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: Keaster family checks in

There are two things Bruce Keaster figures he needs in the cattle business: a good relationship with his banker and a good relationship with his cattle feeder.

Check and check.

But those two winning tickets aren’t just luck. That banker relationship requires good ideas, a can-do attitude and the intestinal fortitude to ride out a few storms along the way. Likewise, a cattle feeder requires much of the same – plus the kind of cattle that back it up.
Check, check and check.

“It’s the peace of mind of knowing we’ve built that trust, and I have those two I can call up and know they’re a partner in my business,” Bruce says. “They’re in it with me.”

keaster-4-wheeler — Bruce Keaster, who ranches with his family near Belt, Mont., says partnerships are key to ranching success.

He and wife Janet ranch with their two adult daughters near Belt, Montana. His great-grandfather homesteaded just on the other side of the central Montana town, nestled between the Highwood and Little Belt mountains. There, they keep 800 mother cows, primarily commercial Angus, but with a growing purebred herd, too.

That’s where the can-do attitude and long-term patience and planning comes in.

When they started artificially inseminating (AI’ing) in the early ’80s, Bruce was frustrated with the resulting females.

“The two things were bad bags and bad attitudes,” he says. “So I thought I’d get to work building a registered herd with the qualities I wanted in my commercial cows.”

He started creating bulls that would add thickness without a huge frame, cows with longevity and calves with performance all around.
Bruce planned to AI until his registered cattle were as good as his commercial herd. It took eight years of selective breeding and hard culling to produce sires he wanted to use beyond clean-up duty, and replacement heifers he was proud to keep on his own place, then begin selling.

He participated in the American Angus Association’s sire evaluation program in the ’90s, which compared progeny of young bulls to those of proven, reference sires. Individual ranch tags were tracked through finishing and harvest to add data to the new expected progeny difference (EPD) numbers.

“I saw that you can really control the whole product by breeding to a higher carcass value. I scratch my head sometimes when I see some of the things going on,” Bruce says, describing a popular sire with a near zero marbling EPD. “I’m sure the cattle are good, but why would you miss out on that?”

There are bulls out that will do the same things, plus positively impact the final product.

2016_10_keaster-1 — It’s not an either/or decision, says Bruce, who focuses on the cow and the carcass.

“Why use something average or below average when you could get right to the point? If I’m going to raise them, I want them to be something that people want to eat,” he says. “If we’re supposed to compete with Brazil and Australia, we have to start emphasizing the eating experience and the marbling. That’s essential.”

That carcass evaluation program connected him to a like-minded feeder in Columbus, Nebraska, and he’s been selling his calves to Loseke Feedyard ever since.

Feedyard owner and manager Ryan Loseke provides feedback on animal health, performance and carcass data, with an information flow that goes both ways.

“It keeps me more aware that I’ve got to keep working at it rather than getting lackadaisical about it,” Bruce says. “We’ve had years when we’ve been close to 60% CAB, and other years when it’s down. But we know we want to keep improving on the carcass.”
He looks forward to that opportunity, partnerships firmly in place.

“Any business that doesn’t have a market is futile. So between having a banker who backs my crazy ideas, and a market with the backing of people that are so close we consider them family – well, that’s worth more than anything else to me,” Bruce says.

You’ll be able to follow along his journey, too, as we feature the Keaster family in our “Following the Calves” series, tracking their calves’ progress from the Montana mountains to the Nebraska feedlot.

“I can’t change the world, but I can work little by little to have something good that comes from our place,” Bruce says.

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 woo’d her back west.

P.S. Travel across the country as we follow other calves from ranch to feedyard this year. The second round is off and running, taking you to veteran cattleman Glenn Cantrell in Oklahoma and to South Dakota where Troy Hadrick is a half a dozen years in to herd improvements.

Following the Calves: Quality in the details

img_7424e — Glenn and Mary Cantrell, Lone Grove, Okla.

Attention to detail is everywhere you look around Glenn Cantrell’s Lone Grove, Okla., ranch. A freshly mowed lawn, an immaculate home, the cattleman’s perfectly creased Wranglers.

It’s no surprise it’s in the cattle, too.

But that wasn’t always the case.

“We’ve definitely evolved,” Glenn says. “We started out with crossbreds and some Angus and now we’re almost exclusively Angus. We started out focusing on weaning weights and yearling weights and just shipping our cattle to the stockyards in Oklahoma City or El Reno.”

But despite producing good calves, they weren’t getting paid accordingly. He knew there had to be a better way.

“We just were not getting them marketed properly,” Glenn says. “Marketing is a huge problem for us, and I’d guess, for a lot of cattlemen. It’s hard to get back what you put in to them.”

That’s when he decided to target quality over pounds, and turn to his friend Jarold Callahan (the pair have even judged at Denver’s National Western together) for advice on how to get there.

“I told him I wanted to improve our herd to the point where our calves graded well and I could get as many premiums as I could with them,” Glenn says. “He then told me the parameters and the EPDs that we would need to achieve our goal.”

That conversation became the basis of the criteria Glenn set for the breeding stock he uses.

While he’s still working to improve his cattle, the 82-year-old rancher is seeing vast improvements. Last year’s calves went 86% Choice and 42% Certified Angus Beef® brand. His goal is 96% Choice and 75% CAB.

And with his attention to detail and strive for perfection, I’ve got no doubt he’ll get there. But the best part? He’s letting us come along for the ride over the next several months. We’ll check back in with Glenn during calving season and again in the spring when he’s got data back on the calves he shipped off to Pratt.

I hope you’ll join me in Following the Calves.

-Katrina

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.

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PS–We are starting Round Two of last year’s popular Following the Calves blog series. Check back in the coming weeks and months as we introduce you to ranchers from across the country who are working to be sure their calves are just the kind that cattle feeders want. You’ll get to know the families, their cattle and hopefully a little more about the next segment in the beef business.

Progressive quality

I first “met” Chuck Backus in the early 2000s. It was before we had a blog so we used the email list then called BLACK-INK. I still have the exchanges but of course can’t find them… Anyway (as he and I both say a lot) the retired Arizona State University provost with a 40,000-acre ranch wanted to convert his desert-based herd to high-quality, high-percentage Angus.

Few believed he could do that, even before we saw how tough the environment is. “It’s 22 square miles of rocks, cactus and mountains that we call pastures, but we have animals that do well in these conditions,” he says, noting the frequent day-long rides to monitor that.

Chuck often hosts groups for educational presentations on the Quarter Circle U.

We all admired the drive. By the time Angus Media President Eric Grant and I stopped in to capture his story in 2013, nobody could doubt the success. But Chuck wasn’t done, still isn’t.

A couple of days ago, capping off a year of cooperation in our Following the Calves series, Chuck and Judy, his wife and partner of 59 years, accepted one of the highest honors from the Certified Angus Beef brand: Progressive Partner. Click that link to read all about it.

Their Quarter Circle U Ranch near Apache Junction is the home of highly focused and applied innovation. They keep their eyes on a vision of ideal cattle, using science and technology to keep getting better each year. As a benchmark 10 years ago, the first load of ranch calves finished in Texas made 50% low Choice but only one made CAB, and by 1% of a marbling score.

In March, we wrote about the steers he sent to Oklahoma, promising a report later: well, 95.4% of them qualified for CAB, and most of them Prime.

That seems hard to beat, but the moving target now includes much greater efficiency. I’m sure there’s going to be more to write about and learn from on the Quarter Circle U.

The Quarter Circle U has been 100% solar only for several decades.

At the CAB Annual Conference in Tucson this past weekend, the 650 other partners from around the world applauded Chuck’s video comments.

“Ranching relates the person in all of our complexity to the real world, animal and earth kingdom that we live in. We have come from a million years of gathering tribes to farmers and sustaining communities and civilization.”

Though evolution has distanced humans from their food suppliers, he aims to close the gap.

At the end of the day, I enjoyed refreshments with Chuck, Judy and manager Dean Harris in 2013.

“I have a personal drive to leave the world a little better than I found it. Ranching combines improving mother earth with the quality of the products that come from it. That quality is much better, either because of my direct contribution or setting an example that others could use to pursue goals.”

We call that a progressive attitude from a friend of the brand, the planet and everything on it.

Let’s keep building tomorrow together!

–Steve

PS–That opening shot shows Chuck and Judy Backus accepting the 2016 CAB Progressive Partner Award Sept. 24 in Tucson, with CAB Supply Development Director Justin Sexten, left, and President John Stika, right.

Catch up on Chuck’s whole story with these posts:

Our “Following the Calves” series also takes you to Florida and Nebraska in these installments:

Following the Calves: Starting over

Shipping day.

2015_05_18_mr_evert-steers-harvest-will-feed-137 — April was rainy, so when the skies cleared on the day the last of the Evert calves were set to ship in early May, I headed to Will Feed.

It’s like a home builder handing over the keys. An artist, painting the last stroke. An actress on opening night.

For a cattle feeder, shipping day is not only the culmination of months of work, it’s also payday.

“It’s one of the most difficult things I do as a cattle feeder,” Anne Burkholder, Cozad, Neb., cautioned, as she welcomed me one spring day to photograph the Evert calves—the ones I’d followed since October. There was a stipulation: I must stay out of the way. It takes focus to load 1,400-lb. critters onto a truck.

For ranchers in the next county over, that shipping day went unnoticed—they had sold all their steer calves to Will Feed in the fall. But as the Everts took cows to grass, they thought about that feedyard milestone with some anticipation, because after shipping day comes report-card day.

“We do our homework when we go to a bull sale, so getting that feedback has been very beneficial,” says Virginia Evert.

2015_05_18_mr_evert-steers-harvest-will-feed-98 — I don’t like pre-dawn alarm clock alerts, but I do like capturing good cattle in good lighting.

This year’s tally? The steers reached 40% Certified Angus Beef^® (CAB^®) brand and Prime while the heifers were 49% CAB and Prime. They outgained the steers as well, racking up 4 lb./day.

“We’re getting consistent, raising consistent cattle,” says Rachael Evert.

It would go down as an uneventful year; rains spread out, the grass enough. Calving went smoothly and summer left them in good spirits.

It would be uneventful, except that this fall finds them looking at new marketing options.

Anne recently announced that she is closing the feedyard.

“This has been a long and difficult decision, but I am confident it is the correct one,” the feeder says.

The Everts credit their relationship with Anne for teaching them what feeders want, and they’ve adjusted weaning, health and implants (or lack thereof) to her standards.

Now, it’s something like starting over, but different this time.

The ranchers hope to find another feeder to work with directly. They like knowing price is not determined by which buyers are in the seats or that day’s auction order, and they especially like the two-way information flow.

2016_9_mr_evert-wrapup-39-1-2 — No spring floods, then well-timed rains on summer pastures helped ease typical ranch worries.

“Everything was ‘preconditioned’ and all they had are a shot in the spring,” Virginia says of competing against others in the ring. Of course, now they have more information to share, too. “Knowing our carcass data, now I can honestly say we have ‘quality cattle.’”

Before, they just didn’t know.

The Everts have delayed preconditioning until they know exactly where their cattle are going. They want to match health and implant strategies with the next buyer. If they invest in EID (electronic identification) tags, they want to be sure they’ll get feedback.

From the moment the women took over day-to-day care of the family cowherd, change was evident.

“Change is nothing new for us; it will be a new adventure,” Rachael says, shrugging off the initial disappointment.

evertwrapup-collage — During the past year, as I’ve followed the cattle, Emma has tagged along each time. Virginia and Brandon’s, and the youngest of all the Evert cousins, Emma is growing into quite the little hand around the ranch.

The one thing that shows no sign of wavering? A commitment to constant improvement.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

It’s been fun “Following the calves” from last October, until now with a new calf crop looking towards weaning. If you want to catch up on the Evert family’s story from the beginning, you can read their feature, “The Best Rise From Ashes,” or check out these blog posts:

Our “Following the calves” series will also take you to Arizona and Florida in these posts:

Following the Calves: Relishing the routine

What are you going to do with all your money when you retire?” Lew Evert asked his brother John.

“I’m going to keep it.”

“No you’re not. You’re going to buy a ranch.”

2016_04_mr_Evert FTC-6-1 — John (left) and Lew Evert started the Angus cowherd with 13 bred heifers each

So they did.

I finally got to meet the two men who had the vision to create Broken Hills Ranch and started the herd that we’ve been profiling as part of our “Following the Calves” series

They told me stories and I laughed. Big personalities, but equally as genuine. You could just hear how pleased they were with the way things have turned out.

“I was glad when ‘the girls’ wanted to take this on,” John says. Lew pipes in, retelling of how Virginia learned the cattle business from scratch. Talking of his nephew Brandon, he jokes, “I can’t believe he had to go all the way to Iowa to find himself a cowgirl, but he’s got one.”

Rachael (left), Virginia and Emma can often be found tagging new calves together.

When Lew’s son Kirk married, it was to someone the family had known for years. Rachael is also key to the plan to both grow and improve the herd.

Near Brady, Neb., I joined them in a calving pasture that borders the Platte River. It’s been Rachael and Virginia’s second home since the heifers started in February and the cows followed in March.

“We only have 24 left, with another month left in the calving season,” Rachael told me last week, as she surveyed the white board version of a calving book. Fertility was good.

“If you keep the cows in good shape, they’ll breed back,” John observes.

2016_04_mr_Evert FTC-78-9 — The Evert version of the “calving book” is nearly complete for 2016.

Research shows early-born calves not only have a weight advantage, but a carcass one, too, which is exciting to think about as they look to fall, but it sure makes for busy days.

At nights, the Angus cows—where calving ease was a major focus for decades—are left to “do it on their own,” Rachael says, noting they haven’t had many problems.

After most of the kids are in school, the women meet to check on the mamas and tag any new babies. They’ll do it again just before somebody has to run to meet the bus. This season they’ve had up to 15 in one day.

The kids do homework in the converted half-trailer-house that is half breakroom, half barn—with space to watch a cartoon or warm a calf in front of a woodstove. The girls have outgrown the pack-n-play, but one still stands at the ready for any furry baby that needs assistance.

It’s gone unused this year. Save for one snowstorm, the central Nebraska weather has been mild. They are keeping an eye on Mother Nature though, as she’s caught them off-guard before.

In 2014, heavy Colorado rains caused the river to flood and the calving pasture was completely underwater in early fall.

“We came and took pictures because we thought, ‘We’ll never see this again in our lifetime,’” Brandon remembers. Just nine months later in spring 2015, the river rose swiftly.

“We had to move cows in the middle of the week,” Virginia says. That’s a challenge since most big projects are completed during weekends when their husbands are home.

The word “flood” has already come up, so the family is only bringing a week’s worth of hay at a time and are ready to move. Branding is set for the end of the month.

When asked to sum up calving season so far, Virginia says, “Uneventful.”

And no one in the Evert family is complaining about that.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

P.S. Catch up on the rest of the Evert family’s story with these posts:

Our “Following the calves” series will also take you to Arizona and Florida in these posts:

Following the Calves: Florida cattle head to harvest

The question lingered. “Do we send them on to relatively low-cost feed or rest them on what’s usually less-expensive grass?”

For Ken and Korey Griner, either option presented only one guarantee: there is no guarantee.

For years, this father/son duo has followed the same routine: wean and background at home in Florida, take a reprieve on family grass in Kansas and ultimately grow at a feedyard in the same state.

Print But last year was different as their 500 calves headed to Iowa instead, and avoided the cost of a detour in Kansas. Sure, they could do it again, but the New Year brought a new decision to go back to Kansas feed – and as you’ll remember, the calves were young.

“It worked out well for us because we didn’t think we’d have the grass, and on top of that, cost of gain and corn were reasonable, so there was no advantage to holding them on the ranch,” Ken recalls. “I think the market incentivized going ahead and getting them in the yard.”

That was July 17th, and just 12 days later that thought process would cause my favorite Chiefland, Fla., calves to load on a truck and settle in for the 1,300-mile journey to their new home near Pratt, Kan.

For me, those six months in between have come and gone far too quickly, but for Ken and Korey it felt more like a waiting game – one where you have little control and a lot to lose.

Then again the Griners are more opportunists than they are worriers. And when you combine those traits with the determination to succeed, you see outcomes that may never have existed had a risk-taker not been involved. But you also expose yourself to the possibility of greater failures of even greater magnitude.

Like the day the market dropped. But that’s another topic for another post.

“It’s been interesting but I think it will be more educational when we see how they perform,” Ken says.

The rancher will soon begin his lessons, as close to 100 heavies just left the feedyard for harvest. It’s a little earlier than his preferred April goal, but the big guys “have gotta go,” Jerry Bohn says.

The manager of Pratt Feeders knows Ken by more than just his cattle. They’ve traveled to each other’s homes, visited about more than just breakevens and worked together for nearly a decade.

“We’ve been privileged to feed the Griner cattle for eight years,” Jerry says, “and they’re some of the best we get every year. They’ll stack up against any cattle we get from any part of the country.”

Jerry doesn’t own the cattle – Ken and Korey retain complete ownership – but he might as well when they’re in the care of the committed feeder.

From the moment they arrived July 29 he and his team have kept a keen eye on the sunshine calves. Aside from wormer and vaccination, the steers took a Revalor-IS implant and another one 20 days later with a revaccination.

Then, on Dec. 7, they were reworked, receiving another implant and vaccination and settled into smaller groups of ultra heavies, heavies, mediums and lights. The gals followed the same timeline, only with a different implant and stayed together.

Ask how often they chat and it may surprise you that it’s neither scheduled, nor frequent. “It’s encouraging to me that we’re not talking that often because we just aren’t having many issues,” Ken quips. Jerry will call with an update, Ken will respond with a question, but otherwise, the two have money to make and a fallen market to battle.

“Our hope right now is that we can come out, and I think if the cattle perform decently, with the premiums, it might be enough to put us in a breakeven situation,” Ken says, “which will be quite a credit to the calves given what the market has done. So we look at the opportunity to at least recover on the backside.”

The optimism of the cowman never changes.

Thanks for allowing me to tell your story,

Laura

Catch up on the rest of the Griner family’s story with these posts:

Our “Following the calves” series will also take you to Arizona and Nebraska in these posts:

Following the Calves: Gearing up for Spring in AZ

Spring comes early in the deserts of California and Arizona. You may have seen the pictures of a rare floral bloom in Death Valley last month.

On the Quarter Circle U Ranch in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix, Angus calves were up before the flowers. By March they were munching on opportunity grasses next to their mamas, who show by example what is safe to eat.

Today, they’re all in the central pens for branding and AI (artificial insemination for the 168 mamas) as family and friends on horseback gathered the herd this week. That’s daughter Amy Doyle with Chuck in the lead photo above.

Eighty-eight replacement heifers, sisters from last year chosen with the help of genomic test results, are in a developing paddock a couple of miles away. “They are there to mature rather than gain more weight,” Chuck says. And they will soon get their turn for AI to a standout sire for calving ease and efficiency.

But 30 cull heifers and 119 steers made the 850-mile trip to Oklahoma in December.

Ranch owner-manager Chuck Backus sent an email to his feeding partner at Cattleman’s Choice Feed Yard, near Gage, Okla., shortly after those loads hit the trail:

“Dale [Moore],

The two trucks left the ranch at 1 PM, AZ time (MST). They should probably arrive at the Feedyard about 8 AM [Dec. 16]. All of the inspection papers and certificates are in the envelope with them.

One of the steers for your truck (ranch tag #181) was limping so we sorted him out. Today his knee was swollen and it looked like he had a puncture wound under the knee so I decided we shouldn’t ship him to you. That’s why there will be 149 instead of 150 total.”

He retained full ownership in 67 steers with this highest Angus percentage genetics, up to 15/16 and carrying above-average potential for marbling. The “cull” load that Dale bought included some smaller and non-black calves, but still better than most.

Rancher has been to the feedyard and feeder has been to the ranch, but email and phone calls have served well this year as the calves grow and gain condition for summer marketing to National Beef.

Meanwhile, Chuck and his crew at the Quarter Circle U focus on details for the 2016 crop. Longtime trucker and cattle manager Dean Harris sees to it that the hundreds of calves across the cactus valleys are tagged with sex, dam and date recorded.

They will be weighed at the branding roundup when a first round of shots and electronic ID go in. No corral work this summer when trucks take the herd to Show Low pastures, but come October the detail work resumes with booster shots and weights recorded on arrival and three to four weeks later.

Of the 2015 crop that left the Superstitions in December, Chuck noted they were approved by IMI Global as age-and-source verified, Natural, NE-3 (Never Ever given antibiotics, hormones or animal-derived feeds), and non-hormone-treated cattle.

“This was the best set of calves I have ever raised – to date,” Chuck says. “That, of course, is the plan.”

We’ll check in again as this year’s calves hit the road for Show Low. Don’t miss out on what happens next — be sure to Follow the Calves!

Let’s keep building tomorrow together,

Steve

Following the Calves: Decisions, decisions

“We’re going to sell them all.”

I could hear it in Virginia Evert’s voice. She hated to say that. After all, she and cousin-in-law Rachael spent nearly a year with those heifers, from calving to weaning and developing.

Much longer if you consider the genetic decisions and investments in herd improvement.

“All the old-timers say, ‘Save when they’re low and sell when they’re high,’” Virginia says. Even after last fall’s price drop, the market is still relatively strong.

Anne Burkholder had room in the yard and interest in buying the other half of the calf crop.

So Virginia and Brandon and Kirk and Rachael all sat around the kitchen table and weighed the variables.

“If they’re not saving any we’re not saving any,” Brandon says. Management is simplified by decisions made in tandem. An outsider might never know ownership is held separately.

Following the 2002 wild fire, their herd rebuilding was so aggressive the criteria for saving a female was that it was female. (Ok, there was a little more to it than that, but basically they were saving everything they could to increase numbers.)

The first-calf heifers are housed at the same farm place as the newly weaned females.

“The first few years, we’d go out the morning of sale day and pick the heifers we liked best that day,” Virginia says.

Now they wean the heifers at Rachael’s parents’ place. Keeping them into January gives them more confidence.

“Then we are able to relook at who we like at that point in time,” Virginia says. Daughters that are the product of AI have a better chance, the odds are less favorable for those born to unfriendly mamas.

Evert_HondoRachael — Hondo was a new addition to the family the week I visited, and I swear he was even cuter in person!

But they all get the benefit of better nutrition in front of them. Pat Laird of Laird Feed in Gothenburg, Neb., provides advice on weaning rations and cow mineral programs.

“We analyze everything to determine, ‘Is it the best money spent?’” he says. Pat takes a look at the available resources, calculates the quality and quantity of home-grown forage and then develops a plan.

The fact that he’s a fellow producer who also sends calves to Will Feed just sweetens the deal. He has firsthand knowledge.

“The transition from mama to the feedlot needs to be as smooth as possible,” Pat says, noting that they all use Avail-4 mineral and have paid more attention to whole-herd nutrition in the last several years.

“They’re smart producers. They realized it benefited everything from conception to cow health and calf health,” Pat says. “It makes sense. That cow is not only nursing, but developing a fetus, too.”

She could also be developing the next generation of Evert cows.

But not this year.

Anne reports the Evert heifers have come up on feed and have adjusted nicely to the feedyard. Calving season is “on” and the cycle continues. Next time we’ll check in on the new beginnings at the ranch, while the feeder animals near the finish line.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

Catch up on the rest of the Evert family’s story with these posts:

Our “Following the calves” series will also take you to Arizona and Florida in these posts:

Following the calves: The herd-changer

On a 10-degree morning in central Nebraska, Virginia Evert may ask herself why her fitness routine involves bucket feeding heifers rather than working out in a gym.

FTC_8817 — Rachael (pictured) and Virginia prefer to hand feed the heifers so the animals get used to people.

Trading a career in personal training for ranching was not the original plan, but the stepping stone between the two turned out to be a herd-changer for the Evert family near Brady, Neb.

Last fall, I introduced you to Brandon and Virginia, Kirk and Rachael. The cousins and business partners, whose story seems to illustrate one of my grandma’s favorite phrases: “Things will work out the way they’re supposed to.”

When Virginia married Brandon in 2002 she soon found herself covering for a gal on maternity leave at the local vet clinic. Nearly a decade later she left Eastside Animal Clinic with practical, on-the-job training that would rival any vet tech program.

“I learned from other people’s mistakes, or I’d get ideas from other people’s herds,” Virginia says, noting she’d make mental notes of everything from working facilities and record keeping.

Has the family been able to apply those lessons to their own herd?

From their feeder to their veterinarian (not coincidentally, Virginia’s former employer) the resounding, enthusiastic answer is, “YES!”

Although the vaccination program has changed, Dr. Randy Burge suggests animal disposition, handling and nutrition play an even bigger role.

“They gentled the cattle down and that’s benefited the cattle and the health,” he says, noting that stress (and thus increased cortisol levels) does not mix well with shots. “The way they’re handled has a lot to do with how they respond to vaccines.”

Rachael also diverted career plans by way of marriage, and brings a second “outsider” perspective to the whole herd routine.

“I’m still pretty new at this. I’m learning every day,” she says.

FTC_8289 — Anne Burkholder, Will Feed Inc.

Mixing innovation with history, the tale just keeps getting better.

I stopped into Will Feed a few weeks ago to check on the steer calves, 57 days into the feeding period, inching up to a full finishing ration, and projected to go to harvest in mid-May.

Feeder Anne Burkholder talked about the cattle like a coach bragging on her team.

“They’re doing really, really well,” she says, sharing stats to prove it: When it comes to sickness, the average for “bawling calves” weaned into the yard this fall is just above 10% pulls. Anne has only had to treat five of Everts steers calves, or 3.92%.

Four years ago, the mid-feeding report included death loss and a higher-than-average pull rate. The quick turnaround has been a true partnership between the calf supplier and buyer.

“They have faith that we’re trying our best,” Anne says. “That’s not to say we never have problems, but they’ll say, ‘Maybe it’s not just you.’”They also notched up cow nutrition.

“They are selling me a lot more pounds in the same timeframe,” the cattle feeder says. “It costs them more, but I believe it pays dividends, too.”

There’s a lot connected to a cow’s condition score.

“That’s huge,” Randy says. “Paying more attention to nutrition improves the quality of the colostrum.”

Even if the market isn’t up, the expectations are. The cattle made 44% Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB) brand last year.

“They’re very open to working with us,” Randy says.

And to that I say, “Amen.”

The next installment of the Evert story will take you to heifer selection and share more on the nutrition front. When I visited the ranchers this week to grab more pictures, the wind chill was just above zero and yet I could tell they meant it when they said, “Happy to help!”

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

PS–To catch up on this story, read “Everything Evert” and “A success story in the making” and “Decisions, decisions.”

Learn more about our entire “Following the Calves series” here, and read about the herds we’re tracking in Florida and Arizona, too.

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