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It such a neat to see one of our own Nicky and Mike and family get some well deserved attention. When you put this story with her pictures on CD what an awesome story they tell.
http://cascadecattleman.com/articles/2007/03/20/cattleman/news01.txt
Oregon's McGinnis Hereford Ranch: Grassroots Grown
Story by Kim Kanzler Holt * Photos by Nicky McGinnis
With a unique skill set, Nicky and Mike McGinnis are proving that the younger generation can make a go in the cattle business.
About 20 miles northwest of Baker City, OR, in what's known as the Medical Springs area, is where you'll find McGinnis Hereford Ranch, owned and operated by Nicky and Mike McGinnis. The McGinnis' are a good example of how a younger couple has combined complementary interests to carve out a living in the arid West from the grassroots up.
The McGinnis' cattle operation includes 300 head of cattle, nearly all purebred Herefords. Nicky and Mike explain their goal is to produce quality, low maintenance Hereford replacement heifers and feeder cattle, while continuing to improve their range and irrigated lands.
As the photos show, McGinnis cattle run in big country on 10,000 acres of deeded, BLM and private leased rangeland. "It is typical high-desert, rocky, rolling to steep, arid, sagebrush country," Nicky describes, at elevations up to 4,000 feet.
Similar to other ranches in the West, water is a limiting factor, both precipitation and irrigation-wise. The average annual rainfall is only nine to ten inches a year, and snowmelt is limited to that from the Eagle Cap Mountains. Therefore, Nicky and Mike only raise 250 acres of irrigated hay, 100 of which is flood irrigated and another 150 which is under a center pivot.
The McGinnis' calve to match available forages and to make sure calves are old enough to trail to summer range. First-calf heifers and A.I.-bred cows start in mid January, and the herd finishes by mid-March. Nicky points out, "We can't calve too late because the grass dries up early," typically in late July.
She explains, "Our cows need to be able to run out on the range from mid-April until as late as possible (mid to late December), breed back, wean a good calf and come home in good shape.
"We put a lot of emphasis on calving ease and calf vigor. We don't keep any replacements that need help in calving or that don't get right up and suck."
Building a start
Nicky and Mike have been in the cattle business together for 16 years this coming July. Their start in cattle came from Nicky who grew up on a commercial ranch near Middleton, ID, owned by her uncle and father, Torris Gjerde.
"My cousins and I were all given a commercial heifer calf when we were young," she explains. "When I was old enough for 4-H, my parents bought me a registered heifer calf."
Nicky built up her commercial and registered herds and sold the commercial cows back to her father and uncle when she started FFA. With that money, she bought ten more registered cows from then local Hereford breeders Bus and Evelyn Cummings.
"These cows were my FFA and 4-H projects, and enabled me to pay my way through the University of Idaho," she says. Nicky gradated from the U of I with an animal science degree in 1987.
Her father recognized the value of good disposition and this is why he chose a Hereford for Nicky's first heifer. She and Mike have continued with this breed for this same reason. They also appreciate the breed's doability on the range, its fertility, mothering ability and feed efficiency.
"We have tried some other breeds," Mike says, but they always came back to Herefords. "We really like the Hereford cows." Nicky adds, "Disposition is a real big thing for us. And you just can't beat a Hereford's disposition."
Nicky's first Hereford cows were Mark Donald and Peerless breeding. "After we got married, we used CL 1 Domino 590 extensively. We purchased a Homebuilder son from Oregon Hereford Ranch in 1998, and used him and sons of his for several years. The last four years we have been using Line One bulls. We collected our Homebuilder son, so we now are breeding him to the Line One females."
Forging ahead
Over the years, the McGinnis' have added solid genetics to their herd from other leading Hereford operations, too, including Cooper Hereford Ranch, Holden Herefords, Harrell Hereford Ranch and Shaw Cattle Co.
When they select sires, Nicky and Mike look for a bull with balanced EPDs. "We want sires that will produce moderate, correct, easy-fleshing females," Nicky says. "But we also want to produce feeder cattle that are going to do well in the feedlot and have good carcass traits."
The McGinnis' breed on two big pastures but are working toward having a few smaller ones, too, so they can better define sire groups. Nicky and Mike A.I. the top one-third of their proven females. "We also A.I. any of the replacement heifers that are A.I. calves themselves," they say.
The McGinnis' see A.I. as another opportunity to move their herd ahead.
"Even though we are a commercial outfit, we still want to produce the best animal we possibly can. A.I. gives us the opportunity to use bulls from all over the country to produce the kind of animal we are looking for," Mike explains.
Another tool they plan to use this year is Hereford Verified, a program of Certified Hereford Beef (CHB) LLC and the American Hereford Assn. (AHA). Hereford Verified [www.herefordverified.com] is a genetic, source and age verification program that offers commercial producers, like the McGinnis', marketing flexibility, feed performance and carcass information, and participation incentives without having to retain ownership of cattle.
The McGinnis' found out about Hereford Verified through AHA and Willard Wolf, former long-time AHA western fieldman, now of Crossroads Cattle Company. "I've known Willard since I was nine years old," says Nicky, who was an Idaho Junior Hereford Assn. member. "He has been very helpful throughout the years in making decisions on what bulls to buy or to A.I. to, and in all of our marketing ventures."
In past years, Wolf has marketed Nicky and Mike's calves in early summer on the Internet. "We've been real happy with it," they say. "A lot of times they've only been on a day and we've gotten what we were asking for." Calves are given preconditioning vaccinations prior to weaning, but resources force them to deliver the calves straight off cows in October.
"With our short supply of irrigation water, we are only able to raise enough hay for the cows, and have little, if any, green-up on our meadows," Mike explains. The calves run out on range land until then, and all cattle are supplemented with protein as forage quality declines.
Caretakers of the land
While Nicky and Mike constantly work to improve genetics, resource conservation and management are center stage too.
"I think it's gotten to be more on the forefront today then it did when we were growing up just because resources are getting more limited," Nicky says. "With the high land costs, it's hard for anybody, but young people especially, to get into a ranch and to buy more property. So you have to take care of what you have more then when it was so easy for people to buy land."
Mike and Nicky bought their present-day ranch through a 1031 tax exchange.
"When we came and looked at it the first time, the neighbor told us not to buy it because we 'could never make a go on it,'" Mike shares.
"When we moved here, both the home place and the leased range ground were in pretty poor condition," they admit. "The first year we were here, the hay ground only yielded a half-ton per acre." But last year they put up close to 700 tons.
The McGinnis' improved irrigation by installing a center pivot; they reseeded, fertilized and aerated meadows, and put up grain hay for several years to clean up weeds in old alfalfa stands.
Nicky and Mike now lease the rangeland from their friends, Bruce and Carol Hummel, who bought the land in 1997. "It was pretty rundown when they purchased it," Nicky says. "But by using some rotational grazing and good management practices, we have seen a substantial increase in the native grasses." Even Bucky Wirth, their neighbor, can't believe how much grass is now on the leased range.
Care and management has increased its carrying capacity. They now need 30 acres to run one pair instead of 50 acres. The Hummels have also improved the rangeland by spraying weeds, fencing, reseeding, repairing ponds and adding water tanks. "Water improvement has been a huge thing," Nicky says. It's allowing them to better distribute cattle and utilize forage.
Nicky and Mike add they've also seen a big increase in the number and quality of both game birds and big game on their ranch. They've promoted this through critical habitat identification on the river breaks and in forested areas. The McGinnis' fall graze these areas to allow birds to nest and big game to calve in spring.
Diversified skills
The McGinnis' know firsthand that ranching and wildlife can coexist, because the game birds found on their ranch are also important to their hunting and field trial dog training business.
Mike was raised with German Shorthaired Pointers. His father was the top trainer of this breed in the 1970s and '80s, and Mike grew up near Meridian, ID, helping his father train these dogs.
He took over his father's business in the mid 1980s before he and Nicky met.
The couple campaigned dogs in field trials - which simulate chukar hunting on horseback - until 2003. They no longer field trial due to the time commitment away from the ranch, but still train both hunting and field trial dogs for owners who campaign their own dogs in the trials, they explain.
Making it work
Nicky and Mike have chosen to ranch, but their occupation hasn't come without setbacks. "When we moved here in 1995 we had 35 pairs," Nicky says. "We increased that to 350 pairs by 1999. Then after a series of drought years and a range fire, we were back down to 185 head. Now we are back up to 240 cows calving this year and 60 replacement heifers."
None-the-less, they wouldn't have it any other way - they're doing exactly what they've always desired to do since childhood. "I never wanted to do anything else, except maybe be a vet," Nicky says. "If I could have been a vet with a ranch, it would have been perfect."
There's no question it has taken determination and hard work to make their ranching business a go. "But I think like most people in ranching, it's worth it," Nicky comments.
As for the future, Nicky and Mike's goals for the ranch include building their numbers up again to where they can sell more Hereford replacement females. Collecting more feed performance and carcass data is also on the list.
"If we need to, we want to be able to improve that, and provide a quality product," they say. And this is where Hereford Verified can assist, helping grassroots producers like the McGinnis' prove their program and get paid for the genetics in which they've invested.
Sharing Interests
Nicky and Mike McGinnis were both raised with specific breeds of animals. While they were of different species, this couple has combined their interests of cattle and dogs so their businesses complement one another.
Mike grew up with German Shorthaired Pointers and, in fact, won the National German Shorthaired Field Trial Championship several times. A couple of years after he and Nicky were married, they switched from trialing mostly German Shorthairs in American Kennel Club trials to English Pointers in American Field trials.
Nicky explains a field trial is like a stock dog trial but, instead of herding, dogs exhibit their ability to hunt chukars and all hunting is done on horseback. The McGinnis' were very successful at campaigning dogs before they stopped in 2003 in order to stay closer to their ranch.
"We competed in and won many of the major All-Age Championships, both in the West and Canada," Nicky says. "We have had several dogs eligible to run in the National Championship in Grand Junction, TN." Only 30 to 40 dogs qualify each year for this event.
Mike and Nicky continue to train both hunting and field trial dogs for owners across the U.S. and Canada. One recent training accomplishment is a German Shorthaired Pointer that went on to win the National Amateur Gun Dog Championship for its Colorado owner. There were 104 dogs in that stake.
Dog owners will often visit and stay at the ranch to see their dogs being worked or to bird hunt. This gives the McGinnis' a unique opportunity to expose these owners to cattle and ranching.
"Many have no idea of the benefit that cattle and ranchers provide to wildlife," Mike says. Not only are they amazed by the diversity and quantity of wildlife on the rangeland, they're amazed at how much work ranching actually involves, he says.
Training and field trialing also led Nicky and Mike to begin breeding and training Tennessee Walking Horses in 1993. "At the trials we competed in, you could easily ride 30 miles in a day," Nicky explains. "Everyone rides gaited horses and there is great demand for good ones." The McGinnis' have a stallion and several brood mares, and sell two to three horses each year.
They say that Tennessee Walkers are also very popular for trail riding, and are gaining popularity as ranch horses. "When you cover as much country in a day as we do, you really appreciate their smooth gait and sure footedness," Nicky says.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2007 Cascade Magazines
http://cascadecattleman.com/articles/2007/03/20/cattleman/news01.txt
Oregon's McGinnis Hereford Ranch: Grassroots Grown
Story by Kim Kanzler Holt * Photos by Nicky McGinnis
With a unique skill set, Nicky and Mike McGinnis are proving that the younger generation can make a go in the cattle business.
About 20 miles northwest of Baker City, OR, in what's known as the Medical Springs area, is where you'll find McGinnis Hereford Ranch, owned and operated by Nicky and Mike McGinnis. The McGinnis' are a good example of how a younger couple has combined complementary interests to carve out a living in the arid West from the grassroots up.
The McGinnis' cattle operation includes 300 head of cattle, nearly all purebred Herefords. Nicky and Mike explain their goal is to produce quality, low maintenance Hereford replacement heifers and feeder cattle, while continuing to improve their range and irrigated lands.
As the photos show, McGinnis cattle run in big country on 10,000 acres of deeded, BLM and private leased rangeland. "It is typical high-desert, rocky, rolling to steep, arid, sagebrush country," Nicky describes, at elevations up to 4,000 feet.
Similar to other ranches in the West, water is a limiting factor, both precipitation and irrigation-wise. The average annual rainfall is only nine to ten inches a year, and snowmelt is limited to that from the Eagle Cap Mountains. Therefore, Nicky and Mike only raise 250 acres of irrigated hay, 100 of which is flood irrigated and another 150 which is under a center pivot.
The McGinnis' calve to match available forages and to make sure calves are old enough to trail to summer range. First-calf heifers and A.I.-bred cows start in mid January, and the herd finishes by mid-March. Nicky points out, "We can't calve too late because the grass dries up early," typically in late July.
She explains, "Our cows need to be able to run out on the range from mid-April until as late as possible (mid to late December), breed back, wean a good calf and come home in good shape.
"We put a lot of emphasis on calving ease and calf vigor. We don't keep any replacements that need help in calving or that don't get right up and suck."
Building a start
Nicky and Mike have been in the cattle business together for 16 years this coming July. Their start in cattle came from Nicky who grew up on a commercial ranch near Middleton, ID, owned by her uncle and father, Torris Gjerde.
"My cousins and I were all given a commercial heifer calf when we were young," she explains. "When I was old enough for 4-H, my parents bought me a registered heifer calf."
Nicky built up her commercial and registered herds and sold the commercial cows back to her father and uncle when she started FFA. With that money, she bought ten more registered cows from then local Hereford breeders Bus and Evelyn Cummings.
"These cows were my FFA and 4-H projects, and enabled me to pay my way through the University of Idaho," she says. Nicky gradated from the U of I with an animal science degree in 1987.
Her father recognized the value of good disposition and this is why he chose a Hereford for Nicky's first heifer. She and Mike have continued with this breed for this same reason. They also appreciate the breed's doability on the range, its fertility, mothering ability and feed efficiency.
"We have tried some other breeds," Mike says, but they always came back to Herefords. "We really like the Hereford cows." Nicky adds, "Disposition is a real big thing for us. And you just can't beat a Hereford's disposition."
Nicky's first Hereford cows were Mark Donald and Peerless breeding. "After we got married, we used CL 1 Domino 590 extensively. We purchased a Homebuilder son from Oregon Hereford Ranch in 1998, and used him and sons of his for several years. The last four years we have been using Line One bulls. We collected our Homebuilder son, so we now are breeding him to the Line One females."
Forging ahead
Over the years, the McGinnis' have added solid genetics to their herd from other leading Hereford operations, too, including Cooper Hereford Ranch, Holden Herefords, Harrell Hereford Ranch and Shaw Cattle Co.
When they select sires, Nicky and Mike look for a bull with balanced EPDs. "We want sires that will produce moderate, correct, easy-fleshing females," Nicky says. "But we also want to produce feeder cattle that are going to do well in the feedlot and have good carcass traits."
The McGinnis' breed on two big pastures but are working toward having a few smaller ones, too, so they can better define sire groups. Nicky and Mike A.I. the top one-third of their proven females. "We also A.I. any of the replacement heifers that are A.I. calves themselves," they say.
The McGinnis' see A.I. as another opportunity to move their herd ahead.
"Even though we are a commercial outfit, we still want to produce the best animal we possibly can. A.I. gives us the opportunity to use bulls from all over the country to produce the kind of animal we are looking for," Mike explains.
Another tool they plan to use this year is Hereford Verified, a program of Certified Hereford Beef (CHB) LLC and the American Hereford Assn. (AHA). Hereford Verified [www.herefordverified.com] is a genetic, source and age verification program that offers commercial producers, like the McGinnis', marketing flexibility, feed performance and carcass information, and participation incentives without having to retain ownership of cattle.
The McGinnis' found out about Hereford Verified through AHA and Willard Wolf, former long-time AHA western fieldman, now of Crossroads Cattle Company. "I've known Willard since I was nine years old," says Nicky, who was an Idaho Junior Hereford Assn. member. "He has been very helpful throughout the years in making decisions on what bulls to buy or to A.I. to, and in all of our marketing ventures."
In past years, Wolf has marketed Nicky and Mike's calves in early summer on the Internet. "We've been real happy with it," they say. "A lot of times they've only been on a day and we've gotten what we were asking for." Calves are given preconditioning vaccinations prior to weaning, but resources force them to deliver the calves straight off cows in October.
"With our short supply of irrigation water, we are only able to raise enough hay for the cows, and have little, if any, green-up on our meadows," Mike explains. The calves run out on range land until then, and all cattle are supplemented with protein as forage quality declines.
Caretakers of the land
While Nicky and Mike constantly work to improve genetics, resource conservation and management are center stage too.
"I think it's gotten to be more on the forefront today then it did when we were growing up just because resources are getting more limited," Nicky says. "With the high land costs, it's hard for anybody, but young people especially, to get into a ranch and to buy more property. So you have to take care of what you have more then when it was so easy for people to buy land."
Mike and Nicky bought their present-day ranch through a 1031 tax exchange.
"When we came and looked at it the first time, the neighbor told us not to buy it because we 'could never make a go on it,'" Mike shares.
"When we moved here, both the home place and the leased range ground were in pretty poor condition," they admit. "The first year we were here, the hay ground only yielded a half-ton per acre." But last year they put up close to 700 tons.
The McGinnis' improved irrigation by installing a center pivot; they reseeded, fertilized and aerated meadows, and put up grain hay for several years to clean up weeds in old alfalfa stands.
Nicky and Mike now lease the rangeland from their friends, Bruce and Carol Hummel, who bought the land in 1997. "It was pretty rundown when they purchased it," Nicky says. "But by using some rotational grazing and good management practices, we have seen a substantial increase in the native grasses." Even Bucky Wirth, their neighbor, can't believe how much grass is now on the leased range.
Care and management has increased its carrying capacity. They now need 30 acres to run one pair instead of 50 acres. The Hummels have also improved the rangeland by spraying weeds, fencing, reseeding, repairing ponds and adding water tanks. "Water improvement has been a huge thing," Nicky says. It's allowing them to better distribute cattle and utilize forage.
Nicky and Mike add they've also seen a big increase in the number and quality of both game birds and big game on their ranch. They've promoted this through critical habitat identification on the river breaks and in forested areas. The McGinnis' fall graze these areas to allow birds to nest and big game to calve in spring.
Diversified skills
The McGinnis' know firsthand that ranching and wildlife can coexist, because the game birds found on their ranch are also important to their hunting and field trial dog training business.
Mike was raised with German Shorthaired Pointers. His father was the top trainer of this breed in the 1970s and '80s, and Mike grew up near Meridian, ID, helping his father train these dogs.
He took over his father's business in the mid 1980s before he and Nicky met.
The couple campaigned dogs in field trials - which simulate chukar hunting on horseback - until 2003. They no longer field trial due to the time commitment away from the ranch, but still train both hunting and field trial dogs for owners who campaign their own dogs in the trials, they explain.
Making it work
Nicky and Mike have chosen to ranch, but their occupation hasn't come without setbacks. "When we moved here in 1995 we had 35 pairs," Nicky says. "We increased that to 350 pairs by 1999. Then after a series of drought years and a range fire, we were back down to 185 head. Now we are back up to 240 cows calving this year and 60 replacement heifers."
None-the-less, they wouldn't have it any other way - they're doing exactly what they've always desired to do since childhood. "I never wanted to do anything else, except maybe be a vet," Nicky says. "If I could have been a vet with a ranch, it would have been perfect."
There's no question it has taken determination and hard work to make their ranching business a go. "But I think like most people in ranching, it's worth it," Nicky comments.
As for the future, Nicky and Mike's goals for the ranch include building their numbers up again to where they can sell more Hereford replacement females. Collecting more feed performance and carcass data is also on the list.
"If we need to, we want to be able to improve that, and provide a quality product," they say. And this is where Hereford Verified can assist, helping grassroots producers like the McGinnis' prove their program and get paid for the genetics in which they've invested.
Sharing Interests
Nicky and Mike McGinnis were both raised with specific breeds of animals. While they were of different species, this couple has combined their interests of cattle and dogs so their businesses complement one another.
Mike grew up with German Shorthaired Pointers and, in fact, won the National German Shorthaired Field Trial Championship several times. A couple of years after he and Nicky were married, they switched from trialing mostly German Shorthairs in American Kennel Club trials to English Pointers in American Field trials.
Nicky explains a field trial is like a stock dog trial but, instead of herding, dogs exhibit their ability to hunt chukars and all hunting is done on horseback. The McGinnis' were very successful at campaigning dogs before they stopped in 2003 in order to stay closer to their ranch.
"We competed in and won many of the major All-Age Championships, both in the West and Canada," Nicky says. "We have had several dogs eligible to run in the National Championship in Grand Junction, TN." Only 30 to 40 dogs qualify each year for this event.
Mike and Nicky continue to train both hunting and field trial dogs for owners across the U.S. and Canada. One recent training accomplishment is a German Shorthaired Pointer that went on to win the National Amateur Gun Dog Championship for its Colorado owner. There were 104 dogs in that stake.
Dog owners will often visit and stay at the ranch to see their dogs being worked or to bird hunt. This gives the McGinnis' a unique opportunity to expose these owners to cattle and ranching.
"Many have no idea of the benefit that cattle and ranchers provide to wildlife," Mike says. Not only are they amazed by the diversity and quantity of wildlife on the rangeland, they're amazed at how much work ranching actually involves, he says.
Training and field trialing also led Nicky and Mike to begin breeding and training Tennessee Walking Horses in 1993. "At the trials we competed in, you could easily ride 30 miles in a day," Nicky explains. "Everyone rides gaited horses and there is great demand for good ones." The McGinnis' have a stallion and several brood mares, and sell two to three horses each year.
They say that Tennessee Walkers are also very popular for trail riding, and are gaining popularity as ranch horses. "When you cover as much country in a day as we do, you really appreciate their smooth gait and sure footedness," Nicky says.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2007 Cascade Magazines
Way to go you two...you make us proud by the hard work and dedication you put in to ranching.
now I'm embarrassed. Thanks for the comments, we were real excited to have the article done. No one has ever written about us before. We'd love to have any of you guys come and see us!!
