Hello All:
It’s been a spell. Summarizing 2025: A year of blessing! Now, we’ve had years where the rain didn’t fall, where cattle died, struggled to perform well, came up open or didn’t bring very much. We’ve had major equipment expenses, costly accidents, hail storms and low grain prices. We’ve collected on crop insurance as many or more years than we haven’t, almost exclusively due to drought. If we continue in production agriculture more of that stuff is on the way. However, those years were years of blessings too. We always had enough. We had/have the opportunity to raise, disciple and train up 7 kids. We’ve interacted with all sorts of family, friends and people from all over. In ’25 we had the particular blessing of ample rainfall. It took us until our 30th year of farming to get the yields we did. The majority of acres yielded the highest ever. Praise be to God from whom all blessings flow. Blessing comes from God every day; you decide if you’re happy or not.
And now it’s time to prepare for a bull and bred heifer production sale (that preparation is actually a multi-year, never ending process). Saturday, March 14 at 11 am we will hold our 10th annual Angus, Hereford and Composite sale offering approximately 50 coming two year-old bulls and about 70 bred heifers set to calve starting in May. We invite you to join us in person or on DVAuction. The sale animals will soon be on a half-section of ground which includes our farmstead. Ashley and crew will soon be doing evaluations and shooting videos to complete our catalog which will be available online at icecattle.com.
I hate selling bulls…so I don’t. I give you perspective, and you decide. If you call, I’ll probably have you talk to Ashley because she knows the “trees” better than I do, I manage the “forest.” If you’re interested in cattle that don’t fall apart and work for a living, I invite you to check us out. No one develops seedstock cattle like we do, unless you do. I’d recommend you develop your own bulls and replacement heifers. You know your operation better than anyone else. You can do quality control like no one else. You can trust yourself like no one else. But if you’re interested in some belts and suspenders, outside genetics that have calving ease, longevity, fertility, and are easy-fleshing: our cattle graze year-round. Cows graze cornstalks October-April with their previous years’ calves at their side…with no supplementation, just forage, salt, mineral and water. In March or April we wean the calves and they go to development pastures for next year’s sale. The cows go to pasture to calve. We don’t treat for anything; our cattle get better or they get gone. How does pinkeye in our herd benefit you? They either get it and recover or never get it; both exhibit some resilience that will benefit your herd. The ones that lose an eye become beef. In many (most) cattle operations, inefficiency is tolerated in some fashion, usually with a prop. Keeping that “good old/young cow” that didn’t breed back. Put a tub out here, alfalfa there, creep feed over there, corn/silage/hay/protein pellets/etc./etc. None of these things build a stronger, more resilient herd. Our cattle don’t get to be inefficient. Our kids don’t know how blessed they are not to have that standard applied to them.
Some recent preg check statistics: 74% of our replacement heifers are with calf. These heifers went through the winter of ‘24/’25 on stalks with no supplements at their momma’s side and were very light when weaned in March. I was afraid we were looking at a sub-50% breeding rate. They looked as tough as I’ve seen since we starting March/April weaning…but they gained well; compensatory gain and heterosis are two of very few “freebies” in this business. The open 26% are in the feedlot being prepared for our March butcher appointments. Cows breeding percentage was 89%. Of the opens, 4 were younger cows, and the average age of the others was 10 years. The oldest open cow was 19. Our cows are NEVER allowed to stay in the herd if they are open at preg. check.
You can earn more money and more time but rarely at the same time…and each requires a different set of skills but both require discipline.
Some people are like C-section babies the way they want to avoid labor.
