Good stories, part I

Rick Gurley’s a storyteller. You know the kind.

Dissatisfied with a simple synopsis, driven by detail, he’ll settle into a memory and take you back with him for the ride.

Life, love, Angus cattle – we talked and laughed about it all.

Married for 30 years, Rick and Susan have two grown children, Nicole [pictured] and Heath. Both play an active role in the family operation.

The year was 2001. Rick was sentenced to couch arrest. i.e. six weeks time to heal after back surgery

Determined, the Arkansas mailman broke out to work cows after two and wound up back in the hospital. This time his bride wouldn’t be so lenient.

“Suze, she’s little but she’s mighty,” he says with a smirk. My favorite story of all tells how the two met.

Rick studies EPDs and selects for traits like docility. That way he can protect his back injury and still walk through the cattle every day.

So Rick sat. With an abundance of well wishes and a set of 30 crossbred heifers in the pasture, his mind raced.

“I watched TV for about 15 minutes and then I was done,” he says. “I was climbing the wall.”

That’s when lifetime friend Jeff Williams dropped off a stack of magazines.

“He was an Angus guy and he brings these Angus Journals over and says, ‘look at them and stay in this house.’ I’m looking at the pictures, going through all of them and they all seem to go back to Gardiner [Angus Ranch, Ashland, Kan.].”

Around that same time, with a bad back and no permission to pull calves, he’d been looking to change his bull battery when a neighbor suggested an Angus bull for sale.

Known for calving ease and other maternal traits, the Angus breed was the perfect fit for the Gurleys. They’ve raised them ever since.

“He delivers that bull and I’m in the house looking out the window, going, ‘He just hooked me.’”

Looks aren’t everything, though: “Lo and behold, that fall I sold those calves and man did they grow. That’s what truly convinced me that genetics matter,” Rick says.

That and the fact that he cold called Mark Gardiner. Soon after, he and Susan made their way to Kansas.

Today, the Gurleys artificially inseminate (AI) everything to one bull. A family affair, they’ll put CIDRs in late April to AI the first of May. Calving begins February 10, and come November there’s the annual “Thanksgiving weaning.”

“I’ve got my cowboy hat on and they run Grid Maker in there at half interest, no possession. We looked so out of place,” Rick says of that first sale. “I said to Suze, don’t make eye contact with anybody, don’t sneeze. Just look at the floor and we’ll soon be outta here.”

The couple bought two toward the end of the sale and the road was paved.

With assistance from Mark and hours spent reading those Angus magazines, “we just continued to go back year after year,” Rick says.

But that was then. In the years since, through AI and using Gardiner bulls for cleanup, genetic selection and analysis of EPDs, the herd grew to 250 and the calf crop went from commodity to premium.

Rick sees the carcass premiums available for hitting the CAB target. Keeping the consumer in mind, he says, “I want paid for all of it; you’re leaving money on the table if you don’t do that.”

“Back then, I couldn’t afford to go buy a new set of cows,” Rick says. “But through bull selection, you can do an awful lot.”

Driving through his herd, it shows.

“We want to be able to guarantee what we’re putting out there,” he tells me of plans to retain ownership through the feedyard this fall.

“I want to own them from the time they’re in the straw to the time they’re hanging on the rail,” he says. “I’d like to aim for 70% CAB.”

That’ll be a good story to tell.

Thanks for allowing me to tell your story,

Laura

PS – Check out the August Angus Journal to catch the rest of the Gurley story.

Like father, (not necessarily) like son

I look young for my age.

Always have, hopefully always will, so when it comes to spending time with most cattlemen, I naturally slip into the role of student.

And it’s a good thing. There’s so much to learn, so many tales to tell.

Listening does a life well, I say, particularly when you’re young.

At Oklahoma State University, Tom studied agricultural economics with a minor in marketing. Cattle weren’t in his plans until a job offer was on the table.

I was on a whirlwind tour of California when I stopped by to visit a coworker’s brother near La Grange. In addition to an extensive stocker operation, I knew their family had run commercial cattle for years.

What I didn’t know was how they run them – on shared land, oftentimes with shared management – but the cattle, they don’t mix.

The Hourets typically breed their cows to registered Angus bulls purchased from seedstock ranches in Montana, with a few from California. Those bulls are expected to throw calves that perform with little assistance and grow into cows that rebreed.

“Our motto has always been that we don’t want to fail because of someone else’s miscalculations,” Paul Houret explains.

It’s over the phone because the man who started it all, the head of Houret Cattle Company, doesn’t live in California anymore. He took his motto and not only applied it, he lives by it.

Paul moved to Lakeview, Ore., and runs the northern unit. It’s actually his son, Tom, who takes care of its southern sister.

Tom likes numbers almost as much as he likes making his own calls. “I get to live and die by my own decisions. I choose,” he says. “Either make the best out of every decision or the worst. I think that brings out the best in people.”

But Tom does more than care for it. He buys his own bulls, he pays his own help. The decisions, they’re all his to make.

So that’s what got me thinking about the young thing. I’d like to say it’s more common to step onto a ranch and see someone as young as Tom making all the calls. I will say it’s refreshing and motivating and made me look in the mirror, if only figuratively.

“His learning curve’s been straight up,” Paul says. “I never expected him to come work on the ranch so it’s been the most amazing thing.”

So here’s how it works: Paul and Tom, each with their own Angus herds, calve on irrigated land in the late summer, yielding a 250-pound (lb.) suckling calf in time for California’s winter rain. Instead of weaning come May, the pairs will ship to Paul in Oregon for the summer grass and wean in July before calving starts again, weighing nearly 800 lb., going on feed 45 to 60 days later.

The point is to maximize natural feed resources and grow a big calf. In California, a calf by its mother’s side will gain 2.5 to 3 lb. a day before the green grass dries, another 3 to 3.5 lb. daily in the north.

“There’s very little supplement. We’ll feed a little hay in the fall and maybe some liquid protein but, as a rule, we don’t mix feed,” Tom says. No cake or creep. “They make a living just on the grass.”

Regardless of where the cattle market falls, “it’s important to deliver a consistent and high-quality product,” Tom says. “As consumers are asked to pay more for protein, we need to make sure we’re providing our best for them.”

As for Tom and Paul, they make a living on the Angus cattle. Together and separate.

Thanks for allowing me to tell your story,

Laura

PS – Be on the lookout for a full story on Tom and Paul in an upcoming edition of the Angus Journal.

When Tom met Sally

Cattle are the focus of ranch stops but it’s often the people who pull me in.

That’s not to say I didn’t stand atop a hill overlooking these beautiful Angus cattle and wonder, just for a second, how anyone could spend their days with anything else. But it’s still the people, each full of stories about their cattle, that send me home with a happy heart.

Using the technology in their commercial herd since ’68 and now in what’s solely a registered herd, the Donatis were early adopters of artificial insemination (AI).

“I think because Tom’s family had the cattle there, that’s why I got through college,” Sally Donati says.

We’re sitting at the couple’s kitchen table near Oroville, Calif., and it’s quotes like this one that remind me that cattle do so much more than pay the bills.

They drive people, challenge them, at times can cause great stress, but they bring families together and draw their keepers back to the basics of life.

The Donatis started with Hereford-Durham cross cows, along with some Simmentals, too. They experienced some problems with rebreeding and the cows got too big. That’s when they introduced Angus.

Tom and Sally’s story starts way back at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where the duo studied agricultural business management before saying “I do” in ‘75. Prior to, Tom’s father had passed away and later he and his brother dispersed their herd. Tom would start again in the late ‘70s, this time with new challenges.

“It was pretty meek in the ’80s,” he says. “There was so much operating in the red. In order to stay in, you had to make your cattle better, you had to find your niche, your premiums.”

Nestled hours inland from the coast along the Sacramento Valley, Oroville, meaning “Gold Town,” is an interesting place to raise beef cattle. The Donatis have some irrigated pasture there.

After introducing Angus into the herd, it was carcass data that paved the way, made possible through the American Angus Association’s Structured Sire Evaluation Program.

“For us to make the improvements we wanted to make, we had to know where we were. It was like a road map,” Tom says.

With grid marketing sparse and carcass premiums only beginning to see light, it certainly led them down the road less traveled.

“That became our map,” Tom says. But the first data revealed a CAB® acceptance rate in the single digits. So they changed directions and stopped “picking the biggest, fattest, prettiest replacement heifers to keep.”

“I mean, we have computers. It’s not that hard,” Tom says of collecting data on their registered herd. Plus, it helps to have Sally as “the chief bill payer.”

“Now we knew what we had,” Tom says. “We had to find out where we were to find out where we wanted—needed—to go.”

With the consumer in mind, breeding decisions now and then revolve around light to moderate birth weights with emphasis on growth, marbling and muscle.

That information from the feedlot also gives potential customers insight into what they’re buying. A recent pen of Donati calves went 89% CAB and Prime with 22% of the latter.

That’s the payoff when marbling goes in from the start.

That’s the story Tom and Sally get to tell.

Views like this, they’ll never grow old.

Thanks for allowing me to tell you story,

Laura

PS – Be on the lookout for a full story on Donati Ranch in an upcoming edition of the Angus Journal.

The Golden Rule in the Golden Triangle

Up here on the high plateau where checkerboarded farmland overlooks the steep valley carved by a meandering Belt Creek, you can feel the change. It’s subtle, but there’s no doubt the rougher mountains and forest to the west are giving way to the “Golden Triangle” to the east.

This is the region in north-central Montana known worldwide for high quality and abundant grains. In town, breweries and bakeries alike boast Montana-grown signs. Neill Sweeney’s grandad bought their farm overlooking Belt Creek in 1911, where they raise winter wheat, barley and hay for the cattle.

Sweeney view — This is the view from Neill’s dad’s old house, overlooking the Belt Valley.

“We definitely consider ourselves farmers who also raise cattle,” Neill says. “We try not to compromise what we do on the farm with the cows.”

That doesn’t mean cattle quality is compromised. It can, however, be somewhat put on “auto-steer.”

“We know Bruce is looking out for us in that area, so we can focus on what matters to us and know that’s built in,” Neill says, referencing friend and seedstock provider Bruce Keaster.

“We don’t crossbreed anymore – it just seems like if it has a black hide, it has more value, plus, we feel like we can get enough growth out of those black calves and not worry about it. The breed has come a long way, and we know that’s what Losekes want.”

About two thirds of Neill’s bull battery is sourced from Keaster. Like Bruce – and largely because of him – Neill also holds a longstanding relationship with Nebraska cattle feeder Ryan Loseke.

“Bruce just has really good cattle – I think that’s why Losekes keep coming back for ours, too. They know what they’re getting with them,” Neill says.

2016_10_Sweeney-2 — Neill, Patti and grandson Riley Bock

They started out renting grass to Bruce years ago, then swapped bulls for grass when Neill noticed the quality of the cattle grazing on his land. Ryan’s dad starting buying the Sweeney cattle more than a decade ago, and they’ve been back every year since.

“One thing I like about that is they’re similar from a health standpoint. They’re pretty uniform with Bruce’s cattle, so they all fit together; we know what we’re getting,” Ryan says.

Loads go as high as 51% CAB and Prime—the quality Ryan’s looking for, with performance and health, too.

For Neill, the biggest value is straightforward marketing that simplifies the cattle department so he can keep focused on the farm.

“We don’t have to go through a middle man,” Neill points out. “We just load them once – it’s easier on them and on us. I figure the best part of it is the peace of mind for us.”

That reciprocates on the feeder’s end, too.

“Neill is about as low-key a guy to deal with as they come. They’re just good people. They’re fun to work with; just fun people to know,” Ryan says.

No doubt, laughter and humility come easy around Neill and Patti’s kitchen table. Their good-natured welcome, candid humor and earnest love for their land and history makes it clear this family’s adherence to the Golden Rule goes a lot further than their dealings in the cattle business.

“We figure, if it’s good for them, it’s good for us,” Neill shrugs with a smile. “If they don’t stay in business, neither do we.”

Until next time,

Laura

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 wooed her back west.

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

Worth the wait, without losing weight

The first snow of the season was just moving off the Highwood Mountains to softly blanket the valley below when I pulled into Todd and Charla Prosser’s driveway this September. It was the rare kind of Montana snow that fell vertically, almost delicately; not a breath of wind to sweep it into a blustery tornado of ice daggers.

I captioned the Instagram photo, “A winter wonderland,” with the little heart-eyed emoji.

2016_10_willowcreekranch-40 — Todd and Charla Prosser, Belt, Mont.

That seems so, so long ago.

“Arctic blast” is the Montana weatherman’s word du jour for the past month, and it’s not letting up. We’re not alone – our friends and neighbors in the Dakotas have been hit far worse. But still. Negative 20 degrees, not including wind chill, is cold. Very cold.

Years ago, Todd learned battling the worst of Montana winter was just not worth the weight calves might gain in that extra month before they leave the Belt, Montana Willow Creek Ranch to journey to Nebraska for finishing. They pushed calving season back a month to start in February now, and never skipped a beat in weaning weights.

“On those really cold years, those calves born in January – well, the March calves always seem to catch up to them at the end of the year,” he said. “In those cold years, those calves just didn’t perform as well. We didn’t run one cow through the barn last year, and the calves will be heavy because of it.”

2016_10_willowcreekranch-37 — The first snow of the season came in September at Willow Creek Ranch in Montana.

Ryan Loseke has received those Willow Creek calves for the 18 years Todd has managed the ranch.

“They’re just good, rugged, mountain cattle,” Ryan says. “Todd’s quick to get on the phone and stay in touch through the feeding phase. He wants to know if there are health problems and if there are things we need to do.”

Setting the cows up for success is the first step in getting calves that do well on the ranch and beyond.

“The bottom line is, if we take care of the cows, we’re going to have less sickness in the calves down the line,” Todd says. “We have to take care of the cows. That’s where it starts. They’re the money makers.”

2016_10_willowcreekranch-27 — A long-term relationship with Loseke Feedyard near Columbus, Neb., means that Todd gets data and feedback to help improve his herd.

Calves are pre-conditioned a month prior to shipping. Their program includes a Pyramid 5 and Preponse, plus a Vision 8 with somnus and de-wormer. Cows are on a killed vaccine, but they do a live vaccine for the feeder calves.

“I just found through the years that two weeks doesn’t seem to be enough, based on what I see in the replacements we keep,” Todd says.

“The biggest thing on those big groups is a health advantage,” Ryan says. “They work well and get those pre-condition shots in them a month before they get here. That’s where we can impact health at the feedyard, is getting them set up for success with an immunization program at the ranch.”

You can learn more about the Willow Creek Ranch in the January 2017 edition of the Angus Journal.

nelson-home-in-nebraska — A scene from my holiday trip home. Cold and more cold.

And despite the arctic blasts that have followed me from the Montana mountains to my Nebraska homelands, I will keep on claiming winter as my favorite season. Living in it might take a touch more planning and plenty of intestinal fortitude, but this thick-skinned-Swede wouldn’t trade it for anything. Fortunately, black cattle are easier to spot in whiteout conditions, too.

Until next time,

Laura

Following the calves: Proud to pass it on

“I don’t want to be the generation that screws it up.”

South Dakota rancher Troy Hadrick told me that as we discussed all the changes he’s seen in four years at the helm of his family’s commercial Angus herd.

“I marvel at what my grandfather was able to do coming through the Depression and keeping it together. I marvel at what my dad and uncle were able to do in the ’80s, keeping this place together,” he says.

I suspect he doesn’t have anything to worry about…but the stakes are high.

Troy and his wife Stacy want to be sure that if any of their three kids, Teigen (14), Olivia (11) and Reese (9), want to come back to ranch, that they have the opportunity.

858110_10152365725566830_6654586393808254141_o — “I wanted something I was proud to pass on,” says Troy Hadrick. He and wife Stacy have three children that make up the next generation. (Photo courtesy of the Beef Checkoff)

But taking over in 2012, he already felt behind.

“I was thinking at the time, ‘Okay, I’m in my late thirties. How many years do I have in this business and can I get my cowherd where I want to be in that amount of time?”

“It was overwhelming,” he recalls, but with the help of DNA technology, he did in four years what he thought might take a decade or more. For example, no Primes on the first report turned into 18% in the most recent data.

When Troy decided to try GeneMax, he went all in, testing both his steers (to get a gauge on how they might feed) and his heifers (to help pick replacements). Sending nice-looking heifers down the road took some getting used to.

“If I’m going to spend the money, then I’m going to believe the data until it proves me wrong,” the producer says, noting it would be of no use sitting in the file cabinet, while continuing on the same path. “I had to commit to using the data sets to improve the cows.”

file-dec-08-2-12-51-pm — Replacement heifers? Feeder Calves? The decisions are made easier with DNA, Hadrick says. (Submitted photos)

After three years, the results have matched up with individual carcass data he gets back from the feedyard and U.S. Premium Beef.

“The decisions are getting easier, because I’m not having to guess whether it would be a good idea to feed cattle or not,” Troy says. “I’m not guessing which heifers we should keep or which ones we should sell. Now we’ve got information that we can use to make a good decision.”

“You don’t have to go to bed at night worrying, panicking, did I make the right call?”

The March through May-born calves were weaned in late September. As they stepped up on a backgrounding ration, the relatively warm fall gave way to a cold spell as of late. They’re hoping for good weather as the 700-pound steer calves are about to make the journey to Irsik and Doll Feed Yard, Garden City, Kan., where Troy has retained ownership for four years.

“My job here is to make sure they’re good and healthy. My job is to make sure they know what a feed bunk is,” he says. “If they’re nice and warmed up, when they get down there, they can really go to work.”

That’s the plan: they’ll travel south, they’ll eat, they’ll break last year’s best. We’ll check back in, to see how that’s working and talk a little about the heifer calves, too, in our next installment. Stay tuned!

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

P.S.–To learn more about the Hadrick herd, check out on the first post on “Rapid change.”

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

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.

100% or better

Though few and far between, there are still places in our great country where cell phone service can’t be found and you need an old-fashioned paper map to find your way. My GPS stopped working hours before I made it to Jordan Valley, Oregon, a secluded town on the Oregon-Idaho border.

In the parking lot of the Jordan Valley Post Office (one of the few buildings in town) I shook hands with Carlin, the youngest son of the seven grown children of David and Ann Rutan. After a quick introduction, we both hopped back into our vehicles and he led through more winding turns until we reached the gates of Morgan Ranches in South Mountain, Idaho, the purpose of my visit.

At first, I almost felt like I had stepped back in time. It was quiet, breathtakingly beautiful and even though it was the middle of summer, there was still a light snow dusting that covered the mountain top. However, as David and Ann began to talk about their cattle, I knew we were definitely in the 21st Century.

When the Rutans say they want to raise the best Angus cattle they can, it is no joke. Their commercial Angus cattle qualify for more than five different premium-type programs. Upon sale date their cattle can be marketed as AngusSource verified, non-hormone treated cattle (NHTC), raised according to level four Global Animal Partnership (GAP) standards and have a Premium Nutrition Network endorsement. The premiums are stacked, which allows the beef they produce to be marketed under almost any specifications from Whole Foods to the Certified Angus Beef ^® (CAB^®) brand.

Of course, you don’t need all those other programs to make the CAB brand, but you do need cattle that make the grade. For the Rutans, that doesn’t seem to be a problem. David puts high expectations on his herd, including carcass data sheets that come back with 100% Choice or better. In 2009, when Beef Marketing Group in Colby, Kansas, called to tell him his cattle graded 72.5% CAB, he was disappointed. Until he learned that 13% made Prime.

And the rest of the cattle that made up those loads? They graded Choice and met David’s requirement for 100% or better.

As I sat with the couple at their kitchen table and rode around their ranch, I learned that this expectation of excellence wasn’t just a reoccurring theme. For this couple, it’s a way of life. From their bull selection criteria to the stories of raising their seven children (now enjoying 11 grandchildren!), to the way they refused to let me leave without taking me back into town and treating me to lunch, I could see going “above and beyond” is their everyday.

Recently, CAB celebrated its partners selling more than 1 billion pounds across the globe. As I drove away from Jordan Valley, I realized the progress we’ve seen in our industry and this brand is only possible because producers like the Rutans who give and expect 100% or better.

Until next time,

Nicole

‘Just call Terry Harris’

I recently wrote a pretty detailed feature on Harris Livestock and thought about making that the title. As a girl who’s called Mr. Terry plenty of times and told others to do the same, I figured it was only fitting.

Then I sat down with the Georgia cattleman and his wife, Betty, in their Boston, Ga., home and listened to stories from 46 years of marriage and life, taking note of cattle woven into every seam.

Every animal at Harris Livestock is accounted for each day by Terry and Betty who liken it to shepherds with their flock. “Seven” is Miss Betty’s personal favorite.

Two sons and eight moves later, followed by Terry’s retirement and open-heart surgery (his first words waking up were “Will I still be allowed to AI my cows, Doc?”), Angus cattle now take up one of the largest chapters of their lives – that is until the grandkids pull down the dirt road.

“That’ll shut the whole operation down quicker than anything,” Terry says through a smile.

As I climbed out of my spot in the middle seat of their farm pickup, “thoughtful” was the word that came to mind – rather it’s the characteristic that just may define them the most.

I’ve known the Harrises since I was a kid so it was extra special to visit them on the job – even if we had to squeeze into the front seat of the pickup!

Thoughtful. In terms of folks dedicated to the rough and tough nature that is this industry, it may seem a bit ill-fitting. But hear a neighbor’s remark about them showing up in a desperate time of need, watch Terry take calls, share successes and failures with a young person just trying to get their foot in the door, listen to them talk about their cows and the consumer and you’ll be convinced.

“What kind of emotion is going to be released when you put my beef on your dinner plate?” Terry asks.

The question isn’t rhetorical, rather a genuine concern for the influence his 100 Angus cows will have on the beef eater – the beef industry, for that matter.

It’s one that led them to start collecting data through retained ownership of commercial steers and to develop a set of criteria for building balanced-trait bulls to offer as “purebred quality at a commercial price.”

High school sweethearts, married for 46 years, they’re out the door by 8 a.m. to tend to the cattle and sometimes don’t return until after dark.

An early pen averaged 88% low Choice when the national average was 52%. Today that number is 94%, with 66% achieving Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand acceptance and rising.

“Retaining ownership hasn’t led me to greater profits,” Terry says. Instead it’s led to better decisions. “The value is in the information. Somebody’s got to do it and somebody’s got to share it.”

“I was raising cattle for my personal preference and was losing money,” he says. “I had to start building cattle that the industry wanted and that’s not based on Terry Harris, that’s based on the consumer.”

Thoughtful.

Thanks for allowing me to tell your story,

Laura

PS – Be on the lookout for the Harrises full story in an upcoming issue of the Angus Journal. It focuses on building cattle for the consumer and how one small business can leave a lasting impact on the industry.

Good stories, part I

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