About | McCann Red Angus

About Us

Meet the McCann's

My grandfather, Joseph P. McCann came from Wisconsin to the Lewiston, Idaho, area in 1900 to look at the possibility of moving his sawmill to Idaho. His Wisconsin timber supply was running low and after visiting the area several times between 1900-1904, he moved his wife and four children to Lewiston. After moving to the Valley, he and his wife added four more children to their family, my father, William V. McCann, the youngest boy was born in 1911. Upon arriving in the area, my grandfather decided against starting a new sawmill and instead, started a farming and ranching operation. My grandfather purchased substantial amounts of property in both Nez Perce County (the Lewiston area) and Lewis County (the Craig Mountain area) where he farmed, ranched, and raised his family. After my grandparents passed away, the property and assets were distributed among their 8 children.

My father received property both in Lewiston and on the Craig Mountain, and later purchased a ranch outside of Bovill, Idaho. In 1941, my father married Gertrude Hoss, a farm girl from Craigmont. Together, they farmed and ranched and raised two sons. In 1974 my parents incorporated their farming and ranching operation under the name of McCann Ranch & Livestock, Co., which today remains as a farming and ranching business with some commercial rental properties. The property belonging to McCann Ranch & Livestock, Co., for the ranching operation sits along the banks of the Clearwater River outside of Lewiston, along with some undeveloped property that sits on the main North and South corridor of Lewiston. This town property, not many years ago was designated as our bull pasture. In addition, the corporation owns summer pasture ground on the Craig Mountain outside of the small town of Forest, Idaho, and ground sitting above and running to the banks of the Salmon River, outside of the quaint town of Keuterville, Idaho, and the ranch out of Bovill.

Who We Are

The corporation in 1997, when my father, William V. McCann, passed away, was operating a small 150 cow/calf commercial operation, with a polled Herford, Red Angus base, crossed with shorthorn. It was a family operation where my father and a hired man took care of the day to day needs of the cattle, I took care of the business side of things, and my wife Lori and I, along with our children, Mindy, Bill, III, Jason and Aaron, would help with branding, hauling and stacking hay, and wherever we were needed. After my father’s passing, my wife, Lori, myself, and our son, Jason, took over full operations. Our other children were off to college, marriage, and raising their own children outside of Idaho. Our goal at that time was to increase the vigor of the herd, to increase the pounds on the animals and to build a stronger base. We grew from that small 150 head to over 360 head of commercial cows. We also started a program where we bred Wagyu bulls to our first calf heifers, for their calving ease and premium price. We began purchasing higher quality bulls and culling out animals for bad dispositions, bad teeth, and bad bags. Approximately 9 years ago as Jason was researching for some quality Red Angus bulls to continue developing our herd, he found the Crump Red Angus program. We started purchasing the Crump bulls and watched our herd improve immediately. The mothers had better milk production, raised bigger and stronger calves, which turned into better profits upon weaning and selling the calves.

J.P. McCann (Joseph P. McCann) Bill's grandfather

William V. and Gertrude McCann, Bill's Parents

Bill Jr. and Lori McCann

Jason, Sadie, Gracie, Halle and Kylee Beck

Partners with the Crump Family

After building a great working relationship with the Crump family, we were asked if we would partner with them in their embryo program, of which approximately 75 of our commercial cows acted as surrogate mothers to bulls and heifers. We were able to purchase some excellent replacement heifers and sell the bulls we raised at their sale for a percentage of the profit. Not only did we have a superior working relationship with the Crumps, but our family grew to deeply care for the Crump family. When we were approached by the Crumps in October of 2020 and asked if we would be interested in purchasing the herd, we immediately went to work on securing the financing to complete the purchase. During the week of November 15, 2020, our two semis along with seven others met at the Crump Ranch in Arvada, Wyoming, to bring the herd home to Idaho. A few days previous to this, we sent approximately 115 head of Red bulls to Billings, Montana, to Ryan Gilbert’s ranch/feedlot for feeding and developing. It was a bittersweet day for all of us as we pulled away from the Crump Ranch on our way to a new endeavor. The Crump family is still near and dear to us and we appreciate all the help and advice that we have received from Jesse, Charity, and their wonderful children. We also appreciate all the great help and advice we have received from many of you as we began to learn the ropes of putting on a registered bull sale.

Ours is truly a family operation with my wife and I each driving Peterbilt Trucks to haul the cattle back and forth from summer to winter pasture and hauling over 1000 ton of hay each late summer and early fall. We have four children (a daughter and three sons) and ten grandchildren. My wife, Lori, was a professor at Lewis-Clark State College for 15 years and now spends her time in our office taking care of all the bookwork and spends as much time as possible with our ten grandchildren. We are a third-generation ranching family of which we feel has truly enriched our lives. Three of our children have found professions other than ranching which they enjoy, but they all like to come home and help when possible. We would like to thank our family, our staff, Amanda Coleman, Pete Wittman, Toby Uhlenkott, and our dear friends, Luke and Debbie Lowe along with their son, Willson, Brian Jones and Rob Warner and Howard Warner, and many others, for all of their help. Most of all, Lori and I want to thank Jason for his commitment and dedication to our program, because without him, we would never have been able to take on this wonderful opportunity.

McCann Red Angus

We know we have big shoes to fill and it is our sincere hope and desire that we can continue to offer you the quality bulls and dams that you have been accustomed to from the Crump family. Although we might do things a little different, we will always be looking out for you, the producer, to help build your herds to the highest standards so that you may sell your calves for top dollar every year, or to build your own breeding program. As we set our sights already on the next great crop of calves, we are very excited to see the hard work the Crump family put into this next generation of animals; and we know you will appreciate it too. Thank you for joining us for this, our inaugural sale.

Bill, Jr. & The McCann Family