PHILOSOPHY WE USE ON THE FARM

These are some of the philosophies and practices we use on the farm – Sources unidentified

  • More Is Not Always Better When it comes to EPD’s!
  • The goal of a pregnancy check is to find open cows – not to make sure cows are pregnant.
  • We don’t trim feet and don’t plan to start, them kind can go in the box, why because our customers shouldn’t have to trim either.
  • Maximums don’t keep you in business but efficiency will.
  • Understand that no animal is perfect, in this business it is an ever changing work in progress but when impressed with the results- do it again and again.
  • Don’t join the bull of the month club.
  • Use growthier bulls for cows – not negative birth EPD’s, use them for heifers
  • Buy from respectable cattle people. However, you should sell to anybody that will take care of the animal and has enough money.
  • Improve marbling – but don’t give away ribeye and carcass weight
  • If you castrate the bottom 50% of the bull calves – you’re only left with the best.
  • Calving ease will let you sleep at night.
  • Quiet dispositions allow easy handling and less insurance premiums
  • Sound feet and legs make cows last longer
  • The dam of the average +100 YW EPD bull weighs over 1650 pounds in good body condition, she will eat a lot. (Or 2 or 3 lots)
  • More output usually comes from more inputs
  • Eliminate cattle with essential trait flaws from consideration in the breeding program regardless of their popularity
  • Stay away from the latest fads or single trait selections
  • Ignore what the promoters and desk jockeys preach about breeding and instead pay attention to what the cattle “tell” us by watching them and their progeny
  • Make the cattle work for you and you will not be slaves of the cattle
  • Money can buy great cattle or bovine junk, but it takes experience to tell one from the other.
  • Breeding cattle must fit their environment, and Market cattle must fit the box and remember that cattle with length, muscle, and skeletal width don’t need to be big-framed to fit the box.
  • Developing replacement females is a major expense of time and money so don’t get it wrong.
  • Every study of the relative economic value ranks reproduction as the most important economic trait.
  • Ensure that improvement in one trait does not have a detrimental effect on another.
  • Six grade math will allow you to breed numbers but that’s not breeding cattle.
  • “I don’t care who your dam and sire are, where you placed in a show or what your last calf did, you have to add to the bottom line and do it on grass, if not your out of here.

If you have philosophy or slogan that we can add send it to us and if we agree we will add it.