Competing with quality

CAB honors Vermilion Ranch for Commitment to Excellence

by Miranda Reiman

From the bright lights and shining hardwood of a basketball court to the cedar shavings of an auction ring, if there’s one ideal Pat Goggins believes in, it’s competition.

Growing up the youngest of six boys born to sharecroppers can do that. It could come from his love of athletics or his early start as one of the most sought-after purebred auctioneers in the country, but whatever gave him that drive, the result is somewhat of an empire around a Billings, Mont., base.

At the center is the Vermilion Ranch, where adding value to customer cattle helped earn the 2013 Seedstock Commitment to Excellence Award at the Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand annual conference in Palm Desert, Calif., Sept. 18-20.

Many in the cattle business know the Goggins family story. Pat went to college on a basketball scholarship, graduated with an animal science degree and married Florence “Babe” Becker 62 years ago. They scraped by for many years while he worked as a field man and later as a self-taught auctioneer. That was all before purchasing the Western Livestock Reporter, three Montana auction markets and then the Vermilion Ranch.

Just east of Billings this place would be the Goggins patriarch’s real foray into the Angus breed.

“They were discriminated against for a lot of years,” Pat says, even though the former Vermilion Ranch owner with Herefords used to buy all the black cattle coming through Public Auction Yards (PAYS).  “The black-hided cattle just out-gained and outperformed, whether you had them for breeders or for feeders.”

And today they command a premium, but Pat says it’s about reputation.

“Performance testing and EPDs [expected progeny differences] are meaningful and people are paying attention,” he says. “And they should because there is a difference within the breed of Angus cattle.”

Traveling the country to sell at purebred sales and sitting in his own sale-ring bleachers gave Pat a solid idea for “the look” he wanted: clean and long, with good muscle expression.

“He saw lots of cattle. He knew cattle, and he knew what he wanted and that’s never changed,” says Bob Cook, who married Coreen, the eldest Goggins daughter, and manages PAYS and many activities at the ranch.

 Today, Pat’s twin sons, Joe and John, have the opportunity evaluate a large number of cattle and specific bloodlines through their work: Joe as popular cattle auctioneer and John as publisher of the family’s paper, the Western Ag Reporter.

They add their expertise as they continue to hone the herd that started with 200 pairs purchased from the Ross Ranch near Jordan, Mont., in 1968. Today they market nearly 7,000 registered and commercial Angus cattle in the annual spring and fall production sales.

“Dad always beat it into our heads on the seedstock side of things, that you can’t upgrade,” says Joe. “You’ve got to start with the very best ones and you don’t cheat on the bulls. He always said you might buy a used pickup, buy a used tractor—cheat where you can—but don’t cheat on your bull and your cowherd.”

The breeding has followed that plan all along, from Oscar to Right Time and VRD, to name a few.

“If we’re going to use an outside bull, we want to breed at least 100 cows to him,” Cook says. “If we’ve got enough confidence to select a bull, we’re going to breed him to at least 100 cows.”

Quality is always a key. Cook worked for the American Angus Association when CAB was just coming in. “There’s been hundreds of brand programs for the last 35, 40 years, but there’s only one that has kept quality its No. 1 criteria. That’s the one reason CAB has prevailed, and that’s why we maintain a high-quality standard.”

Vermilion cattle have changed over time, but customers still come expecting the same things.

Spencer Cooney, of Harlowton, Mont., is a third-generation Vermilion customer. His family’s Cooney Brothers Ranch has built up the predictability in their herd through half-sibling bulls.

“We always strived to have as high quality, functional cattle as we could,” Cooney says. “My grandfather always wanted quality and bought quality bulls, so when my dad started buying it was the same deal.”

Now Cooney and his brother Cavan have begun to source the genetics for the large straightbred Angus herd, and they’re sticking with tradition. For the past couple of decades, they’ve sold much of their calf crop to Goggins.

“A lot of people in the business offer marketing opportunities,” Cook says. “But we’re a little more unique because we’ll buy a lot of cattle from our customers. We own them.”

That enterprise became a key as properties were added in the 1990s, starting with the Diamond Ring Ranch near Miles City, Mont. The 50,000-acre spread is used for backgrounding calves purchased mainly from customers. Cattle are typically resold as part of January’s Diamond Ring Sale, which included 40,000 Angus-influenced steers this year.

At their Pryor Creek Ranch, the family also develops 2,300 commercial and 500 registered heifers.

“We really get a good handle on how our cattle are doing for our customers and how they feed and finish,” Pat says.      So it’s a symbiotic relationship: the family gets a snapshot of how bulls work out in the country and commercial ranchers have an outlet for their calves. Those services help build long-lasting relationships, too.

“Because we’re in the auction business and we’re in the video business and we’re in the newspaper business, it’s all part of being in the people business,” Cook says.

 The family credits their various industry successes to Pat’s vision and that core philosophy. 

“Breeding cattle is a lot like playing a ball game,” Joe says. “There’s a competitiveness to it. The businesses that we’ve really thrived in all have to do with competition.”

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