From average to elite

by Miranda Reiman

The cow-calf world knows two distinct groups, often mutually exclusive, says Ryan Noble, of Yuma, Colo.

“On one hand, we have the high-octane, high-input, high-production, high-return operations that are geared to go big,” he says. “Put on the gas. You get what you pay for.”

The opposite of that?

“The cow does all the work, minimum inputs, moderate return, maybe not so stellar performance in the feedlot or on the rail.”

But the fourth-generation cattleman refuses to fit neatly into one of those boxes. During the past four years he’s used genomic technology to make sure the cows that thrive on his resources can also deliver the total package after leaving the ranch.

“We can, in fact, as an industry, run cows that are moderate, efficient, low overhead, low input cattle,” he says. “At the same time you can have the genetic potential to go to the feedyard. Gain the big pounds efficiently and produce a discount-free carcass that will net you real dollars.

“But most important, bring a memorable eating experience to the most important person in the production chain: the consumer,” Noble says.

It took a year like 2014 to inspire a strategy to get there.

“The market was just sky high,” he says. Steer calves were worth upwards of $1,500, so he decided to look at retaining heifers.

“We were signing up for $2,475 of expenses before we sold her first calf. We had never in our lives invested that much money in commercial cows,” Noble says. “I knew right then and there, we needed to find a tool to be sure we were keeping the best ones.”

He turned to the GeneMax Advantage test.

That first year, the rancher culled about 17% of the heifers they’d already visually sorted for possible replacements. In the fourth year of testing, that number was down to 2%.

“Almost every heifer calf we raise now out of these cows has breeding potential,” he says. “Historically, the cheapest commodity we can produce on our ranch is a non-breeding heifer calf. The most profitable commodity we sell from our ranch is bred heifers or bred cows. This is a financial breakthrough for my business.”

Armed with new information, Noble worked with Basin Angus, his seedstock supplier in Montana, to find bulls that built on his herd’s strengths but added carcass weight and carcass quality.

“Lucky for us, marbling is highly heritable,” he says. “It’s easy to fix, but you cannot fix what you don’t measure.”

And you don’t want to measure it for the first time in the packing plant, he says.

“It’s an expensive place to find out that you could possibly be raising low-margin cattle,” Noble says. After a few rounds of genomic tests and making adjustments based on results, he retained ownership of his first set of heifers at Chappell (Neb.) Feedlot this past year. They gained 5.2 pounds (lb.) per day and 60% earned a Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB) brand premium.

“What I’m most proud of is…we had no discounts for Select,” he says.

The leap in quality was more apparent because he worked on it from all angles.

“You can improve with bulls, but it’s a lot faster if you’re working at it on the bull side and the cow side,” Noble says.

The rancher admits he was skeptical of the $28 per head cost at first. Then he ran the math. Noble says if he can reduce cow cost by “a dime a day,” then he’s made that back in 280 days. If he could stack that with an increase in production of 10 cents/day, it would pay for itself in about five months.

“We’ve identified the elite cattle out of this program,” he says.

Noble spoke as part of the Cattlemen’s College, during the Cattle Industry Convention in Phoenix in 2018.

Answers out the window

I expected a typical interview. If I’m being honest, maybe even a rushed one.

I’d called Jordan Willis on the fly just a week earlier, asked him if I could snag an early morning on his Wyoming ranch.

“North of Randolph you’ll come to a junction,” he started. “From there I’m just a couple miles on the right.”

I turned my music down and drove the dirt road, thinking of questions I’d like to ask the young cattleman, and feeling pretty far from home.

Jordan, alongside his brothers, James and Jed, grow their own feed for the herd for 150 days of the year.

Jordan met me near the front drive. His brood was still waking up so we decided to chat life and cattle outside with the sunrise.

“In our valley, the younger generation aren’t all taking over,” he explains. What could support a family in the ’60s and ’70s isn’t sustainable today, and neighbors and friends have sold out; some work day jobs.

For Jordan, that wasn’t an option – driven simply by the fact that he wouldn’t allow it.

Instead he’d expand. The leases, cattle and farming.

To improve the herd, the Willisses run GeneMax® Advantage™ tests to on 500 females each year. About 250 will be kept as replacements.

“It’s always different,” he admits, “and there’re always challenges, but just about when you get discouraged, and don’t think anything’s going to go right, something positive comes out of it.”

Like the time he looked out his kitchen window.

“It was all in native grass,” he says. Originally from Laketown, Utah, it was Jordan’s grandfather who bought the place across the border in the early 1950s. Back then it sustained the cattle but Jordan needed more from the land. His passion was in place and his family was growing.

“We couldn’t find any pasture we liked that was reasonably priced, so we said, ‘Why don’t we just graze them here?’”

So the family plowed and planted.

The larger herd still summers on state and federal land to the north but replacement heifers spend their time in that backyard, as do bulls in the fall.

Alfalfa up to my knees, pivots keeping it a vibrant green, that “here” is 50 feet from Jordan’s front door. Nineteen pivots cover nearly 2,000 acres of flood-irrigated soil and 1,800 Angus surround it.

“We graze around 250 head in the summer and it still grows enough for fall feed,” Jordan says.

By now his kids are up with the sun, we share a breakfast before taking a walk in that field and I feel like we’ve all been friends for years.

Quite the view out of a kitchen window if I do say so myself.

“We probably put too much emphasis on data,” he says, acknowledging they don’t retain ownership through the feedyard right now.

We laugh and agree there’s no such thing.

“We’ve outbid registered guys our whole lives to get the bulls we want,” he says. In a sale, he’ll look for growth, uniformity and a frame score of 6 or higher.

A family of five and growing. There’s a new Willis due in 2018!

“We’re kind of where we want to be,” he says. “Now we’ve gotta fine tune and move our herd forward.”

I’d say he has the generation to get it done.

Thanks for allowing me to tell your story,

Laura

PS – To learn more about the Willises and the technology they use to grow a successful herd, check out this month’s Angus Beef Bulletin or February’s Angus Journal.

One-man show, part I

“I’m going to be my own person,” Jim Moore said as we bounced around in a beat up pickup, checking cows and talking life.

His answer was in reference to heifer selection, but it fits the cowman’s character.

“Sure I’m a little old fashioned,” he’d tell me later. As if I couldn’t tell.

We’d spent the better part of the summer’s morning gathering video, capturing sound bites, but mid afternoon was more relaxed, the questions unplanned.

“A lot of times this way of life has to be bred into you,” Jim says. You have to enjoy what you’re doing or you are not going to stay with it very long.”

“It’s all I ever wanted to be from the time I was a little bitty kid,” Jim says of graduating college, returning to the family’s Charleston, Ark., ranch full time. There’s a mystique that surrounds the American cowboy, “and I got to live that dream on a daily basis. We’re really out here, horses and all.”

To use “we’re” is typical of Moore. Slow to take credit, he’s quick to tell you he wouldn’t be spending days in green pastures were it not for his father and grandfather before him. His wife Missy, and their three grown kids, they know sacrifice, too.

Charleston, Ark. The sleepy town in the Arkansas River Valley holds the couple’s most treasured memories. Here they grew up, met, fell in love and reared children Morgan (27), Chelsea (25) and Clint (22).

The reality is “most of the time, I’m working by myself,” Jim says.

I believe him. He knows his cattle well.

Right now it’s about prioritizing, he’ll explain. With his father retired and his children away, it’s committing to what’s important and following through with it no matter the obstacles.

As commercial cattlemen, the Moores take on the responsibility of raising as high-quality beef as they can.

“The thing about the Moores is, it’s them, it’s their deal,” Jerry Jackson says. The manager of Stampede Feeders, Scott City, Kan., where the family sends two pens of cattle every fall, has seen it firsthand. “They don’t sit inside the office and tell everybody else to go to work.”

To the contrary, Jim asks for critique before getting up and fixing the problem himself.

“We have to be critical of ourselves if we want to improve,” he says. “What I want to hear is the truth.”

That’s one of the reasons he started feeding cattle. Why he uses the Zoetis GeneMax® Advantage™ test on his heifers.

Jim and Missy have GMX tested selected heifers for six years now. “Before we even decide to test one, they have to pass a visual appraisal. If they don’t have the look to them, they’re out.”

“That test, it’s not to find the good ones,” he says. “It’s to find the ones that are fooling us. I think it’s common to want to focus on the top end, but we learned the bottom is where you can improve the most.”

Eliminating by visual appraisal and later on GMX results gave way for young heifers with more proven potential to solidify their spot in his herd. Last year, 39 of 40 calves whose dams had been tested went CAB and Prime.

“We’re committed to selling as many high-quality pounds as we can sell,” he says.

As a team or on his own.

A meeting before sunrise meant no horses but a benefit of this ride is the space.

Thanks for allowing me to tell your story,

Laura

PS – To learn just how he’s made that commitment a reality and moved acceptance rates up, check back tomorrow. To read more about the Moore’s Arkansas Angus cattle, grab a copy of the October issue of the Angus Journal.

That Much better?

Predicted beef dollars really add up

by Miranda Reiman

Cattle genetics have made big improvements since the American Angus Association released its beef value ($B) index in 2004.

Often called “dollar beef,” it was one of the first tools to combine expected progeny differences (EPDs) for feedyard and carcass traits with economic measures.

At the time, the breed average was +$23.79, and $45.48 represented the top 1%.

“Now today, we’re three times that, or higher,” says cattle feeder Sam Hands of Triangle H, Garden City, Kan. “So, are the cattle really three times better?”

A recent demonstration project, cosponsored by the feedyard along with Gardiner Angus Ranch, Top Dollar Angus and Zoetis, found the resounding “yes” in a $215.47 difference between divergent groups of calves from registered Angus parents.

“High $B Angus outstrip low $B genetics with great consistency. However, we also recognize the importance of real-world comparisons,” say study authors in their summary report, “Field-Testing of $B in Purebred Angus Cattle.”

They created a Low $B group by purchasing older embryos in storage, and used current genetics from Gardiner Angus Ranch to provide High $B comparisons. Random recipient dams calved in a 44-day window in April and May 2015 and raised calves until late fall weaning. By June 2016 they were on feed at Triangle H.

“We were never told, ‘these are the superstars and these are the lesser achievers,’” Hands says, but he could see differences as marketing approached. “The better dollar-beef ($B) cattle were more efficient in reaching that end point quicker, and when they got done were just a little more expressive in their muscling.”

Harvested in three drafts at 0.5-inch backfat, the High $B group was nearly 16 days younger with 27 lb. greater carcass weight. On an age-constant basis, that advantage jumped to 56 lb.

“Not only did they finish quicker, but they also graded better,” Hands says, noting a $48.65/head feed and yardage savings for the higher performing group.

That’s exactly the answer Mark Gardiner was looking for.

“Our customers use the index a great deal and many retain ownership and go all the way through the U.S. Premium Beef system,” he says, suggesting a sole focus on weaning value ($W) is like “quitting football in the third quarter.”

The High $B cattle went 100% Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand and Prime, with 72% of the latter. The Low $B group made 52% CAB, 44% low Choice and 4% Select because, as the paper suggests, top management, health and nutrition let both groups shine.

“Feedlots don’t want a big surprise, so the more genetic guarantee we can provide, the more comfortable our feedyards are going to be in aggressively bidding on high-genetic Angus calves,” says Kenny Stauffer, Top Dollar Angus general manager. “Even if they have to pay more, in the end those calves produce greater profits for the cattle feeder.”

The pedigree $B varied $93.69, but that doubles in the “estimated breeding value” for progeny, to $187.38 (see table). The actual data bested that by more than $28, coming in at that $215.47.

“The EPDs and indexes are not just numbers on a page in a sale catalog; they’re very accurate tools that people can use,” Stauffer says.

Genomic predictions followed as expected, with an average GeneMax® Advantage™ Feeder score of 94 out of a 100-point scale for the High $B group, compared to 27 for the lower ones. The i50k test for yearling weight, carcass weight, marbling and ribeye showed the High $B cattle in the top 12.3% of the Angus breed, while the Low $B were in the bottom 12.5%.

The data points to all the advantages of selecting for more feedyard performance and carcass quality, yet many argue the cattle owner at harvest reaps all the benefits.

“The bulls we use are in the top 5% for dollar weaning ($W) also, but it’s very short-sighted to stop at that point,” Gardiner says. “Even if you sell at weaning, the guys that are buying those are not going to buy them again if they don’t perform in the feedlot and on the rail.”

Both groups were exactly the same in mature height though the High $B half were about 66 lb. heavier, and there was a $32.76 difference in the cow energy value ($EN), favoring the Low $B group.

Gardiner explains that having high-growth males automatically hurts the $EN figure. If a female is taking up too many resources, she’ll come up open—a clue she can’t perform in that nutritional scheme, he says.

The paper notes annual cow feed costs could be $65.52 higher for the better performing group. Subtracting that from the financial advantage of the progeny still gives the High $B nearly a $150-per-head advantage.

“We all want low-input cattle, but we sell outputs for a living,” Gardiner says. In the end, net profit favors the more productive, higher quality cattle.

“There’s not an Angus calf born out there that shouldn’t be destined to be efficient in the feedyard and hang up the value-added carcass on the rail,” he says.

The full white paper can be viewed at http://www.cabpartners.com/news/research.php.

Getting there fast

“I’m calling because I read your story.”

To a journalist, calls like that can generally go one of two ways: either someone wants more information or they want you to know you got it wrong.

But this particular call I got recently brought me back in time, to my visit to Hugh and Shandi Bradley’s Cut Bank, Mont., place last May.

2016_05_25_mr_Hugh Bradley Ranch-95 — Hugh and Shandi Bradley, Cut Bank, Mont., toured me around their beautiful ranch one day late last spring. Today, their story is still inspiring others to ask questions about DNA.

The phone call was from a Nebraska cattleman who read my story, “Getting there fast,” and that sparked his interest in DNA technology.

“Yes! Yes! Yes,” I silently cheered. That’s why we write these stories, to show successes, so that others might apply something and find the same.

In our “Footsteps Worth Following” series, I shared how Hugh ended up back on the ranch, but here’s the story of his herd:

In 2012, after buying an HD50K-tested bull and wanting to learn more about what that meant, he “stumbled upon” commercial DNA testing.

“I wanted a picture of my cows and my calf crop, because we were never able to get any of that data back,” Bradley says of the cattle that usually sell on video auction. “This was a way for me to get a better picture of what’s going on.”

2016_05_25_mr_Hugh Bradley Ranch-88 — With no feedback from buyers, Hugh turned to commercial DNA testing to “get a picture” of his calf crop.

The first results were disappointing. In 2014, his average GeneMax focus score was 30 out of a possible 100. By last summer, 61 tested steers had a 74.1 average. Sorting off the bottom few, the rest were qualified for marketing through the Top Dollar Angus program.

The cattleman credits part of that jump to using the GeneMax Advantage on replacement heifers. By his third round, Hugh decided to make his first cuts on those hard numbers and then follow-up with visual appraisal.

“There’s been some awful good calves that went down the road, that we really liked, but they didn’t have the score,” he says.

At $17/head for steers (GeneMax Focus) and $44 for heifers, some are skeptical of Hugh’s use of the technology.

Don’t try to tell Hugh that DNA test costs too much. He’ll tell you it costs more not to.

“Last year, that was the cost of one replacement heifer,” he says. “Instead of going out and buying replacements, I’m keeping my own, trying to get the genetics I want with the bulls I’m buying so I can keep my own replacements.”

It’s been nine months or so since I was in Montana and met the couple and son Walker (daughter Olivia was in school that day.), but I still remember details. Walker brought a toy animal along to the ranch, because it needed to see “the vet,” grandpa Guy Bradley. Riding through the pastures, the youngster chose a 4-wheeler tour with grandpa over the pickup.

Riverbend for blog (2 of 5) — Walker loves the ranch. He didn’t have to tell me that, I could tell.

It’s easy to look into the future and imagine Walker running his own cattle on the ranch, with the Glacier National Park in the distance, Montana’s big sky squarely overhead.

Maybe that’s what Hugh is thinking, too, when he says, “I’m trying to better everything in a shorter amount of time.”

If he can inspire others to do the same, all the more reason for me to cheer him on from here.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

Winning in extra innings

Wow, this guy is so lucky, I thought when Steve and I visited with Braden Schaal of Schaal Cattle Company last spring.

The young Burlington, Colo., rancher says, repeatedly even, that he was nothing less than blessed when eight years earlier he was given the opportunity to buy a ranch.

He was 24 then…I am 24 now, I thought, processing this. How in the heck will I ever be that successful?

But as we visited with Braden, I quickly realized it wasn’t just a chance opportunity. Clearly the old saying, “hard work and determination pay off in the end” had come into play.

Literally.

In his younger years, Braden was going to be a baseball star. But, as it happens, life threw a curveball and an arm injury sidelined the pitcher. Having grown up in northwestern Colorado, he returned home where all the hard work he had put into baseball was redirected.

He came back with a vengeance to be successful at something. Braden worked 24-hour days on his custom haying operation and helped with his family’s 300-head cow-calf operation.

DNA testing and AI have helped Schaal increase weaning weights 160 pounds in the last eight years.

“I saw a sign, a ranch for sale, and it came with 9,000 acres,” he says. “I went and talked to everybody I possibly could. That day, I even told my brother, I don’t care who or what, I’m going to try to make this happen.”

Braden tried everything—even talked to the seller about financing—but he didn’t see how the opportunity could work in his favor. The day the ranch sold, curiosity led Braden and his dad to the auction and initially, what looked like another one of life’s curveballs, slowly became a changeup for Braden.

The only bid came from an investor out of California.

“The guy that was selling the ranch, had worked his whole life,” Braden says. “It was a multi-generation ranch. It was painful for him to see an investor coming in to just buy it.”

The seller approached the young man’s table and said, “Braden, if you really think you want to do this, I’ll finance it. You’ve got to come up with the downpayment but I’ll finance this deal.”

“It was really the opportunity of a lifetime,” Braden said many times as we visited with him that day last spring.

Schaal Cattle Co.’s feedlot was acquired in 2010, two years after the the ranch.

His quest for success didn’t end there. Maybe it was the construction management degree and the systematic way everything has to fit together. Maybe it was the fact that, as a baseball pitcher, part of the job was to record and analyze statistics. Either way, while Braden still uses his God-given cowsense to manage and sort his cattle, he also relies on an Excel spreadsheet.

DNA testing lets him see on paper how his cattle are performing. Artificial insemination gives him freedom to correct problem areas by custom mating. Being able to collect data is a priority at Schaal Cattle Company.

“I’ve seen results,” Braden says. “It’s not all on paper, I’ve actually seen results with some kill data, average daily gain and weaning weights,” which can all be found at the click of a button, thanks to electronic (EID) tags.

No, I realized at the end of our visit. It wasn’t just luck. This guy has worked his butt off for this.

As a college student in my final semester and preparing to face the world, it’s refreshing to look back on that day. To see you can always have big dreams, but when they fall through, that doesn’t mean the end. You never know when the opportunity of a lifetime will approach your table.

-Hannah

resized

Hannah Johlman’s lifelong bookworm tendencies and love for writing, as well as deep appreciation for good beef, have brought her back as the Black Ink team’s spring intern. The now senior, studying ag communications and animal sciences at Kansas State University claims Sheridan, Wyo., as home.

The herd that calmed my nerves

I woke up nervous.

Let’s be real, I went to sleep nervous and a few hours of rest didn’t eliminate that feeling in my gut.

I was headed to a ranch, there was a lot of snow and I had never photographed cattle in that white stuff before.

But if there’s ever a family to ease your troubles, it’s the Walters.

Ty, Terry, Becky, Katelyn and Trevor Walter raise Angus as the third and fourth generation on the ranch.

I first “met” Terry Walter, Hudson, Colo., a few years back when we chatted about the success he and his family had found using GeneMax on their commercial heifers.

I say “met” because we only spoke over the phone, but to talk with Mr. Terry for even minutes is to learn the man pretty well.

I needed to see the cattle – perhaps just not photograph them.

“The idea is to raise cattle that work,” Terry says. “No-nonsense cows that thrive on native pasture and require little input.”

The Walters will tell you they raise “working cattle that pay the bills.” On top of using handpicked, quality and performance-focused genetics through AI, they provide their commercial and registered herds with all they need to be successful. Then they expect the cattle to do their part.

“When you come up to a cow and see snow on her, well that is a wonderful cow,” Terry says of the grit his Angus show. Like their owner, they deliver on a promise. Never fake, you see what you get.

After years of running DNA tests and ultrasounds, to boot, culling has become quite the task.

College took Trevor (L) and Ty (R) away to study but both Walter sons returned to work full time on the ranch.

“What’s kicking these cows out of here is the DNA test,” his son Ty says. “Initially there was an easy bottom third to cull. Now there’s a bottom eighth because we’ve been doing it year after year.”

For those that make the cut, they get good handlers. Not to mention some pretty spectacular views.

“The thing we sell is our care,” Ty says.

Of the land, the crops, the cattle, “we’re caretakers,” Ty says.

A recent pen of 80 commercial steers reflect that attitude as 61% qualified for the Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand, including 6% Prime and the rest USDA Choice.

“Every time we feed cattle, we think of the end goal of aiming for the brand,” Ty says. “What’s better than being able to provide consistency for the consumer?”

Not to mention a guarantee for their registered bull customers who frequent their February sale each year.

“If I can give my customers the genetic potential for that bull to go out and increase the carcass quality in their herds, that’s what I’m after,” Terry says.

No nerves were involved when taking this photo, or any others, for that matter.

More snow shoots. I’m after those now.

Thanks for allowing me to tell your story,

Laura

A story unfolds

A story teller. That’s one of the few things I knew about David Zeiset going into my visit with him near Chickasha, Okla., last fall.

Soon after I toured his front pasture at the home site, I got to hear the stories of how the farm that used to have Herefords and Holsteins ended up Angus. I learned about David’s simple approach to life, that includes seeing all of his work as the Lord’s work.

IMG_4863 2small — “We believe in simplicity, economy and modesty,” says David Zeiset, speaking of the code he lives by.

David’s blue eyes lit up, and he laughed a little, talking about his first meeting with Dr. Mike Nichols, of Zoetis.

“I was telling Mike about my program and what I was doing,” David says. “He kind of looked at me and said, ‘You know what, you need to change your program.’”

So he did, improving vaccinations and taking Dr. Tom Noffsinger’s advice on low-stress handling.

Recently, the cattleman looked to add even more technology, on the advice of Nichols and long-time genetic suppliers B3R Ranch.

“Two years ago we tested 33 heifers with GeneMax, and about 2/3 came back below average, so I kept that in mind for culling,” he says, admitting it was “a leap in the dark and big investment” at $44 per head.

The next year, 2/3 of the 42 tested were above average, followed by another 10 in the fall herd, all above average.

IMG_4699 2small — An improved vaccination program, coupled with low-stress handling were David’s first steps to herd improvement. Today, he’s also using DNA testing to help him narrow his genetics.

This past fall, while giving heifers calfhood bangs vaccines, he says, “We pulled blood for the test and were able to cull from results. Out of 63, 12 were easily culled from just weaning weights. We were left with 51 uniform heifers, but by culling from there, we’re going to end up with better quality cattle.”

Some good-looking cows went on to the Apache, Okla., auction market, but that means the ones left at home are even more uniform.

“I can keep back the high-scoring cows and heifers. Down the road, your cattle look pretty good,” David says.

His long-time advisor says that’s the right approach.

IMG_4906 2small — Cow #811–she’s the 811th female he’s kept on the place.

“We never see the returns next week, maybe not even next year. But when you continue to take these steps year by year, then 15 or 20 years later you have a leading program,” Nichols says. “If you neglect those opportunities but keep waiting for a silver bullet, it’ll never happen. Meanwhile the price difference between cattle with more genetic merit and those with less continues to widen because the tools we have today are so effective.”

I’m glad I got to meet David, to see the place where he was born and raised; the cows that are all numbered sequentially from the first one he owned; the older model tractors and the weathered barns.

They’re all part of his story, “The simple gift.” Watch for it in an upcoming Angus Media publication.

~Katie

Katie Alexander is a recent agricultural communications graduate from Oklahoma State University, and completed this assignment while serving as our fall writing intern. Katie grew up in the show cattle business in western Oklahoma and credits her lifelong passion for animal agriculture to her parents and grandfather.

Following the Calves: Rapid Change

A move. Three kids to transition to a new school. Taking his wife hours from her family and career.

These were not small considerations.

When Troy Hadrick contemplated managing his family’s commercial Angus herd near Faulkton, South Dakota, change was a given. It was even part of the allure.

South Dakota rancher Troy Hadrick enjoys learning from others and sharing what he’s learned. (Submitted photos)

“One of the things I wanted to do was go for high carcass quality and try and capture some of those premiums,” Troy says, channeling his South Dakota State University meats judging experience. “When those cattle are hanging on the rail, it really doesn’t take much more effort to go CAB and Prime than it does to only have ones that don’t, and in the end, we get paid more for it.”

In 2010, the family made the move as he started making herd plans, and I met Troy and wife Stacy for the first time, judging the National Beef Ambassador competition together.

I knew something of them from their Advocates for Ag work, but in-person I could tell they were eager learners and educators. Still today, “agvocacy” work takes them off the ranch a dozen or more times a year, and recently Troy shared his genetic progress with fellow producers.

But those animals at home demand attention.

“I didn’t want the cows to be the thing that we got to when we weren’t busy farming, because I don’t think you’re going to fully realize the potential of your cow herd if they’re all kind of the afterthought,” he says.

Over the next two years, the older generation transferred the diversified business to Troy and his two cousins (who head up the machinery and farming), so the rancher was in the driver’s seat.

A June view of the Faulkton, SD, ranch that the Hadrick family calls home.

The year was 2012, one many remember as the driest on record, a landmark drought.

“You get all excited for that first year, and you feel like you’re ready to go out and start the world on fire, and then, when it forgets to rain, it changes all your plans,” Troy recalls.

The cattleman wrote specific goals, including “freeing up feed base” by decreasing cow size and improving calf marketing through retained ownership.

“We had to get lean pretty fast,” Troy says, noting deep culling. Selection for cow type was set. Getting a baseline on how his cattle were doing? That would have to wait.

“We didn’t have a measuring stick,” Troy laments, but that didn’t delay the mission to improve.

“The idea of expansion as the key to success didn’t look very promising to me,” he says. In the era of $7/bushel corn and expensive land, the idea of “let’s get bigger” was quickly replaced by “let’s get better.”

The herd had always been Angus; Hadrick is just refining the targets now.

Fast forward to 2016 and three years of carcass data shows dramatic improvements, from what had been 80% Choice and 30% Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand qualifiers, to 80% CAB or better, with more than 18% Prime.

He credits a strong artificial insemination (AI) program, a relationship with Irsik and Doll Feed Yard at Garden City, Kan., and GeneMax testing to point to the best possible replacements.

“I really want to get to where we have everything CAB and Prime, because that’s the way you really see the premiums start to stack up,” he says.

What, specifically, will the cattleman do to get there? Find out as I begin another round of “Following the Calves.” Next we’ll catch up on what’s been happening at the Hadrick ranch this fall.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

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P.S. Travel across the country as we follow other calves from ranch to feedyard this year. The first installment in our second round of the series takes you to veteran cattleman Glenn Cantrell in Oklahoma.

Footsteps worth following: Meant to ranch

Four-year-old Walker Bradley’s favorite place seems to be tagging along on the four-wheeler as his dad or grandpa checks cows.

If I lived on a ranch with view of Glacier National Park off to one side and the Canadian border on another, it might be my favorite place to be, too. But, I bet Walker doesn’t quite appreciate all that scenery just yet.

Soon enough, the preschooler will begin to realize the privilege it is to work under the Montana sky, accountable only to yourself for an honest day’s work.

At least that’s how I imagine it’s been going on in the Bradley family for generations. I spent half a day with Hugh and Shandi Bradley, their son Walker and Hugh’s dad, Guy, last month.

I learned how Hugh is using GeneMax® DNA testing to “get a better picture of what’s going on.” He told me about future directions and selection goals, but you’ll have to wait for that story in the coming weeks.

Today, it’s all about recognizing how a love of land and livestock is passed on from grandfather to grandson, from father to son.

Why ranching?

Guy jokes that he wasn’t smart enough to do anything else, but I suspect he was smart enough not to.

His grandfather made the decision to do less farming, more cow tending, so that’s how Guy grew up. His parents established a ranch an hour or so southwest of the home base and when Guy’s grandpa passed away he stood ready to take the reins on the Cut Bank, Mont., location.

“That’s what I always wanted to do,” the experienced rancher says.

Hugh Bradley has been working on improving his Angus-based cowherd ever since buying his own females and returning to the ranch.

Hugh had a degree and a job in construction, where he got the weekends off, so Guy debated whether his first-born would come back to the ranch.

“It’s ingrained into me I suppose,” the son says. “It’s just how I’ve always been for as long as I can remember.”

It’s hard to put it into words when you’re doing something you feel like you were meant to do.

With the purchase of a his first bunch of cows and a house in town, and a new bride by his side, Hugh came back to work alongside his dad close to a decade ago.

Filling up my notebook on a 65-degree, sunny day in May, I laughed when he said a Montana winter is his favorite time of year, but Hugh wasn’t kidding.

“There is still a lot to do and it’s still an all-day process, but it isn’t as pushy,” he says.

Riverbend for blog (5 of 5) — Guy and Walker lead the way to what everybody called their favorite place on the ranch that is just three miles from the Canadian border.

Maybe that leaves more time to think about what the ranch and herd will look like when he may pass it down to Walker, or his seven-year-old daughter Olivia. It’s hard to fathom what changes in technology and business will happen in their lifetime, but Hugh knows he’s going to use the tools available to him now to make sure it’s set in the right direction.

“I’m trying to better everything in a shorter period of time,” he says.

That seems to be a theme—across all segments of the beef community–fathers wanting to be sure their footsteps are worth following.

I have a good feeling these ones are.

Happy Father’s Day to all of you celebrating and may your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

A love of ranching is often passed on from generation to generation, but this week we also showed you that spark for the beef community is often shared within families who process and market the product, too. Our “Footsteps worth following” series celebrates fathers and profiles some of the men who have pursued their careers with an intensity that has inspired their sons to join the profession.

Read the entire series here:

From average to elite

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