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What's yer Cattle Background?

mytfarms

mytfarms

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Stole this from another site. Yike, hope this don't turn into another Word Association Game! :shock: :D I thought it would be interesting to find out how everyone got started and where they're at now.

1-What is your background?
2-What breeds of cattle have you worked with?
3-What breeds have you thought about working with?
4-If you have crossbred, what were the breeds you worked with?
5-Have you fed cattle?
6-Did you grid market the cattle?
7-Other comments about your cattle past, present, and future?

For MYT:

1. Well, I have 15 years experience raising Angus and X-bred cattle. :D I come from a cow calf operation that used to run 150 Angus and X-bred cow/calf pairs on several hundred acres. The drought of 2000 and subsequent dry years that followed forced us to sell out and have kept us from re-building our herd. We did buy a few Red Angus X cows back in '05 but we sold all but one. She's still around because she was too snorty to ship out. Calves first, breeds back first, and weans the largest calf. :???: One good year in 2007 allowed us to buy up 22 head of Angus cows bred to Charolais bulls. That same fall, we purchased 6 head of our first registered Angus in several years. Now, we're heading back to Angus. My great-grandfather joined the AAA in 1917 and was an Iowa state representative. He raised some excellent Blackbird cattle I wished I could have back today. My grandfather was a dairy farmer, but he also ran 100 or more head of beef (Angus and Angus X) cows. Dad got started in Angus over 15 years ago, but we phased out to commercial cows. Now I have about half and half registered and commercial crossbred females.

2. Angus, Char/Angus, Hereford/Angus F1, and Shorthorn/Angus, Red Angus

3. Some sort of dual purpose breed. I.e., Devon, South Devon, Red Poll, and even Dexter. I've also considered Highland and/or Galloway. Fuzzy lookin' things.

4. Several Char/Angus F1 cattle. I like 'em. Shorthorn on Angus have also been good to work with. Surprisingly, I really liked my Red Angus cows and steers. I'd actually breed red cows again if the opportunity came up.

5. Every year! Each year I feed out 3-4 head of steers and/or heifers for the market classes at county fair. I even feed out a few extra when I have the customers to do so. I actually enjoy it quite a bit, even if I barely break even. Such is life in the cattle industry. Now we're starting to move our "feeding operation" towards grass fat cattle.

6. Nope. I sell them live weight and after I deliver them to the packer, I'm out. I certainly make sure I get customer feed back on how the beef was and if everything was taken care of properly.

7. I love the cattle I have right now. Couldn't ask for more, especially for a guy as young as I am. I loved the red cattle I had. On that note, I may have the opportunity to buy some in the near future, and that might change what I have in mind. I'm breeding for some Herf/Angus F1 cattle this year and next spring I aim on some Shorthorn crosses. Of course, several will stay straight Angus. I also will be getting some Limi/Angus calves this spring. For my distant future, I want to become a recognized cattle breeder and become a professional clipper/fitter. I want to become a vet or bovine nutritionist/geneticist.
 
1-What is your background?
Grew up on a dairy, range cattle, wheat and hay, horse operation that sold out the dairy in the early 60's- attended college Majoring in Ag Business with a minor in Ag Merchandising- during which I became an A.I tech and took several courses on Animal husbandry..

2-What breeds of cattle have you worked with?
Predominantly hereford and angus-altho did try the Continental (simmis and limis) kick back in the 60's and early 70's...Came back to straight angus...

3-What breeds have you thought about working with?
Galloway- the reports of their efficiency in these northern climates has always intriqued me- if a guy could find a decent market for them...

4-If you have crossbred, what were the breeds you worked with? hereford, angus, simmental, limousin

5-Have you fed cattle?
Yes

6-Did you grid market the cattle?
No

7-Other comments about your cattle past, present, and future?

Prognosticating what was happening in the horse world/market I sold out the majority of my mares over the last few years and I guess since I didn't want to get depressed from missing the registered paperwork :P have been replacing them with registered angus with selection criteria based on efficient moderate framed (4-5) cows from herds that have a long history of maternal quality....I eventually hope to have an all registered herd to hand over to my son..
 
1-What is your background? - Raised in the city (against my will :wink: The rest of the family was there, so I had no choice) Spent many summers and all possible holidays goofing around on the farm. Hubby was born and raised right where we're living now, which is three miles from the farm my family homesteaded 125 years ago, so I'm really not that far from my rural roots either.

2-What breeds of cattle have you worked with? - Mainly Charolais. Started with Herefords, which was what was around at the time, but we always liked those white cows, so that's the way we went.

3-What breeds have you thought about working with? Have had a few bred cows of other breeds come and go, but haven't found one we prefer yet. You guys may like your Angus cows, but the ones we've had have been kind of cranky.

4-If you have crossbred, what were the breeds you worked with? - We cross the white cows to Limo, and like the calves. Gelbvieh seem to have potential as a cross also, but we've only had one bull of that breed so far.

5-Have you fed cattle? - Yes. When the market stuck us with them.

6-Did you grid market the cattle? -No.

7-Other comments about your cattle past, present, and future? - The project now is to slowly replace the bred cows of other breeds we've been picking up since BSE, and get the herd back to the uniformity that it had before. No more bred cows now, just keeping our own heifers. Next year we're going shopping for a couple of red Char bulls to try out.`
 
1-What is your background? Raised in a family with 300+ years history of farming in Scotland. Left school at 16 and worked full time with the cattle and sheep before deciding to sell lock, stock and barrel in 2000 and move to Alberta.

2-What breeds of cattle have you worked with? On the cow side grew up with Galloways (our local breed), switched to Luings 20 years ago also had a small Simmental herd to breed our own bulls in Scotland.

3-What breeds have you thought about working with? If you have the best why think about the rest? :lol: Don't have any great desire to experiment any more - One I really admire though is the Ayrshire dairy breed.

4-If you have crossbred, what were the breeds you worked with? Originally the Galloways were bred white Shorthorn to produce "blue-greys" which were then mated to Charolais. Later Galloways were bred Simmental and same with the early Luing cows we had. We used Charolais, Simmental and Limo as terminal sires on these crossbreds at different times.

5-Have you fed cattle? Yes, every winter lol. We fattened on grass and on a grain type rations in Scotland - now grass fattening and direct marketing beef in Canada.

6-Did you grid market the cattle? Yes, almost all the fats we sold in Scotland.

7-Other comments about your cattle past, present, and future.
Planning to spend the next 30 years line-breeding and improving my Luing cattle herd and expanding/promoting the breed until it achieves the recognition it deserves. May be hampered by my total disinterest in showing, fitting, clipping or force feeding cattle. On the other hand the customers we have are looking for real, working cattle and I back these guys over the show ring types any day. Only wish I was at the place I am now ten years ago. Life is short and cattle breeding is a slow business!
 
1- What's your background?- I am a 5th generation member of a ranching family. Great, great grandpa homesteaded our ranch after immigrating here from Holland. I have lived my entire life around ranching. My wife and I have a cow/calf operation and sell finished beef to the Wasatch front.

2- Whats breeds of cattle have you worked with? Grandpa ran straight Herefords. Through the 80's the ranch introduced Salers and Angus bred back to Hereford cows. I worked for Utah State University through High school on an experiment station and we ran the gament of breeds. Limo,Char, Tarantaise, Simm's and even a Chianina bull.

3- What breeds have ya thought about running? I plan to stay with Angus with a few good Herefords in our commercial bunch. We hope to build a herd of Reg. Angus and try our hand at selling good bulls. Just one more way to go broke quicker! :wink:

4- Crossbreeding? We will stick to good Hereford and Angus blood. After the 80's craze of crossbred frame score 11, finished weight at 1700, You couldnt pay me to go there again. Those huge cows won't work in our climate and range. I'll take a 1000 to 1100 pound cow that weans a 600 pound calf every year and does it on desert groceries.

5- Have you fed cattle? Every year. We keep all our steers and heifers that we don't use as replacements. We wean in late October and put the calves on meadow ground with lots of supplement. When the snow flys they come home to a mix of oat hay/alfalfa. They go back out on pasture in the spring till they approach finish weight. Then they come back home to hay and grain for 45 days. We have to buy extra calves every year to keep up with demand.

6- Grid? Nope

7- Other comments? I want to ty up some ground long term. Forest Service or BLM permits or long term private lease/purchase. We have open ended leases on grazing now but i'd like to firm up that area. I want to continue to provide quality beef to the million plus folks who live in Salt Lake City. And I want to raise a few good bulls to sell to folks who need them. I'll probably always have a day job, but i'd love to build something like my ancestors did and be able to leave it to my kids! My cousin still owns the family ranch and I spend lots of days in the saddle helping them. I hope they scatter my ashes along a horse trail while packing salt after i'm gone! :D
 
1. Third generation-my grandmother homesteaded our place and carved it out of the bush-our family farm in Scotland was the longest held property by one family there.

2. They had purebred Angus in the 50's then in the late 60's we started running Charolais bulls and ran them for 35 or so years along with Angus. We run Angus and Hereford baldies now and A'I the poorer cows South Devon.

3. Thought about running just about all of them at one time or another. Have the odd failed rodeo BrahmaX in the bunch-they do all right.

4. Good Blacks are bred either Black or Hereford-Good Baldies are bred back black-everything else gets bred South Devon till I run out of the semen I have frozen on them.

5. We get almost all our production custom fed

6. Yes

7. Working on a herd of baldies that are all half sisters-we sell alot of our straight black heifers and keep our black baldies.
 
1. Born on a mixed farm in North Dakota. Family relocated to British Columbia in 1967. Have never been interested in any other business but livestock production. Have been on my own since I was 15, married at 19 and started ranching for ourselves before I turned 20.

2. As I started with nothing but an intense need to succeed, I have owned nearly every creed and colour of beef cow that can be imagined. Almost all of our cows were old and cheap in hopes of getting a couple of heifers out of them before they raised the last one. Have used Horned Hereford, Charolais, Red Angus x Simmental, and both Red and Black Angus bulls.
Buy the best bulls I can't afford. :D Keep going back to Angus.

3. Already done that. :lol:

4. That would be like rewriting the song "I Got It One Piece At A Time"

5. Never to finish.

6. No

7. To be debt free some day. It's getting closer all the time. :wink: Changed from stictly cow/ calf to cow/calf/yearling operation last fall.
 
our family farm in Scotland was the longest held property by one family there.
Click to expand...
Hey, NR does that mean you're descended from the mainland European nobility that came over in 1066? It's not like you demonstrate the temperament problems we usually associate with the "continental imports" :lol:
 
Grassfarmer said:
our family farm in Scotland was the longest held property by one family there.
Click to expand...
Hey, NR does that mean you're descended from the mainland European nobility that came over in 1066? It's not like you demonstrate the temperament problems we usually associate with the "continental imports" :lol:
Click to expand...


It's the inbred Scots crossed with relocated eastern European blood that gives him that "highheadedness" :P :P :P :lol: :lol:
 
I'm not sure what my Scottish ancestors owned, but I do know one of the first official records of the name in the Scottish history books showed up on a court report about 460 years ago. :wink: :D :D :D :D Oh yes, and it involved cattle. He was one of a group that were involved in a retaliation that included burning crops, a bit of murder, and a bunch of cattle stealing.

The good part was that they were pardoned for it. 8)

So does that mean my family has been in the cattle business for 450 years? :wink:
 
I'm not sure what my Scottish ancestors owned, but I do know one of the first official records of the name in the Scottish history books showed up on a court report about 460 years ago. Wink Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Oh yes, and it involved cattle. He was one of a group that were involved in a retaliation that included burning crops, a bit of murder, and a bunch of cattle stealing.

The good part was that they were pardoned for it. Cool

So does that mean my family has been in the cattle business for 450 years? Wink
Click to expand...
I guess - but only the low brow variety of the cattle business :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Grew up in the house I live in today. (stayed home so long my parents moved out) Spent the first half of the eighties making my fortune in the oil patch. Spent the second halve of the eighties pumping my fortune into our family operation. Great Granddad railed and trailed his herd to Alberta from Ontario in 1882 & 1883. Have no Scottish blood in my veins. Welsh and Norwegian.

Started out with Hereford/Angus, went down the Char and Sim road. Have played with South Devon, Saler and Shorthorn as well. Have a predominately Red Angus herd now.

Intrigued with Gelbvieh.

Have fed grain here and hired out at another lot. Grass finish for pasture to plate market now. Grass some also for the short keep market.

Sold on grid and not. If the cattle fit the grid it works out good. But in reality it is a system of discounts, not bonuses.

The bottom line is that most of us are in the land speculation business. Of coarse like many, I am not good at it because we never sell any. The cows here work for me, I have no desire to work for them.
 
Grassfarmer said:
I'm not sure what my Scottish ancestors owned, but I do know one of the first official records of the name in the Scottish history books showed up on a court report about 460 years ago. Wink Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Oh yes, and it involved cattle. He was one of a group that were involved in a retaliation that included burning crops, a bit of murder, and a bunch of cattle stealing.

The good part was that they were pardoned for it. Cool

So does that mean my family has been in the cattle business for 450 years? Wink
Click to expand...
I guess - but only the low brow variety of the cattle business :lol: :lol: :lol:
Click to expand...

Don't you mean "no cost" ranching, I think that is the politically correct term...

1-What is your background?
5th generation on a 103 year old family ranch in NE AB. U of S ag degree, consultant. We AI a bunch, buy good bulls, and run a grass based outfit. No quad, just horses.
2-What breeds of cattle have you worked with?
Ranching
AR, AN, SM, CH, LM, HE
Professionally
AN, SM, LM, CH, HE, Aubrac, GV, etc.
3-What breeds have you thought about working with?
I am pretty interested in Red Poll.
4-If you have crossbred, what were the breeds you worked with?
AN and AR base - SM, HE (LM, CH but never kept heifers ever)
5-Have you fed cattle?
Yes, not in a long time though.
6-Did you grid market the cattle?
No.
7-Other comments about your cattle past, present, and future?
We are moving back into the full circle/cycle of production, although the feeding will not directly be done by us (too lazy or busy I suppose)
 
1-What is your background?
Born & raised in the land of milk and honey, 3rd generation on this homestead. Worked for 'the big outfit down the road' out of high school.

2-What breeds of cattle have you worked with?
Angus, simm, brangus, saler, char, gelb, herf, blonde.

3-What breeds have you thought about working with?
highland. I like the way they look :wink:

4-If you have crossbred, what were the breeds you worked with?
Best cross we ever had was a simmie herd with blonde bulls. It was incredible. Not happy with angus influence, I think it's allright if you keep it to a minimum. Trying to sneak a bit more simmie into the cow base via crossbred bulls.... seems to be working.

5-Have you fed cattle?
no
6-Did you grid market the cattle?
no
7-Other comments about your cattle past, present, and future?
Plan on delving further into the cow/calf - yearling market. Always open to new ways to improve the bottome line - more efficient cattle, better grass management, etc.
 
1; Lived on the ranch for a year before we moved to Moose Jaw for schooling for my sister and moved back when i was done High school. Spent summers and weekend on the ranch. Have a diploma in Livestock production from Olds college.My grandfather bought this ranch in 1937,my father and mother started here on their honeymoon in 1947.
2; We ran grass cattle since inception until the early 90's when i started a cow herd. When running yearling we ran any breed that we felt we could make money on growing out to feed.
My cow herd is Angus based. In the early days while breeding lots of Hfrs I used Longhorn, Watusi , Santa Gertudis and Brangus.
3; The Welsh Black interest me.
4;
5; I have had cattle out on feed but only winter cattle at the ranch and generally the only fat cattle are for own consumption.
6; NO
7;We are using a straight Angus herd and I don't really think I will be cross breeding any time soon. We background our calves for grassing the following summer and we keep our own replacements. We like to graze as long as possible and try to leave grass for winter grazing. we use a high intensity /long rotation on some of our pastures. Possibly 3 growing season rest. Some is used every year but only dormant season.
 
Cool, BMR! Everyone comes from some really cool backgrounds. SIlver, have to agree with the Highlands. :wink: That breed was looking pretty good when we were hitting -25ºF nights for nearly a whole week straight back in December. But maybe they'd be too hot on 95º summer days? In any case, I sure could practice my "poodle clipping" skills on them. :wink:
 

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