Useful Information
Three Questions to Ask Your Seedstock Producer
In November of 2019, Progressive Cattleman ran an article written by Kayln Waters titled “Three questions to ask your Seedstock Producer.” We thought there was enough value in her questions that we would answer them for you!
1. CAN I SEE YOUR COW HERD?
We would love for you to come visit and look through the bulls and cows! There is no better way in our opinion to see if our philosophy matches your genetic goals. We have poured our lives into our cowherd and are proud to show it off to anyone. Plus there may be a cow with her bull calf that you really love. Chances are he will be in our production sale the next March.
2. WHAT IS YOUR CULLING PROGRAM?
Have you ever noticed how few registered heifers we offer? This is because we are so aggressive with the culling of our cowherd. We have a short breeding season, as well as criteria for disposition, calf performance, phenotype, etc. that is evaluated constantly. Cows that are good but not great can be rolled into recip cows so they can continue to produce. Open cows are not rolled from season to season.
When it comes to keeping replacements, we have a fairly simple process. We use Burke Teichert’s approach of letting the bulls (and the AI gun) breed the early ones. Of those each is given two composite scores for phenotype and one for genotype. Those numbers let us quickly break down who can stay. We do as much as we can WITHOUT a pedigree. That way we aren’t tempted to a keep a subpar heifer only because we like her mother or make the excuse that she SHOULD be better than she is.
3. DO YOUR COWS WORK FOR YOU OR DO YOU WORK FOR YOUR COWS?
Our whole driving philosophy is making cattle that work for us. If you have taken us up on question number 1 you have heard us say as much. Heifers are calved “out” and checked once a day. Cows are not assisted. Animals are grazed as long as possible on the forages we have and purchased feed is kept to an absolute minimum. The only cows in pens are opens being fed to slaughter.
Ultimately, we are a family business with 5 of us doing the day to day. Counting calves, bulls, and commercial heifers we are greatly out numbered. If they weren’t working for us our program would cease to exist in a month. Our goal is to form the genetics that can do the same for you.
We welcome any other questions you may have and invite you to our Annual Production Sale on March 20th! 200 Bulls and 80 Commercial Heifers will be offered.
Tagged bulls, cattle, commercial heifers, commercial red angus heifers, efficient cattle, Mushrush, red angus, seedstock