Herd Builder Bull Sale

Our fall calving registered cow herd is managed in a way that is most economical given the available resources in our area. The Columbia Basin is a thriving, competitive farming area, capable of producing a wide variety of high value irrigated crops. To graze year-round, we must compete with our farmer friends and neighbors for every acre. With irrigated cash rents ranging from $400-$1000 per acre for prime ground, for summer grass we utilize the undesirable fields that are small, odd shaped, and require more labor to irrigate and manage. The best management of these small fields involves frequent moves of cross fences and cattle. We are often only a single hot wire away from a neighbor’s high value seed crop. Wild, stupid, or mean cows would be disruptive to the process. Good disposition is a must.  Irrigated grass is also washy and not particularly nutrient dense unless supplemented with lots of fertilizer. Cows need to have a big, three dimensional rib cage with lots of space for the rumen to process all of that forage.

The benefit of running cows in this area is there are lots of options for fall and winter grazing. After calving, our cows graze on a grass hay field (close to our breeding facility) with enough forage stockpiled to get them through synchronizing and AI. Pairs then generally go to timothy hay fields from about December 1 to March 1. Hay is only fed if the snow gets too deep or hard for them to graze. Again, fleshing ability is at a premium when cows must do their own harvesting of forage instead of having it brought to them. Bigger framed, heavier milking cows fail in this scenario. Moderate, easy fleshing cows remain, and those that can also raise the big calves rise to the top. Calves never receive creep of any kind. Running on irrigated, soft ground with virtually no rocks for so much of the year exposes feet prone to get long or poorly shaped. We are able to identify these cows and remove their influence from the gene pool. We don’t trim feet.

Our mission is to create value for our commercial bull customers by identifying, creating, and producing genetics that work for them. We stay true to our herd management and identify cattle that succeed while eliminating those that fail. We evaluate our herd and others with a complementary program in search of herd sires, AI sires, and donor dams that can move our program forward in the traits most important to our customers.

Functionally, every trait is important, from conception to consumption. We pay attention to each trait - in that order.

A cow must become pregnant, give birth and nurse her calf without assistance, harvest forage herself, convert that forage to milk for her calf and her own maintenance, get bred again on time, and wean a calf that returns enough value for you and her to do it all again. It is the responsibility of the breeder to eliminate any genetic characteristic that interferes with this process. Fertility is generally correlated to fleshing ability. Fleshing ability is affected by mature size, milking potential, and rib cage dimension. Ability to travel to forage and water is affected by structural integrity of feet and legs. Calving ability is related to pelvic area and hip structure as well as genetics for calf shape and birth weight. Calving and mothering instinct and a nice udder the calf can easily latch on to are essential traits. No matter the size, scope, location of your herd, you have better things to do than do a cow’s job for her!

Given all of these things are in order then we move on to weaning performance, and we would like cows to wean a respectable % of their body weight. Profitability to weaning is key. Hopefully post weaning activities serve to add value. Post-weaning feedlot performance is also important and big ribbed, high capacity calves that come from easy fleshing mothers are destined to have the appetite and rumen function that will result in profitable gains. We ultimately serve the beef consumer, so of course carcass quality is important. That’s why we raise Angus!

Fertility, soundness and longevity for our customers is more important than maximum gains. Our bulls are developed on a high roughage ration consisting primarily of long hay that is approximately 75% grass hay and 25% alfalfa with 4 lb/head/day corn/distillers/mineral mix. 

Bulls are fertility tested prior to sale and sifted for foot soundness and disposition problems.

We guarantee our bulls for three years for fertility and foot soundness. If a bull fails a semen test or becomes unsound due to foot structure, we will refund your purchase price minus salvage. This is calculated retroactively in years 2 and 3. The first calendar year is covered 100% against nearly all problems, up to and including death. We serve real life, hard-working producers who earn their living in the cow business. We take our role in their business seriously, and expect our cattle to be profitable for them to own. 

Delivering bulls in the spring is my favorite part of being in the seedstock business. I get to see some beautiful country all across the northwest; learn about cows, business and life from great individuals; and have made friendships with people that are truly fulfilling.