On Sunday, a legend crossed over the bridge. He lost his fight with pancreatic cancer. He was a good man. He was a kind man. He was a good hand. He was a good family man. He was a man who taught folks how to handle livestock with low stress.
God be with you, Bud Williams.
############from his website ###################
Bud was born in 1932 on a farm in Southern Oregon, where he was raised with a variety of farm animals including work horses, dairy and beef cattle, sheep and hogs. After he and Eunice married in 1952, he worked on cattle and sheep ranches in Northern California. His reputation as a “trouble shooter” evolved from being a good neighbor and “bringing in the ones that got away.” The main qualifications enabling him to perfect his method of handling livestock are his great powers of observation and pure stubbornness. He has always said “No cow is going to get away from me, she doesn’t live long enough.” They also were able to rotationally graze without fences by taking any type of livestock (including weaned calves) onto unfenced ranges, teach them to stay as a herd.
After their daughters left home, Bud and Eunice started traveling in earnest, only taking jobs that were difficult and interesting. They have had excellent results working both beef and dairy cattle, sheep, goats, elk, fallow deer, reindeer, bison and hogs. They have gathered wild reindeer above the Arctic Circle in Alaska and wild cattle in Old Mexico and the Aleutian Islands and have implemented remarkable increases in production in dairy herds as well.
In 1989, after much urging from people he has helped through the years, Bud began actively teaching his Stockmanship methods to a larger number of people in the hope his unique methods of working livestock will not die with him. For the eleven years ending in 2000, Bud and Eunice headquartered at Vee Tee Feeders Ltd. near Lloydminster, Alberta. This is one of the most northern feedlots on the continent. Since the bulk of the incoming cattle are freshly weaned calves, and the weather conditions are far from ideal, Bud feels the information he gathered there has special significance.
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