Love and Smacks All Around!

K718 Get Smacked - Photo courtesy of Melissa Katich

Meet K718 Get Smacked!  He is the half brother to PBR superstar bull Smack Down.  Their sire is El Smacko, and Get Smacked’s dam is K118 Brangus, a Little Red Daughter.  (Little Red is the sire to K93 Major Payne.)

K118 Get Smacked's Dam -Photo courtesy of Melissa Katich

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of e-chatting with Melissa Katich.  She and her husband are 3rd generation ranchers and 2nd generation with bucking stock.  They have a 3500 acre ranch, which is not flat land.  Melissa tells me that calves are raised with many obstacles: streams, steep climbs and open country.  “They’re not raised in a corral or small pasture and they have to water up at the lake.  They learn to be instinctive!  They know their feet!  They follow their mothers and learn from them.  Crossing ditches and streams, gaining that confidence.  It also builds muscle and they grow better.  They’re not in close contact with other cows so there is less disease.  We ship them up to the upper ranch in April.  They grow amazing up there.  We push them up the mountains and that’s where they will stay until fall.”  Melissa goes on to explain that the upper ranch is leased land, 30,000 acres!

I asked Melissa to tell me a little bit about Get Smacked.
“K718 Get Smacked is always hot!  High headed!  The more we packed him (took him to more rodeos), the calmer he got.  He’s a little more high strung in the box, fights in the chute a bit.  Wish he would save his energy for when he bucks!  We buck our bulls as three year olds.  K718 had no tag, but he was a big bull and we were pretty sure he was three.  He blew out of the bucking chute to the left, same trip he has always had.  He bucked off the best rider!  We brought him to the back chute to read his “tattoo” (brand of cow number and year of birth) and he was just a two year old!  We knew we had something special!  He is such a great bull and always fun to watch.  He is 5 years old this year and finally starting to calm down.  He is co-owned by Mike & Linda Beksinski from Selah, WA.”

Katich bulls have such a distinct look, with big flappy ears and beautiful rich deep red hides. I asked Melissa about their herd and how much “new” blood they introduce in to it.  Melissa says, “We do a little AI’ing to get out crosses but like to stick with our bloodlines.  But we had the chance to buy El Smacko and thought it would be a great cross on our F1’s (red Brahma on red Angus cow) and Brangus.  It worked!  El Smacko is a multiple National Finals Rodeo Bull, who came out of Canada.  Our main foundation is our Brahma on Red Angus.  That’s where you get the big red muleys like K93 Major Payne, K66 Rapid Fire, K78 Unforgiven, etc.  Then the F1 females we breed to either crosses or back to our bulls that have our bloodlines.  Then we get K55 Smack Down, K14 Yellow Jacket Jr, K41 Wild n Out, K47 Nasty Town, etc.”

Smack Down and Yellow Jacket Jr at Mohegan Sun Bull Housing Tour Oct 2010  

Then there is K70 Love Doctor, who is a son of K24 Doctor Proctor.  His Dam is K70, an embryo baby!  Melissa and her husband had another Doctor Proctor son who was lost in the mountains last year, hit by a car.  A rough and sad reality of raising bulls in a wide open expanse.  “There is another sibling, a heifer, who is gorgeous!  She has a docile attitude - a keeper!  They don’t recognize each other as siblings, but they are all calm, gentle-natured and red!”

K70 F1 Brangus Dam to Love Doctor - Photo by Melissa Katich

Group hug with Doc! - Photo by Melissa Katich

Melissa and K70 Love Doctor have a special relationship.  Melissa tells me that “Love Doctor was raised like all the other red bulls.  Born on the lower ranch 3500 acres and then in May was shipped to the upper ranch.  As a younger calf Doc was hot and wild.  He jumped over their 6 foot corral, and he has a temper!  He broke his toe on the back left hoof as a two year old.  I put him in my horse barn, grained him and doctored him.  He slowly became gentler and loving.  Most bulls the tamer they get, the worse they buck.  Doc was doing the opposite - getting ranker and ranker!  I pampered him like my show cows, brushing him, bathing him and cleaning his hooves.  We have gained a wonderful trust!  Funny thing about Doc is his “bark is worse than his bite”!  He is in a hot wire fence behind our house and stands next to the fence teasing other bulls, wanting to fight, digging at the ground and bowed up.  One day the hot wire was down and K327 Major Impact (not a very nice bull) got in.  I was out with Doc  and Doc saw him and ran BEHIND me, like ‘you go get him’!  Needless to say, both Doc and I ran to the barn and I left the dogs to get him out.  Doc isn’t a fighter!”


“This last winter some cows broke into our grain barn and Doc got in there and ate a lot of grain.  We came home to find him laying flat out in the pasture, bloated.  My husband helped me get him to his side.  Doc let me put a hose down to his stomach to release the air.  Did that every half hour all through the night.  Kept him on meds to break down the gas.  Doc let me work on him with no restraints.  I sat with him and he put his head in my lap.  It took three days to get him back where he was, and I was thanking God!” Melissa says.

“Doc is one of a kind!  My sons 5 & 4 years old can run out in the pasture and he will put his head down and the boys will pet him all over.  Doc loves it.  My 4 year old grabs Doc’s nose and kisses it.  Doc is a part of our family.  All bulls are special but Doc needs attention and affection.”  Melissa goes on to tell of a bull riding in Montana.  Her husband was feeding the bulls and Doc wouldn’t eat for him.  “I was at the hotel so my husband and I went back out, thinking he was sick.  Doc was laid down and as soon as I got in to the pen and started scratching him, he got up and started eating!  Needy bull!”

I asked Melissa about how Doc and Get Smacked travel and get along with other bulls.  “Doc and Get Smacked get along great.  Doc tries to be tough but just gets in to trouble, that’s why he stays in the horse pasture.  Get Smacked gets along great with everyone.  He stays out of the way.  Both load up with a little pushing. Doc by himself will just follow me in to the trailer!  Not much fun when loading panels and he wants to help!  They usually lay down when they travel and we put straw down in the trailer” Melissa explains.

Doc "helping" - Photo by Melissa Katich

I was curious about the bulls and their eating habits, so I asked Melissa if they get any treats?  She told me “they get grain twice a day and have alfalfa/grass hay in front of them most of the day.  No special treats!”

Lastly, I asked Melissa about her bull’s personalities.  She said “Brahma’s are very social animals.  They like to stay with their buddies.  Calm as can be out in the pasture but single them out while sorting and they can get hot.  Most of our bulls we can pet.  But get them hauled to a new environment and they are hot, fired and won’t think twice about running us over to get by.  They are smart and they get an adrenaline rush.  They know who we are but at home I can walk through the bulls and even sit while taking pictures.  It’s relaxing for me and they don’t care a bit.  Never trust them but they are not hard to read.”

K38 Curious Bull Calf - Photo by Melissa Katich

“Had a yearling bull come up to me, shaking his head at me.  More curious and playful.  Followed me around the whole day while I was taking pictures.” Melissa says.


I can’t even begin to say thank you to Melissa, for sharing her photos and stories with me.  I learned a lot from hearing about life on the Katich ranch and what it takes to raise these amazing animals.  I must confess that I’ve fallen in love with Doc and dream of having that sort of bull some day.  Thank you Melissa! and keep up the great work raising these fantastic bulls!