Rising beef prices helped Annabelle Schmidt to convince her grandfather that she could follow his footsteps and become the sixth generation of family to raise cattle on Green Bluff.

Schmidt, 21, said she first remembers working for her grandfather, 63-year-old Michael Schmidt, when she was 10 or 11.

“He needed a little extra help. I said, ‘Let me go with you,’ ” she said of her grandfather. “I spent the whole summer doing everything he was doing. We moved cattle, everything under the sun. I loved being around cattle — just every part of it.”

She attended high school at Gonzaga Preparatory School and started college. But she yearned for the early mornings and dusty afternoons.

“I went to college for a semester, but I just had a longing in my heart,” she said. “I wanted to be on the ranc

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