Adolph Brost was born in 1883 in Denvitz, Bessarabia and came to North America as a small child with his parents Michial and Caroline Brost. They settled in North Dakota, but as young men, Adolph and two of his brothers came to Canada. Adolph worked as a laborer, and for a few years operated a livery barn in Irvine, Alberta with one of his brothers. In 1908 he married his young 16 year old bride, Matilda, and they ran a boarding house business in Medicine Hat for a short time until they took up a homestead in the Gros Ventre area. They farmed their homestead for several years before they purchased a section of land on the North side of the German-Russian settlement of Irvine. Together, Adolph and Matilda raised 14 children, seven girls and seven boys.
One of their sons, Alfred, born in 1916, left the farm during the “Dirty Thirties” to seek employment in Central Alberta. When Alfred returned to Irvine in 1939, he settled on land close to his parents, just 1 ½ miles north of Irvine.
In 1943, Alfred married Annie Boschee, and together they raised a family of five children; three boys and two girls. Like his father, Alfred ran a mixed farm until he decided to step-up his operation by adding a Purebred herd bull. In 1960 Alfred and his oldest son, Harlow, travelled to Maple Creek, Saskatchewan with the intent of purchasing a Polled Hereford bull from Mike Klaibert. They did return home with a herd bull, Onword Domestic Mischief 7J, but they also returned with 20 Purebred females. In the years that followed, they expanded their genetic pool by purchasing bulls from Circle T Ranch, Chris Sutter and Tom Day.
In the late sixties and the seventies, herd bulls were also added from Justamere Farms and Remitall Cattle Co. During this time, the Purebred cow herd grew as well. The Brosts attended dispersal sales, and acquired females from Carl Beck, Tom Day and Peter Reterath. The farm was named “Alfred Brost and Sons”, and their herd letters, ABSR, would soon become well recognized within the Hereford industry. Alfred Brost and Sons sold their bulls by private treaty and cultivated a loyal commercial clientele by consigning to the Medicine Hat Bull Sale beginning in 1963.
Bulls were also sold at Lethbridge, Calgary and Lacombe where they had Champions at all these sales.
When Alfred passed away in 1976, his three sons, Harlow, Glenn and Merlen carried on with the family operation under the name of Brost Bros. Stock Farm, hence the prefix BBSF. They also changed the Hereford tattoo letters to GHMB to represent Glenn, Harlow, and Merlen Brost. By this time the Brosts were also hosting their own production sales. The three brothers worked hard together to serve the needs of their commercial clientele and compete in the Purebred Hereford industry while maximizing the genetics of both Horned and Polled Hereford cattle.
Harlow and his wife, Ruby, had three children, Blaine, Lori and Blake. Tragically, they lost Blake in 1985 at the age of 11 in a vehicle accident. Glenn and Shirley Brost have three children, Leif, Terry and Cole, and Merlen and Barbara have three children as well, Shelley, Craig and Mark. When Harlow passed away in 1998, the two remaining brothers, Glenn and Merlen, formed a company with Harlow’s son, Blaine, under the name of Brost Land & Cattle Co.
Some of the Brost family’s most memorable accomplishments in the purebred industry go back 20 years, to when they won the Junior Champion Bull Banner at the National Western Denver Stock Show with Advantage 441L. Today, the Brosts exhibit at the Junior Hereford Shows in the summer, at Canadian Western Agribition in the fall, and the National Western Denver Stock Show in January. Another of their favourite show highlights was when they purchased GHC Taboo Coalition 52U from Crittenden Bros. Polled Herefords sale. The bull showed at the Denver Stock Show and was named Senior Champion in 2011. One more highlight for the Brosts, especially Nicona, was when her Junior Semen Donation bull, BBSF 101N Wrangler 29W sold in their production sale to Crittenden Bros. Polled Herefords and Holmes Farm. Wrangler stood second in class to the Champion Bull at the Denver Stock Show in 2011.