and selling the colts." While they won't receive title to the original mares for ten years, they have full title to all offspring. The Barnards sell about 70 purebred Mustangs each year for an average price of $650. Buyers come from as far away as New Jersey to California. They keep the female foals to increase the size of the herd. Barnard also raises cattle and owns a western wear store. He rotates the Mustang herd through a series of pastures after his beef herd. The horses and cattle complement each other, and Barnard has found the wily Mustangs are easy keepers. "We have a lot of fescue in the pasture, and once it goes dormant, the cattle need fresh pasture, but the horses thrive on it," he says. "We can have an inch of snow on the ground, and the horses will paw through it before they will touch big hay bales in the same pasture. They'll break the ice on ponds, where domestic horses would walk back and forth waiting for someone to do it for them." The wild horses are only worked once a year when Barnard runs them through a modified chute (he lined it with slick plastic sheeting to reduce bruising) for any needed hoof, mane or tail trims. He also worms them at that time and then turns them back out. When Barnard discovered that he couldn't use domestic studs on the wild mares - he says the Mustangs were just too wild - he went back to the people at the Department of the Interior and inquired about studs. "They picked out 16 real nice ones and delivered them to their nearest station in Milwaukee," recalls Barnard. "My wife and I trucked them home from there. By the time we got them through Chicago traffic, they were just about halter broke!" Barnard can't say enough good things about the government people he worked with. "They are the nicest people in the world if you cooperate with them," he recalls, encouraging others to adopt horses, too. "If it worked for us, it could work for anybody." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Harold Barnard, RR 1, Box 143, Geff, Ill. 62842 (ph 618 897-2407 or 618 897-2493).

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