Our Herd
For the past few years, we have been saving 90% of the heifers raised on farm and exposing them for 30-50 days to calve at 2 years old. I've been surprised at the pregnancy rates of heifers developed on our low energy grasses. We started around 70% bred and for the past two years have had tremendous success. In 2020 they were exposed for only 33 days and were 81% bred!
We have done this by carefully selecting Angus and Red Angus cattle from programs we felt could improve the ability of our decades long closed herd of commercial cross cattle to develop and finish on forages. My grandfather had built a successful cow-calf and stocker program, but the weaned calves were developed on grain and silage, and the cows were fed hay for 5 months. Frame scores needing bringing down, docility needed improvement, and we need more efficient conversion.
To do this we kept daughters bred to bulls brought in from Oliver Family Angus, Pinebank Angus, and Red Hill Red Angus. Eventually we started saving sons from our best cows. The only bulls we've brought in for the last 4 years were Senepol, as we experiment with adding even more heat, insect, and parasite resistance to these cattle. We now raise our own bulls from our best cows, letting the environment tell us what is best. We forage develop about 15-25 of these bulls every year and offer them to our growing customer list of folks who are looking to grass finish calves or save heifers to improve their herd.
Of all the breeders I've met over the years, I've most enjoyed my friendship with the late Ed Oliver. Ed has utilized the very best of the historic Wye Angus herd and linebred them tightly, to create some of the most pre-potent, maternally focused cattle in the southeast. Today, Ed's son Spencer (Oliver Family Angus) continues the breeding progress of his father. Spencer has one of the most consistent herd of cattle I've ever seen, and helped me build the foundation of my registered program. Coat quality, udder, disposition, carcass, and fertility are all exceptional.
We've also purchased bulls and heifers from Kinloch Farm, in Virginia. The herd manager, Kevin Jennings, has done his homework piecing together some of the best genetics from great grass herds the world over. They utilize great bulls from the past like George of Swiftbrook, Ballot of Belladrum, and Adelard of Wye to bring efficient grass based genetics to the front of their pedigrees.
In 2013, we acquired an outstanding small herd of cattle from Bill and Di Hodge of Hodge Ranch. Bill has been a mentor to me and our friendship has led to our partnership in his business, Sustainable Genetics. Bill used forty years of experience studying cattle herds to blend Pinebank, Wye, old-line Graham, Shoshone, and Rito bloodlines to create a genetically pure angus cow with maximum reproductive longevity. They have been bred to excel on southern grass, and they produce calves that do the same.
A few years back we also had the pleasure of meeting the Jones family at Red Hill Red Angus. Red Hill has continued the success of Beckton and Buffalo Creek breeding programs, creating an efficient herd of red cattle that have been selected to perform on fescue and the heat of the south. At Red Hill, we acquired our herd sire, RHF-BUF U199 Lancer 157y. We've used him successfully on small frame heifers and the calves grow like pigweed. Today we are concentrating a few maternal lines of their program to bring moderate, no-nonsense production to our tough environment. We have purchased a dozen cattle from them over the past decade which are the backbone of our registered Red Angus program.
I met Michael Vance while serving on the board of The National Grazing Lands Coalition. Michael and I have a lot in common, and have a deep respect for each other and share a common mission: to breed Red Angus based cattle that work in our environments with very little supplement. We both sell breeding stock, and often recommend each other if we can't fulfill their order. I've bought a handful of bred heifers and cows from Michael over the years, and some have proven to work in my system exceedingly well. Last year I bought a bull from him at his inaugural auction and hope he contributes as well. Keep his program in mind. Southern Red Cattle
One of our breeding goals is to produce cows that 'fit' our environment. By culling animals that are not bred in a 45 day breeding window, and rarely supplementing our cows with off farm inputs, we make them work for us. One measure of success is what percentage of a dam's weight can she wean each year. Our goal is for our herd average to be around 50% each year, without off farm inputs. We don't cull animals that don't wean that much, but records are kept to ensure we know who our most profitable cows are. The heifer pictured below is off to a very good start. She weaned 72% of her bodyweight and bred back on time!
We have done this by carefully selecting Angus and Red Angus cattle from programs we felt could improve the ability of our decades long closed herd of commercial cross cattle to develop and finish on forages. My grandfather had built a successful cow-calf and stocker program, but the weaned calves were developed on grain and silage, and the cows were fed hay for 5 months. Frame scores needing bringing down, docility needed improvement, and we need more efficient conversion.
To do this we kept daughters bred to bulls brought in from Oliver Family Angus, Pinebank Angus, and Red Hill Red Angus. Eventually we started saving sons from our best cows. The only bulls we've brought in for the last 4 years were Senepol, as we experiment with adding even more heat, insect, and parasite resistance to these cattle. We now raise our own bulls from our best cows, letting the environment tell us what is best. We forage develop about 15-25 of these bulls every year and offer them to our growing customer list of folks who are looking to grass finish calves or save heifers to improve their herd.
Of all the breeders I've met over the years, I've most enjoyed my friendship with the late Ed Oliver. Ed has utilized the very best of the historic Wye Angus herd and linebred them tightly, to create some of the most pre-potent, maternally focused cattle in the southeast. Today, Ed's son Spencer (Oliver Family Angus) continues the breeding progress of his father. Spencer has one of the most consistent herd of cattle I've ever seen, and helped me build the foundation of my registered program. Coat quality, udder, disposition, carcass, and fertility are all exceptional.
We've also purchased bulls and heifers from Kinloch Farm, in Virginia. The herd manager, Kevin Jennings, has done his homework piecing together some of the best genetics from great grass herds the world over. They utilize great bulls from the past like George of Swiftbrook, Ballot of Belladrum, and Adelard of Wye to bring efficient grass based genetics to the front of their pedigrees.
In 2013, we acquired an outstanding small herd of cattle from Bill and Di Hodge of Hodge Ranch. Bill has been a mentor to me and our friendship has led to our partnership in his business, Sustainable Genetics. Bill used forty years of experience studying cattle herds to blend Pinebank, Wye, old-line Graham, Shoshone, and Rito bloodlines to create a genetically pure angus cow with maximum reproductive longevity. They have been bred to excel on southern grass, and they produce calves that do the same.
A few years back we also had the pleasure of meeting the Jones family at Red Hill Red Angus. Red Hill has continued the success of Beckton and Buffalo Creek breeding programs, creating an efficient herd of red cattle that have been selected to perform on fescue and the heat of the south. At Red Hill, we acquired our herd sire, RHF-BUF U199 Lancer 157y. We've used him successfully on small frame heifers and the calves grow like pigweed. Today we are concentrating a few maternal lines of their program to bring moderate, no-nonsense production to our tough environment. We have purchased a dozen cattle from them over the past decade which are the backbone of our registered Red Angus program.
I met Michael Vance while serving on the board of The National Grazing Lands Coalition. Michael and I have a lot in common, and have a deep respect for each other and share a common mission: to breed Red Angus based cattle that work in our environments with very little supplement. We both sell breeding stock, and often recommend each other if we can't fulfill their order. I've bought a handful of bred heifers and cows from Michael over the years, and some have proven to work in my system exceedingly well. Last year I bought a bull from him at his inaugural auction and hope he contributes as well. Keep his program in mind. Southern Red Cattle
One of our breeding goals is to produce cows that 'fit' our environment. By culling animals that are not bred in a 45 day breeding window, and rarely supplementing our cows with off farm inputs, we make them work for us. One measure of success is what percentage of a dam's weight can she wean each year. Our goal is for our herd average to be around 50% each year, without off farm inputs. We don't cull animals that don't wean that much, but records are kept to ensure we know who our most profitable cows are. The heifer pictured below is off to a very good start. She weaned 72% of her bodyweight and bred back on time!
