Foundation not easily shakin’

“Hey there, kid, what’s shakin’?”

I had exactly one conversation with Herb Holzapfel before he began answering my phone calls like this.

I teased he had a voice for radio. He shrugged. If so obliged, it’s not that he wouldn’t fit voiceover work into his already booming schedule; rather, he’s just not interested. He’ll stick to his rice, airplanes and cattle.

Always the cattle.“I’d rather lose money than give up my cows,” he says, standing among a herd he affectionately calls his “girls” as they rest in the shade. Neither is the case for the Willows, Calif., rancher but it’s often a response to those who suggest he reverse his ratio of grazing pasture and rice fields.

Holzapfel sits on a goldmine, after all. The lush Sacramento Valley land where he was born and lives rests on a particular soil type conducive for rice farming – sticky rice to be specific – and it and nearby tracks supply 80% of demand for sushi restaurants worldwide.

All that’s to say, the Angus cattle still get first dibs. Rice is for the off-season.“My mother brought some of the first Angus cows into California in 1938, from Canada,” he says. “Those were the last cows we ever bought.”

Years that followed were for growth and expansion. Limitations that came his way were viewed as opportunities rather than roadblocks; his memory full of challenges he’s met and conquered.

• Construction costs too high, “We’ll build the house ourselves.”
• Equipment loans too bleak, “I’ll get on the bank board.”
• Bull too expensive, “I’ll breed my own.”

The last set in motion an established commercial AI program that spans more than 40 years and causes orders for breeding stock to fill a year in advance. With his mature cows (some 15 and 16), it’s not unusual to reach an 80% success rate through AI.“You can’t get genetic improvement if you don’t use AI and consistency,” he says. “When I pick a bull, I use that bull for two years on my cow herd and I get consistency. It’s huge what that does.”

Not to mention the value of getting rid of those that don’t meet expectations.

“My biggest culling criteria is fertility,” he says.

Carcass is important as udders, feet and longevity fall in behind functionality. Selecting bulls with birth weight (BW) expected progeny differences (EPDs) in the 3.0 to 4.0 range makes for more pounds of beef, he says, noting some cows have done well with calves from a bull with a 4.9 BW. Genex published reports say his steers perform, too, with 60% to 70% producing Certified Angus Beef carcasses.

If it weren’t for his AI program, “I’d be forced to go out of the cattle business.”Thankfully there’s no end in sight; instead grandsons Jake and Holton who AI their own Angus herds along with their grandfather’s, rooted in a strong foundation – one not easily shakin’.

Thanks for allowing me to tell your story,

Laura

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