Mike & Belinda were both raised in Hereford families. We both showed our own Herefords at county, state and some national shows. We both graduated from the University began working for other ranches and registered cattle operations of various breeds. (Angus - Limosine - Salers - Herefords). We gained a lot of education. We began our own Hereford operation at 8,600 feet elevation 32 miles south west of Walden, Colorado. Belinda was teaching school in Walden & Mike was working for Chedsey Cattle Co.
Forty nine years ago our first major addition was the purchase of 35 bred heifers from Alfred & Ferrell Meeks of Upstream Ranch in Nebraska. There were a lot of daughters of Golden Real 72 and Upstream Dundy 187. As our heard evolved we kept adding females from a lot of breeders across the country such as Deeschmaker, Jim Gies, Duncan, Upstream, Bieber, Wiswall, TT Herefords, Groshans, Bohmontt, John Rice Jr., Largent, T-Cross, Tiechert and WHR. We have A.l.ed every year and have used semen from a lot of different bulls from a lot of different breeders
All this buying & breeding was the start of a lot of comparing, a lot of culling and a lot of disappointment. We kept the ones that worked and those that didn't got a quick trip to market. While in the "High Country" of Colorado we had put together 48 head of commercial Hereford cows that we Al.ed to two Line-One bulls 756 "Hatchet" and 6313 "Clown". We sold the offspring of these two bulls. Dale Barber and Denny Fuston took them back to Texas where they gathered data from them after being finished in a yard down there. This was our introduction to measuring performance. At that point we realized there was more to the cattle industry than just the Show Ring.
37 years ago we had the opportunity to become first time land owners so we moved from the high mountain country of Colorado to our present location in the Sand Hills of western Nebraska. We assumed a distressed loan from a bank in Colorado. This was in the early 80's and interest went to over 21%. We realized we needed to get innovative or we wouldn't make it so we built the feed yard and started custom feeding in volume as well as running our own cattle. It has been a great learning experience. We received, started and fed cattle for many yards in Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and lowa. We also fed cattle for individual cattle people from Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, and lowa. We partnered with several yards and several yearling operators. We learned a lot about the cattle business and the people in it.
After several years we financed through "Producers of Omaha" and then we personally owned all the cattle in the yard (3400-4000) and our 1800 Hd yearling operation. Now that we had "skin in the game", it became evident there was a big difference between a "good one & the industry average". We took a lot of "heat and ridicule" from a lot of people running 100% black cattle. But we were determined to develop Herefords that would not just compete but would turn a bigger profit than the average black critter on feed.
We began double cropping our 448 acres of pivot irrigated ground with the second crop being a total grazing enterprise. This was another eye opener. It seemed like some the highly promoted blood lines failed miserably while others kept turning a profit due to their superior efficiency and performance. So we kept the best and dumped the rest without any bias to EPD's or Pedigree.
Early in the development of our herd we competed hard taking bulls & females to many shows & sales. We had several Champion and Reserve bulls, several high sellers, some futurity winners, champion pen of 3 Bulls, State Fair Champions and class winners. We were holding our own and then some. However, the reality sunk in that the perception we were creating was pheno-type and politics with a very large management code. It had little to do with what the cattle people we were selling bull genetics to needed to be successful. We decided to become more "cost effective and profit oriented". We wanted to satisfy as many segments of the industry and still have one that was pleasing to look at. The information from our bull customers and their experiences, our 4000 Hd feedyard, our grazing program, our commercial cows, the close outs, and the carcass results have helped us get better and provide a more profitable product for all segments of the industry.
There are definitely a lot of ways to make money in the cattle business and maybe more ways to lose money. It's our opinion that avoiding the discounts - whether it's your fats, (with Y4's - Y5's -No grade - No yield - Overweight carcasses), your yearlings and the cut-offs, your cow-calf operation-(calving problems, udder issues, disposition, and conception) add more to your bottom line than most people realize. Performance in our operation is a combination of elements that ultimately add up to profit.
After years of decisions based on real world happenings no matter if those experiences were good or bad, we tried to learn something from everything. Usually the worst disappointments are some of the best teachers.
The Base Cow Herd is where it really starts!
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