The road ahead

I’ve always loved a good road trip. The opportunity the open road provides, experiencing new places, different adventures and seeing how diverse different parts of our country are is incredible.

The backroads of rural Kentucky provided welcome new scenery and opened my eyes to a place where the bourbon is exceptional, tobacco farming roots run deep and one that might surprise you, the cattle are quality.

Cattle from the Southeastern states have a mixed reputation for delivering carcass merit. Pockets of excellence lift that overall image.

Those center around ranchers like James Coffey, who help drive value by working to breed the type you hope to end up on your plate.

The rancher is kind, focused and dedicated to making each year better than the one before. He’s a fifth-generation Angus breeder, but his approach to the business is different than those who have come before him. It was his involvement that drove an emphasis on data-based decision making. He introduced artificial insemination (AI), embryo transfer, ultrasound, performance testing and Angus Herd Improvement Records (AHIR®) when he returned home to the ranch 20 years ago.

He’s a man who loves data, a natural fit for his first career as a CPA. Now, he manages a sporting goods company that supplies major retailers around the world and of course, the cowherd at Branch View Angus, Hustonville, Ky.

For him, there can never be too much data. A vision and affinity for numbers in business led him to begin feeding steers out of his own bulls to understand how they performed for those even further down the production chain. The average for his first nine loads was 86% Choice or better, with 31% earning CAB, including 3% Prime.

But that was 10 years ago.

“The real opportunity is to own the cattle all the way through,” Coffey says. “That’s the only way you can capture every nickel that’s in that animal.”

It’s a lot of nickels, not just for him, but for the commercial cattlemen that use his bulls.

“This is all about maximizing the sale value of our customers’ calves,” he says.

This year, he sent four loads of his own and customers’ spring 2017 calf crop to Pratt Feeders in Kansas. The calves will be marketed on the grid this spring and summer and Coffey is eager to see the numbers.

“It will be a data set large enough to be able to show people what the cattle can do,” he says. “I know if I can show backgrounders and feedlots how the cattle perform, then we can get bids for our customers and maximize their price.”

It’s a chance to discover just what opportunities the future might hold, changes he might need to make in his genetic selections and what direction to go next.

I drove away from Branch View Angus through twisty roads toward Hustonville, knowing it wasn’t just me with an exciting road ahead.

Until next time,

Nicole

Look for more on Coffey’s calves as we follow them to Pratt Feeders in an upcoming post and check out upcoming issues of the Angus Journal for more of Coffey’s story.

You, Your Cows and Their Feed

by CAB Cattle Crew | Sep 29, 2023

Expert guidance from Dusty Abney at Cargill Animal Nutrition shares essential strategies for optimizing cattle nutrition during droughts, leading to healthier herds and increased profitability in challenging conditions.

Marketing Feeder Cattle: Begin with the End in Mind

by CAB Cattle Crew | Sep 29, 2023

Understanding what constitutes value takes an understanding of beef quality and yield thresholds that result in premiums and/or discounts. Generally, packers look for cattle that will garner a high quality grade and have excellent red meat yield, but realistically very few do both exceptionally well.

Kansas Ranchers Recognized for Sustainability Efforts

by Nicole Erceg | Sep 25, 2023

Kansas’ Wharton 3C Ranch thrives despite droughts, winning the CAB 2023 Sustainability award. The data-driven, quality-focused approach of first-generation ranchers, Shannon and Rusty Wharton, yields 100% CAB cattle. Their commitment to sustainability and industry collaboration sets a bright future for the cattle business.

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Trade-offs, but never satisfied

It’s a trade-off most Montanans welcomed with open arms.

Snow in September brought moisture that easily trumped any ideals of a long Indian Summer or an idyllic fall.

“We didn’t have a drop of rain starting the 15^th of June, and so much hot weather this summer, you couldn’t find green anywhere,” Bruce Keaster says. “The dogs were kicking up dust it was so dry.”

They were fortunate, Bruce says: Just one fire two miles west of them that burned 500 acres was pretty darn good in a season marked by more than 1 million acres burning in Montana—and a full month of smoke so thick, most of the state registered unhealthy air quality for days or even weeks at a time.

2016_10_Keaster-3 — This photo was taken when we started following Bruce’s calves, but I bet his smile was just as big when the snows came last month.

Gathering this year’s calf crop off the parched land to precondition, he’s been pleasantly surprised. Little to no respiratory issues from the smoke and so far, weaning weights are right on track. That’s the resiliency and performance he and long-time feeding partner Ryan Loseke depend on.

As they prepare to ship the 2017 calves, they review the 2016 crop we began following almost exactly a year ago.

“They’re just solid, stout cattle that gain well, convert well,” Ryan says. “These would be really fun cattle to feed until July.”

But market pressure can take the “for fun” right out of feeding cattle.

“The market was sliding; it was telling us that the first week of May and April was the time to sell them,” Ryan says.

While he aims to finish at 1,400 lbs. at 14 months of age, the May-harvested calves were averaging 1,375 at 13.5 months, converting at an impressive rate in the high fives, in pounds of dry matter to a pound of beef. The first set of steers, harvested in mid-April, graded 81% Choice, with 23% meeting carcass specifications for the Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand.

They could have been 1,475 lb. two months later, and would have expressed more of their genetic potential to marble, the feeder noted, but it was a marketing trade-off he had to make.

2017_06_Keaster FTC-3_small — As Nebraska cattle feeder Ryan Loseke was making decisions about marketing the 2016-born calf crop, the 2017 calves were thriving.

Just a couple weeks later, when the next load went to harvest, they sacrificed less. With a bit more finish, they stepped up to more than 90% Choice, 39% CAB and 2% Prime.

“At 180 days on feed, I think it’s pretty hard to see more Primes than that,” Ryan says, adding that the shortened feeding window and aggressive implant strategy suppressed marbling.

“Performance has always been my No. 1 priority in bull selection, and I’m happy with where we are on that. It’s in there,” Bruce says.

A few years ago, he did a HD50K DNA test to get an idea of how years of studying EPDs were playing out on unproven bull calves. While it confirmed his exacting focus in many areas, he found marbling potential to be about average: “That was a bit of a disappointment that it wasn’t better, but that’s how you learn,” he says. “So, from where we were a few year ago on the carcass, that 40%, that’s an improvement.”

This year, he’ll HD50K the latest generation to check progress.

2017_06_Keaster FTC-6_Small — Always looking to the future, and asking questions to help guide him, Bruce Keaster is excited to keep moving the needle forward.

“I don’t know if I’ll see the day where everything is CAB, but we’re working on it, that’s for sure,” Bruce says. “I’m happy they did as well as they did, but I’m never satisfied. Ryan said the health was really good, I’m always glad to hear that. They gained well – that’s great. But I’m not satisfied, because I know we can be better.”

Of course, that’s the spirit that has made this past year of “Following the Calves” so fun for me from behind the camera and keyboard, and I hope, for you, the reader, too.

I thanked him for his time and willingness to open up the ranch and his family to all of us, and Bruce returned the gratitude: “Your questions have kept me thinking, made me examine these things even more, kept me questioning.”

I think back to my first interview with Ryan, where he noted Bruce’s questions and interest in how his calves did after the ranch as one of the characteristics that made being in business with him so much fun, too.

Those questions we ask ourselves and others, in the search for answers, we trade our complacency or the comfort of “status quo” for continual improvement. Thanks for following along this year, and until next time… keep questioning.

-Laura

P.S. – If you want to read all of the Keaster family’s story, catch up on the ‘Following the Calves’ posts: Maternal instincts, predictable cattle; Keaster family checks in, Friends and neighbors 1,000 miles away.

And travel to the Hadrick ranch in South Dakota, too!

—

Laura Nelson is based in Big Timber, Montana, where she writes, captures images and tells farming and ranching stories. She’s a former CAB Industry Information Specialist who became passionate about the brand and the pursuit of high-quality beef while working at the company headquarters in Ohio. Then wide open spaces, small-town living and those beautiful Crazy Mountains woo’d her back west.

Following the Calves: The data is in! The data is in!

“He’s like a kid at Christmas time when it comes to the data.”

Cattle feeder Mark Sebranek was giving me a wrap-up on the Hadrick calves, the ones we’ve been following from Faulkton, S.D. to the Garden City, Kan., yard since December.

A big thanks to Mark Sebranek for shooting some pictures for me in July. It’s always nice to see that the cattle look as good in the feedyard as they do on the ranch.

I hung up the phone and smiled when I read this Facebook status update from Troy: “It’s like Christmas morning every time you get carcass data back on your calves. The last load went 46% Prime, 83% CAB or better and 100% Choice. That made for a nice little grid premium.”

I guess Mark, 20-year manager at Irsik and Doll Feed Yard, has the rancher pegged. They have been working together several years. The relationship, coupled with background on the animals, offers the feeder some flexibility.

“Knowing the cattle gives me the opportunity to play the market,” Mark says, noting some cattle went to harvest early to get ahead of a price slide. The first sort left in June when the market was in the $130s, and the last of three groups went August 8th when it was down to $116/cwt.

“He held on to a pretty good average at $127,” says the feeder. “It’s sort of like its own risk management.”

He also tried a new grid with one sort. “I could do that because I know the consistency of the cattle.”

Trying a new grid can be a leap of faith for a cattle feeder, but when you know they’re going to grade, it helps.

The steers gained 3.8 pounds (lb.) per day in 185 days on feed, requiring just 5.7 lb. of feed per lb. of gain. That was even after going through a 17-inch late April snowstorm that took the cattle off feed.

“Once you lose that weight, you never get it back,” Mark says.

Together, all three sorts made 83% CAB, with 35% CAB brand Prime, for an average grid premium just shy of $100/head.

“You want to see them do well,” Mark says, admitting he’s almost as excited as his customers to get the data in hand.

Almost, I say, only because it would be difficult to match Troy’s enthusiasm. Within hours of getting the harvest sheets, the producer had given it his first round of analysis.

Hadrick for blog2 — Even at 83% of his cattle grading CAB and Prime, Troy Hadrick is looking at getting better.

“I don’t think there’s anybody who goes through it as detailed as Troy does,” Mark says. “When they have the passion, it drives me to have the passion also.”

Open heifers are already on feed in Kansas and those early-weaned calves are headed there any day.

“We’ve accomplished a lot in the last couple years, and it’s something we’re really proud of,” Troy says, “but we’re not done yet.”

Heck, I’m even excited for next year’s data.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

PS– You can catch Troy’s story from the beginning by going back to the first post on these calves in December:

Rapid change

Proud to pass it on

Not in South Dakota Anymore

When plan B scores an A+When the Plan B scores an A+

Calves provide confirmation

When Mother Nature doesn’t care

Or follow along as we’ve been “Following the calves” in Montana, too.

Following the calves: When Mother Nature doesn’t care

Calving season, check. Start of AI season, check. Criss-crossing the U.S. talking about commercial DNA, check. Rain…..not so much.

I have been watching South Dakota weather reports as if they were my own. Ever since being up in the Faulkton and Highmore, S.D., areas this April, I’ve been waiting for them to get their moisture. Pastures are supposed to be greening up with spring rains. Theirs weren’t.

2017_04_03_mr_Hadrick-101 — This is a shot from April, when the pastures would normally be greening up and growing. They were struggling.

I was back in late May, and it still hadn’t rained.

When I caught up with Troy Hadrick for a “Following the calves” update last week, I was relieved to hear that nearly 3 inches of rain came in two back-to-back-to-back storms. He’s feeling fortunate, but it’s just not enough.

“Our cool season grasses are done and that’s where the majority of our tonnage is,” he says. But the recent rains might give the corn some grow so it at least make silage. It might kick-start the sudangrass hybrid they planted for this low-moisture scenario.

“At least we might grow a little bit of winter feed,” he says.

But the cows right now? They need grass that isn’t there.

In late May, the heifers were getting synchronized and bred. Now it’s time for the cows to do the same.

“Breeding season is always stressful, but this has added to it,” Troy says. He’s been figuring, calling experts and debating, and now he has a plan.

When most are sending pairs to town, Troy is going to wean calves early….like this-week early.

“We’ve worked too hard on our genetics to just sell them,” he says. “We’ll pull CIDRs and pull calves off on the same day.”

A quick call to a South Dakota State repro expert assured him that it might even help conception rates, but what he’s most interested in is the feed savings. Some estimate a 35% to 40% reduction in cow energy requirement.

If there’s one thing Troy’s wife Stacy has always emphasized in their business, it’s “have a team.” Troy has relied on his as he works through the logistics of weaning calves early.

It’s not just as simple as picking a weaning date though. The very end of May, Troy flew to Georgia to speak at the Beef Improvement Federation meetings and went directly from that to a Zoetis meeting in Red Lodge, Mont.

After that, he dove into research. He called his veterinarian and they altered the health plan. The calves were vaccinated less than 60 days ago, so they’ll get a shot of Enforce, but they’ll hold off with the 7-way booster to avoid any additional stress on them right away.

He called nutritionists. The cattleman is planning on feeding Purina’s complete pelleted Accuration starter designed for young calves. After 3 to 4 weeks, he’ll move to a total-mixed ration to get them prepared for their trip to the feedyard around 45-days post-weaning.

He studied the facilities setup.

2017_05_mr_Hadrick-340 — The grass greened up, but never grew.

“We’re going to be weaning at the same place we develop heifers, the same place we breed,” he says. “I stood out there for an hour thinking, ‘How in the world do we do this?’”

The oversized load-out alley will hold the first group.

Then of course, there’s all the worry about how the calves grow when they get there, if he’ll be able to compare last year’s data to this highly unusual year and about a million other thoughts.

“There’s a lot of things you can do to screw them up at this age,” Troy says.

But Troy has done as much pre-planning as he can and he has faith it’ll all work out from there. Because even if Mother Nature doesn’t seem to care for the cows, Troy cares more than enough to make up for that.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

PS–Catch up on any of Troy’s previous posts with this list:

Rapid change

Proud to pass it on

Not in South Dakota Anymore

When plan B scores an A+

Calves provide confirmation

Or follow along as we’ve been “Following the calves” in Montana, too.

Following the calves: The next generation

In the calving shed, he studies for the next generation.

The little apartment Bruce Keaster has tucked inside the calving barn at their ranch south of Belt, Montana, is the perfect classroom.

“I spend most of my time going through the AI books, trying to get things matched up with my plan,” Bruce says. “Between calving checks, I’m going through the semen catalogs and looking forward to planning for next year.”

2017_06_Keaster FTC-10 — Montana rancher Bruce Keaster already knows an awful lot about these calves before they’re born.

His plan is ever-evolving, like the cows. In the registered herd, it’s been consistently focused on making bull calves that will add thickness and muscle to their own commercial calves, and heifers who will turn into moderate mothers to raise calves that will surprise with size when they squeeze up next to them in the loading chute on shipping day.

And, with every long Montana winter in the calving shed, he finds a few more traits to add to the list: “It used to be, those high-carcass cattle seemed to be a little harder doing. That’s just not the case anymore,” he says. “It seems like there are more good choices on carcass than there ever have been.”

He reflects on last winter’s catalog choices that led to this pasture of calves on fresh, tall grass. The goal is for each generation to out-perform the last, and they’re doing it. A few February 2016-born bull calves topped the scales at 900+ last October, averaging 725 to 850 out of two-year-old mothers.

2017_06_Keaster FTC-1 — Maternal + carcass. Those goals go hand-in-hand at the Keaster Ranch.

We look at a handful of this year’s commercial calves that were AI sired by a bull in the top 2% of the Angus breed for yearling weight, top 2% for maternal calving ease, top 3% for carcass weight and top 10% for marbling.

“Those will make for some awful nice steer calves going into the yard this fall. I’ll be curious about how they do,” he says. Numbers don’t always play out exactly as planned, but each batch of calves opens a new opportunity for confirmation of those winter decisions.

Last year’s calves went to market in mid-March, and the feedlot average daily gain (ADG) of 3.64 satisfied Bruce’s performance objectives beyond his weaning weights. Their health remained solid in the yard, and this years’ calf crop looks to be on the same track.

2017_06_Keaster FTC-4 — A fresh crop of calves aren’t the only new critters at Keaster Land & Livestock. Four-month-old “Pupah,” affectionately named by grandson Mason, is still learning the ropes from “Zip.” In the next pasture over, Bruce points out his “other vice:” newborn colts.

“I sure wouldn’t say we found the silver bullet on what vaccinations to give at birth, but it does make a difference to go the extra mile there,” he says.

Of the 870 calves born on the ranch this year, they treated just a couple for scours and five or six for pneumonia. “They stay healthy. We don’t just benefit from that; the next step benefits from them not being sick, too,” he says.

He’s looking into the future for his calves, but that’s not all.

In the house, he and Janet study the next generation, too.

2017_06_Keaster FTC-15 — Grandson Kreighton belongs to Rachel and Steve Heberly. Both of Keaster’s daughters, Rachel and Laura, and their husbands are involved in the ranch today.

Grandson Kreighton was less than a week old on my last visit. The proud grandparents sneak me into the back bedroom to admire the perfect peacefulness of naptime for the now eight-month-old before we check the calves. Later, he holds tight to grandpa’s shoulder and beams as we take an updated photo overlooking the pastures.

No doubt, little compares to the passing promise of spring and the wonderment at the potential of the next generation.

Until next time,

Laura

—

PS – To catch up on this story from the beginning, check out these ‘Following the Calves’ posts: Keaster family checks in, Friends and neighbors 1,000 miles away, The Golden Rule in the Golden Triangle, and Maternal instincts, predictable cattle.

Travel to ranches in Oklahoma and South Dakota, too!

Calves provide confirmation

Calving season. It doesn’t fit nicely in between 4-H shooting sports practice or drama auditions. Community group meetings don’t stop for it, and spouses don’t “quit their day jobs” for two months.

In the middle of my husband’s planting season right now, I’m well aware of that truth. Life goes on amid the crazy.

But when I visited Troy and Stacy Hadrick near Faulkton, S.D., last month, I found only the bedrock truth about calving season. For all its extra work and long hours, it’s what makes those late spring AI sessions worthwhile. It validates the time poring over the American Angus Association’s sire summaries and talking to other producers and experts.

“You’ve got to make it a conscious effort, because there’s always fence to fix,” Troy told me. Sitting behind the computer isn’t glamorous, but when there are genetics and economics to study, he has to remind himself: “What are the jobs that only I can do?”

Part of this year’s study included analyzing last year’s feedlot performance and carcass data, and adding some new technology: long-range, ultra-high-frequency tags. They can be read from up to 25 feet away, and the data automatically syncs to a cloud that’s accessible by any device in the house, in the pickup or on the 4-wheeler.

“We’ve just scratched the surface of what we’re going to do with it,” Troy says. The first tags went in the heifers a few days after my trip north and the chute-side recording system worked as planned.

“When we know that data is in a good, useable form….we’ll make money from that,” he notes.

There are 370 calves on the ground, and the family is hoping for rain. They are about half of normal precipitation for the year.

In years like this, he’s pleased with the efforts to reduce mature size.

2017_04_03_mr_Hadrick-76 — Troy can’t wait to see the potential these calves hold. Each generation gets better.

“Everybody will say they want small cows, but not many guys will stick to that,” Troy says.

As he’s sent older cows down the road, the producer leaves sentiment out of it. It’s a simple fact: “Their calf is going to do better than what she’s replacing.”

Troy learned to AI when he was a senior in high school, and he’ll use that skill again as the next round starts next week.

“I know the value of good genetics and I always want more of them,” he says.

As the cattleman shares the success he’s had in reaching premium quality goals—up to 74% Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) brand and Prime—the critics come out.

“People keep asking, ‘What are you sacrificing?’” Troy says.

Whether he’s in the pasture or studying data from his desk, the answer is apparent: “Nothing.”

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

PS–To catch Troy’s story from the start, read “Rapid change,” “Proud to pass it on,”“Not in South Dakota Anymore,” and “When plan B scores an A+.”

You can also visit ranches in Oklahoma and Montana in our other “Following the calves,” series installments.

Maternal instincts, predictable cattle

Some may take offense to comparing a herd of kids to fresh calves or a mom’s eye to maternal instincts, but I don’t think it’s out of line to say ‘fetal programming’ had a role in how each Loseke kid is developing a passion for the beef business.

All four were riding feedlot pens in utero; June jokes they came out of the womb ready to get to work. They cut their first teeth on steak and one even celebrated a young birthday with a steak-shaped, strawberry red cake. Family vacations involve road trips down far-away ranch roads and photos of all six standing in mountain pastures.

From her kitchen table, June recounts the vacations to me, and in the same breath, recalls the cattle that made the journey from those Montana ranches to their feedyard near Columbus, Neb., that year. She and Ryan discuss the pen they were in, the market prices they got, how they fed, any health issues they had and how quickly June caught it.

unspecified — The feedback on animal health, performance and carcass data, and the two way information flow have developed a partnership between the Keasters and Losekes.

“I think it’s the maternal side of her,” Ryan laughs. “She just knows. I honestly think she can identify a calf the day before it’s sick.”

“It’s just like being a student of your kids. You can’t discipline all four of these kids the same. You have to know them each individually,” June says. “It’s not just a black steer or another animal in another bunk line.”

Looking at Christmas cards on their farm refrigerator, we get back to following the calves I came to ask about: pen No. 4, full of Bruce Keaster’s heaviest steer calves and the first of three shipments from the Belt, Mont., family we introduced earlier this year. The March-born calves that weighed 675 on arrival in late October now lack only about 100 pounds of Ryan’s target finish of 1,400 pounds at 14 months of age.

Pen 4: the Keaster bunch, dipping into their rations.

At 147 days on feed, this pen experienced zero death loss, and less than 10% of the entire nearly 500 head were treated for health issues since their arrival.

“Bruce has done a good job of setting them up to perform well when they get here from a health standpoint and from a genetic standpoint,” Ryan says. “It’s more about management than anything you can find in a bottle.”

Now, they’re talking marketing and Ryan’s watching the Choice-Select spread to decide if he’ll sell on a grid. That day, there was an $8.03 premium for cattle that grade Choice over Select, just below the threshold he likes to see to balance the potential for marbling premiums with potential for yield grade discounts.

“It’s iffy. But having their consistency gives me the confidence to know we could grid them when the market’s right,” Ryan says.

Either way, their 20-year history gives the feeders confidence.

“When we get paid by the pound, Bruce’s steers just plain hang a heavier carcass. They’re not just deep in their rib, they’re wide across the front. If we put a saddle on those cattle, the cinch would have to be extra-long,” June smiles.

unspecified-3 — Friends and business partners take care of each other, and sometimes even a horse sent from Montana to Nebraska can illustrate that. (Although Flash isn’t in this picture, he’s part of that bigger picture.)

She pulls a cinch tight on Flash, the horse Bruce sent back to Nebraska on a cattle truck one year. He’s one of Ryan’s favorites.

“At his height, it’s hard to find a horse where Ryan’s feet aren’t dragging the ground from the saddle,” June says.

Of course, Bruce knows that – it’s just another way they take care of each other, along with predictable cattle, transparent management and an understood fairness that they’re both in this for the long haul.

“We sleep better knowing that’s the relationship with them, and I think they do, too,” June says.

Until next time,

Laura

PS – To catch up on our first installments about these calves, er, now steers from Montana, visit our previous ‘Following the Calves’ posts: Keaster family checks in, Friends and neighbors 1,000 miles away, and The Golden Rule in the Golden Triangle.

Travel to ranches in Oklahoma and South Dakota, too!

When the Plan B scores an A+

Before Mark Sebranek was a cattle feeder, he had a small cow-calf herd. He wanted to feed a load of cattle, get information back and capture more value from his genetic investment.

“I was another one of those that some people don’t want to mess with: the small guys,” Mark says, noting he never found an eager feeding partner. Although it might seem like a lifetime ago now, he didn’t forget.

Cattle feeder Mark Sebranek knows what cow-calf producers wonder about, because he was one.

Instead, when Mark took the lead at Irsik and Doll Feed Yard near Garden City, Kan., it propelled him to do more: more sorting, more communication, more watching out for the little guy.

That includes ranchers like Troy Hadrick of Faulkton, S.D.

In last week’s, “Following the Calves” update, we talked about the 2016-born calves making their way to Kansas, but what happens to their heifer mates?

“We retain most of our heifers. About 90% of them, we’ll give them a chance to breed,” the rancher says. After one round of artificial insemination (AI), he turns bulls out for one cycle before ultrasounding the females in August.

“We leave it up to those heifers, ‘Do you want to be a mama or not?’ We put a fair amount of reproductive pressure on those heifers to get bred,” he says. “It really sets up the rest of their career because they’re going to calve as early as anything in the herd that following year.”

When they don’t stick, Hadrick has a “Plan B.”

Last year, 23 open heifers shared a trailer with calves from another area ranch, arriving at Irsik and Doll on August 18.

“That way they can still make money, just in a different fashion,” Hadrick says.

The heifers were harvested in December, after gaining 4.83 pounds (lb.)/day and converting at 5.15 lb. feed/lb. of gain. They made 74% Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand and Prime, with 954 lb. average hot carcass weight (HCW).

These 2016-born steers made it to Irisk and Doll Feedyard just about a month after the heifers from the year before were harvested.

“At the end of the day, you have to pay the bank of Rome. That’s why I’ve always thought the total dollars per head is a very valuable number,” Mark says of the final analysis. These heifers gave up some yield grade discounts, “to help increase the dressing percent because the performance was so good,” he says, noting the quality grade was a bonus.

When Troy posted those results on his personal Facebook page, some wondered what’s the catch?

Print “We try to measure as many things as we can,” he says. Everything from an increasing pregnancy rate and ribeye area to a flat yield-grade trend and decreasing mature cow size tells him there have been no trade-offs. “All the numbers tell us that we haven’t really given anything up, but the trait that pays us a lot more at the end—marbling—has increased a lot.”

These kind of results are why the cattle feeder is happy to field questions from first-time customers and to work with ranchers of any size.

“You go through a lot of discussions with them about what you do with the information you get back, how we do stuff, how we sort,” Mark says. “There’s a lot of questions.”

But those questions, they lead to answers. In Troy’s case, they’re leading to pretty steep improvements.

Check back next month when we see how the next generation is shaping up during a calving season update to our series.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

PS–To catch Troy’s story from the start, read “Rapid change,” “Proud to pass it on,” and “Not in South Dakota Anymore.”

You can also visit ranches in Oklahoma and Montana in our other “Following the calves,” series installments.

Calving for Keeps

It’s been a busy couple of weeks at Glenn Cantrell’s Lone Grove, Okla., and Rush Springs, Okla., ranches.

“We’ve had 97 calves born in 11 days,” the 82-year-old cattleman says with a grin as he invites me to join him and his wife, Mary, at the dining room table.

IMG_7968e — Glenn and Mary Cantrell, Lone Grove, Okla., were halfway through with calving season when I visited Jan. 31. It was a beautiful day, but they’d battled plenty of cold, too.

When I last visited Glenn, it was August and I was interviewing him for a story for the Angus Journal and the introductory post for this blog series. He told me about his goal: Cattle that go 96% Choice and 75% Certified Angus Beef® brand. I was thrilled when he agreed to let me check back in over the next year as he worked to get closer to that target.

So, I returned January 31, right in the middle of his calving season. It was a beautiful morning, on its way to a 74-degree day, but the Chamber of Commerce weather didn’t tell the whole story. Sure, there’d been plenty of nice days since the first cow calved on Christmas, but there had also been record lows. Frostbitten- and ice- injured calves that had to be brought in the house for some extra TLC. One that didn’t survive the cold.

Last year, Glenn made the decision to breed all his females to Ten X (AAR Ten X 7008 SA). His goal? To get 50 “really good” replacement heifers out of this year’s calf crop. And then do it again, with a different sire, for each of the next few years.

Babies, babies everywhere… In the 11 days prior to my visit, 97 calves had been born on Glenn’s ranch.

“It’s going to take a while,” Glenn says. “But, pretty soon, we’ll have all daughters of top bulls like Ten X and Discovery and Epic. And, eventually, we’ll have a really high-quality cow herd that will help us reach our goals.”

But just because he wants to keep 50 heifers back this year, doesn’t mean he will. They’ve got to meet his criteria.

“Phenotypically, they’ve got to be the very best we have,” Glenn says. “They’ve got to look the part, but they’ve also got to be the part. They need to grow well, be structurally correct and have good udder development.”

As he works to improve his genetic base, Glenn has also made some management changes he hopes will help him get closer to his target. He vaccinates and deworms more often, and provides his females with more and higher-quality supplements. These changes add substantial cost, but he’s confident they will be worth it in the long run.

“They’ve got to look the part, but they’ve also got to be the part.” For a female to stick around Glenn’s place, she must have the genotype, the phenotype and raise good calves.

“In today’s market, sometimes it feels like the lowest-cost operation may be the most successful,” he says. “But I think once the market catches up, we’ll be where we need to be with a focus on quality.”

-Katrina

P.S. These aren’t the only calves we’re following. Check out these installments that take you to Bruce Keaster in Montana and Troy Hadrick in South Dakota.

Katrina Huffstutler is a freelance writer based in Electra, Texas. She’s a frequent contributor to the Black Ink team and lover of functional cattle and quality beef.

Friends and neighbors 1,000 miles away

Ranchers living in these parts of rural America know a thing or two about “long distance neighbors.”

After all, the small eastern Montana town of Circle has laid claim to “the location farthest from a Starbucks in the continental U.S.” Montana and Nebraska ranked third and fourth in one report of the states with the least populated counties in America.

When we first checked in with the Keaster family in Belt, Montana, Bruce told me he needed a good relationship with his banker and feeder to be successful. That goes both ways.

“He’s a good friend, basically a neighbor – we just happen to live 1,000 miles apart,” cattle feeder Ryan Loseke says. He’s been buying and finishing Bruce’s cattle for 20 years.

Ryan Loseke has fed the Keaster calves for 20 years. He knows what to expect in terms of health, performance and carcass.

This October, four loads of steers and two loads of heifers made the 958-mile journey from Keaster Land & Livestock to Loseke Feedyard. Steers averaged 675 pounds on arrival, with the heifers coming in between 625 and 630. As Bruce has focused more on his Angus genetics, Ryan has enjoyed receiving cattle that reduce variability.

That consistency is especially valuable in markets where cattle feeders may be leaning on a good relationship with their banker, too.

“I know what to expect from a health standpoint, carcass, performance. So when that market goes from $1.70 to $1.05 in a quick hurry, that’s one thing that’s consistent. I know the health will be solid and the mortality will be next to nothing. That helps,” Ryan says.

A preconditioning program that’s been perfected over the past 20-some years keeps the mortality rate nearly non-existent in the feeding phase. There’s no doubt feedlot health impacts the animals’ end quality grade.

“I know exactly what they’ve had at birth, branding and pre-conditioning, and I know it’s been done well,” Ryan says, so he doesn’t have to duplicate efforts. “There’s nothing we don’t know about them before they get here.”

That connection doesn’t end when the last cattle truck leaves the yard. Bruce calls about every other month. That came most recently while Ryan was implanting Bruce’s calves. They’re looking good – exceptional, in fact – and some might be ready for market as soon as late March.

“He asks about health, different sire groups. He’s interested in any information he can get. Just like all of us, he wants to do something better the next year than he did the last year,” Ryan says. “He’s trying to get as much information as he can, which tells me he’s in it for the long haul.”

Those frequent phone calls are well-peppered with family updates. Bruce checks on a colt he sent back to Nebraska on a cattle truck one year – it’s Ryan’s daily mount now – and Ryan looks forward to hearing about Bruce’s new grandkids and the expanding roles of his daughters. Laura and Rachel are both working full-time next to their dad on the ranch now.

2016_10_Keaster-12 — The Keaster family includes (L to R) Rachel and Kreighton Heberly (husband Steve not pictured), Bruce and Janet Keaster, Laura, Mason and Drew Coffler.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s daughter Liz is studying to follow her mom and dad’s footsteps as a veterinarian. There are stories to share about the time her Canadian internship paperwork hit a snag at the border, and Bruce and Janet jumped in the pickup without hesitation to head north and assist. The Losekes try to make an annual trip to Montana to throw some steaks on the grill and catch up.

“It’s just like neighbors around here – like I said, they’re just 1,000 miles away. They’re good friends and neighbors, and that’s almost as important to me as the cattle part of it,” Ryan says.

Until next time,

Laura

PS–We’re “Following the calves” across the country, too. Travel from Oklahoma to Montana in these installments:

The road ahead

Trade-offs, but never satisfied

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Following the Calves: The data is in! The data is in!

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Following the calves: When Mother Nature doesn’t care

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Following the calves: The next generation

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Calves provide confirmation

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Maternal instincts, predictable cattle

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When the Plan B scores an A+

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Calving for Keeps

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Friends and neighbors 1,000 miles away

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