Our mission is to supply multiple trait-improving seedstock to the cattle industry that add value at all levels of the production chain.

Gateway Simmental is a family owned and operated ranch managed by Ember and Darlene Butcher and their sons Jim and Tom. Jim’s family consists of his wife Lynn and 4 children, Logan, Austin, Brockton and Gracie. Tom’s family includes his wife Denise and 5 children, Tyler, Colton, Jordan, and twins Emily and Avery. The home place consists of farm and working facilities headquartered 2 miles northwest of Lewistown MT. The cattle are summered on mountain pasture 25 miles southwest of Lewistown in the Snowy Mountains. Gateway Simmental calves between 650-700 cows and breeds about 1000 head total per year. The operation also includes 3000 acres of farmland and 600 acres of irrigated hay.

Emmet Butcher was a pioneer in the Simmental breed when he AI’ed Hereford cows to Parisien, the first Simmental sire available, in the spring of 1968. He AI’ed his first cow back in 1961 making him one of the first in this area to AI. Today, approximately 700 head are either bred AI or are carrying an embryo transplant calf. 

Gateway Simmental became an entity in 1975 at the conclusion of the Emmons and Butcher joint production sales. Through 2001, Gateway has been involved in 49 production sales. Today Gateway has two production sales annually; a bull sale in late January or early February and a Female sale in September. 

Until 1989, Gateway Simmental produced traditionally marked Simmental with a fair amount of success. However, at that time it was obvious that for us to continue to be successful supplying bulls to ranchers in this area, we needed to change the color of our Simmental and address the Angus revolution. So we geared up and began producing non-diluter gene red and black Simmentals that would not produce gray calves on black cows. We have always been advocates of crossbreeding and we needed to adapt our program to complement the Angus influenced commercial cow. 

It was exciting for us to produce cattle with solid pigment from top to bottom so we could focus on the maternal traits that Simmental had always been noted for. Sunburned udders and cancer eyes could become a thing of the past. Providing a moderate framed, easy calving, maternally functional animal would become the centerpiece of the program. Today, carcass excellence has been added to the equation.

We have been very fortunate to have found or bred some of the most influential Simmental genetics in recent years. The combination calving ease, “spread”, and carcass leaders among the “GW” sires is well documented.