Maternal function at Marrs Ranch

That’s all Tom Williams, Chappell (Neb.) Feedlot, had to say about his customers of five years in 2009.

That, and an added page of data to prove it, were enough.

Recipients of CAB’s Commercial Commitment to Excellence award, Dan and Anna Marrs, Whitewood, S.D., were the first to admit their herd of 600 Angus females wasn’t perfect.

Although 2009 was a different market and time for the family ranch northeast of the Black Hills, what attracted us to them then attracts us now.

Consistency.

They have the numbers, of course – harvest bunches achieving 70-80% CAB – but it’s what’s behind the numbers that have kept them on our radar.

Speaking more to their way of life and how they raise son Matthew, Anna said in ’09, “In a way, because we don’t have a lot of things – like hi-speed Internet or Nintendo, we just try to concentrate on basics. Reading and phonics. And above all character.”

A comprehensive tell-all, character covers all the bases from family values to their commercial cowherd.

With 24 years of records supporting every decision they make, Marrs Ranch is an example of aiming for balanced excellence and getting it. A forage-oriented, low-input herd, Marrs cattle don’t just hit the CAB target but gain and convert efficiently during the process.

It seems rather simple, really, when Dan explains that records show what “cows we can live with,” in one sense of the phrase. Cow families that show longevity and carcass quality get to stay while those that fall behind hit the road. In another sense of the phrase applied to functionality, Dan adds, “We don’t live with them. If a female gives us any trouble, she can’t stay here.”

Like many breeders who have looked past the myth that says if you want one thing you must give up another, they don’t choose between functionality and quality. Instead, they let them work together, a physical “character” of sorts.

Leery of fads, the Marrs Ranch has “been breeding black” for more than 35 years because of the ability to target desired results.

“Crossbreeding may work for some people, but we know what our Angus cattle can do in the feedlot, as replacement heifers and in our herd. CAB is really a bonus, and it’s a benefit I don’t see attached to any other breed,” Dan says.

Call me biased, but I’d tend to agree.

Thanks for allowing me to tell your story,

Laura

This is the second in a three-part series on maternal function and marbling. To hear about the Nebraska family who wouldn’t sell their cows in a drought for all they had invested in them, click back to yesterday’s post.

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