It’s no wonder that the Oram family of Central Butte, Saskatchewan are well known for their 60 years of farming with 50 years of raising purebred Charolais cattle. Appreciate the focus and drive of Reg and Betty Oram who moved back to the area in 1960 to farm and give their eight children that sense of pride that comes with hard work. Reg was a builder by nature. Along with farming, he helped build the local hospital, a private home and also worked on building the east side of Gardiner Dam to create Lake Diefenbaker. Reg had a vision of irrigating the crop and hayland from the lake and pushed to develop the Grainland Irrigation District which started up in the late 70’s. Betty coined the name “Valley’s End Ranch” as the farm is a mile from the end of the dam where the South Saskatchewan River continues into the Qu’Appelle Valley.

The first Charolais sired calves were selected as 4-H prospects in 1966 from a neighbor, Wendel Schinold. Wendel had been cross-breeding with Charolais bulls and ran his herd with a strong emphasis on performance. Edgar Philpott, a successful cattleman in the Shorthorn breed, was the Oram’s 4-H beef leader. He saw the tremendous performance of the Charolais breed and teamed-up with Murray Oram (the oldest son of Reg & Betty) to begin a joint purebred family business that lasted over thirty years. Edgar and Murray purchased purebred Charolais females, pick of the calf crop over three consecutive years, from George and Ruby Norris of Rush, Colorado. These were performance cattle, fertile, maternal and also polled, a dominant trait over horned-headed cattle. As of 2019, one of the cow families goes back to an original Colorado cow. Other early purchases to form the herd came from reputable Charolais breeders throughout Canada. Edgar Philpott’s herd prefix was “Butte Lee” with tattoo letters EXP. The Valley’s End herd prefix is “Val-End” with tattoo letters END.

Murray Oram and his uncle Sid Bryan went to France in the early 70’s to select two Charolais females: Eclipse and Erica. Eclipse and her calf were later sold in a sale in Calgary for $24,000.00 which enabled Murray to purchase five quarters of native pasture across from his home place.