Hello All: Lots of things to think about these days…can’t fit them all in one UPDATE.

If you are interested in a high-percentage red or black angus bull and don’t need him to be registered, you will find some excellent unregistered bulls in the red and black angus sections of the catalog. We also have some higher percentage angus bulls in the composite section as well.

LIKE NO OTHER: I don’t do the majority of the “technician” work in our operation. David Ellis and Daymian Kimberly do that: planting, spraying, fencing, fixing, building, hauling, moving, maintaining, among many, many other things. However, one thing I enjoy doing when I have the opportunity is checking on the cattle, especially with my WIFE, ESPECIALLY when she’s a little frisky! (She’s the editor of these updates so we’ll see if she leaves that in.) When checking cattle, we have a protocol of “musts”: cattle in, fence in good repair and/or shocking hot, access to water, access to salt and mineral and access to forage. Currently the pairs are grazing corn stalks on our Republican River bottom ground. We have approximately 200 pairs down there. I so enjoy it when they are down there because they have good shelter, a clear flowing creek to drink from, and they seem to be so content! After the sale we plan to move them home and wean. Here is the “LIKE NO OTHER”: I would be stunned to find another seedstock producer that calves in May, leaves the pairs together through the winter and doesn’t wean until March…with ZERO protein supplementation or other kind of feed. (We recently started taking them some grass hay, about 1 bale/day for 200 pairs.) Most cows would come up open/wouldn’t breed back with that protocol. As I travel, I see cows without calves grazing stalks with lick tubs scattered at the end of the field (their calves being fed somewhere?). Why do they need that? I don’t know how hard you are on your cattle, but we are tough on ours because we want them to work for you. Our protocols, from conception to sale day, are purposely chosen to weed out the weak. We require every cow to have a calf every year to remain in the herd. When you get rid of problems…you don’t have as many problems…and we don’t want our problems to become yours.

MOTIVATION: Suppose a seedstock producer is selling bulls for an average of $5000/head. In today’s world that’s not rare, and in many operations that would be a low average. We have never come close to that for an average since we left PCC. Though we used to average that with PCC, since we’ve been on our own we’ve sold very few bulls for $5000, let alone averaged that! Anyway, if you know you could average $5000/bull, is your motivation to sell more or fewer bulls at that price? Seems easy to answer to me! However, if your motivation is to sell more bulls, then how do you develop your cattle to achieve that goal? Do you run them in the winter so that they only have access to cornstalks, water, salt and mineral? Do you cull ruthlessly? Do you “feed them up” so they look amazing on sale day (only to fall apart later)? I mentioned above that our development protocols weed out the weak. You know what happens to our “weak”? They become beef that ICE MEATS markets. So, our motivation is two-fold: We are aiming to produce the best bulls and heifers you will find anywhere and to sell the best meat in the world! Our cattle can do both, their genetics allow either, and we win both ways. While all our seedstock could make great beef, we don’t let all our cattle become seedstock; the development protocol sorts them. Better check with your seedstock producer regarding their beef sales. If they don’t have a way to make a premium off of their culls, they might be too motivated to prop up their bulls.

BREEDING SOUNDNESS: We guarantee every bull will be a breeder for their first season. If you are concerned about a bull prior to their first breeding season, we are willing to take him back or have you sell him for weigh up and we will refund the difference. Now, there are many a slip twist the cup and a lip, hundreds (thousands?) of ways a bull could not be able to service cows. One way we bolster this guarantee is to offer to pay for a breeding soundness exam with semen test several weeks before breeding season. A test in December when we process the bulls is just about useless the next August (or whenever) you are ready to turn him out. Though a breeding soundness exam doesn’t guarantee libido or stamina, it should guarantee that a bull is “mechanically” ready to go. So, PLEASE take advantage of our offer! Send us the invoice for the bull and we will be happy to pay it. We want to sell breeders not blank shooters!

Sale March 12 @ 11 am at our headquarters. Bulls and bred heifers are here, and you are welcome to drive or walk through them. We have nothing to hide. They are currently grazing stockpiled cover crop residue. We have put out bales of grass hay and they eat them eventually but approximately 130 head go through about 1 bale/day. They have access to salt and mineral; our salt and mineral tubs are SOMEONE ELSE’S protein lick tubs that were discarded!

Grace to you all!

Lanny