Sometimes the storms took a heavy toll. They would start with freezing rains. Temperatures would plummet below zero. Then, bitterly cold winds would begin to pile up huge snowdrifts. Most cattle turned their backs to the icy blasts and they would begin to move downwind until they came up against the inevitable barbed wire fence. In the big storms, they would pile up against the fence and die by the score.

But one breed always survived. Herefords would instinctively head into the wind. They would stand shoulder to shoulder heads down, facing the blasts.

As one cowboy once put it, "You most always found the Herefords alive and well. I guess that's the greatest lesson I ever learned on the prairies - just face life's storms."