I have found a couple of nice recources I would like to share with our customers. Many times, people wonder where different parts of the steer certain cuts come from. I have a link here to a downloadable chart that explains it pretty well. It’s called the Beef made easy retail cuts chart and is provided by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association at the retail beef site.
The other site that I like, is the Beef it’s what’s for dinner site. (I take back some of the bad things I said about the National Cattlemen’s Association earlier today). It has some great recipes and a lot of nutricious information about beef for the consumer.
Finally, I should note the Certified Hereford Beef program. It promotes healthy, safe and great tasting beef without the added “enhancement” of water. That is the breed we beleive is the best, and so do our customers.
Last weekend we attended the Illinois Junior Hereford Association Preview Show in Taylorville. This is a two day show with bred & owned, cow calf, bulls and steers being shown on Saturday and the owned heifers shown on Sunday (Fathers Day). Congratulations to the Polled winners the Collins family, and the horned winners Bauers and Jones (bred by Del Hawk Herefords).
All in all, we had a pretty good weekend. Our fall bull was a class winner (see his picture) and the Harfst heifer Jake bought at the preview show placed 4th (beating a couple of high dollar heifers that had previously beat him in Roseville).
In the produce department, the mums are continuing to grow at a rapid pace. I finished planing the last couple rows of sweet corn yesterday, yes, on June 25th. Hope to have some produce at the farmers market soon.
First, thank you to all our customers at the Trinity Farmers Market! We hope you return to our booth.
Planting crew
John Deere 464a planter
Rows of peppers and tomatoes
As I write this, the rain and wind continues. I dumped out about 1/2 inch this morning and another 1 inch this afternoon. The farmers are never going to get everything planted on time. I talked to a friend of mine that sells seed corn around the Bloomington area. He sold over 10,000 bags of seed corn and as of yesterday, only knows of 32 bags in the ground.
I rushed home from school today because we are anticipating 4 cows calving (due yesterday). One Hereford heifer and 3 black recipts that will have Hereford calves. I had Arika on maternity duty as she is now back from school (University of Iowa). At about 1:00 she called and saw hooves starting to protude from the heifer. I was a little nervous, not just because she was a heifer, but because she is bred to our new bull Cotton Club. CC has had some pretty big calves this spring and that can be rough on a heifer. I had Arika giving me and hourly update, but nothing was happening. I decided I better head straight home after school (instead of stopping for the usual friday afternoon Roundtable). I checked the heifer and still no progress. I determined it was time to take action. Jake and I got the heifer in a confined space and put the halter on. I got the calf puller (which I would rather not use) and hooked up the chains. A little pull and things started happening. Out was a head (with a tounge sticking out) and half a body. Another pull, and the calf was on the ground. It always amazes me when they come out and all of a sudden they are breathing! A live bull calf at a manageable 82 pounds. We bedded down a stall, and put momma and baby in the pen. I hope to have a picture of a vibrant calf on the page in the next day or so.
Last weekend, I was able to use my new John Deere 494a planter. I think it is a 1965 model (so we are the same age). She and I planted about 1 1/2 acre of popcorn while my wife and kids spent Mothers Day planting about 60 tomato plants and another 90 (or so) pepper plants.
Also, I was able to row the first 8 rows of sweet corn this moring. Now I wish I would have planted 16 rows.
Baldie hereford cross born to a black cow (recip) at BOF April 24, 2009.
I realize that Herefords are not the most popular breed of cattle currently (although they are a close second). Thanks to some good marketing by some other associations, most people think other breeds provide a better quality and are generally better.
Personally, we chose Herefords because of their dispositions. They are very docile animals and when you have a small kid showing a 1000 + pound animal at a fair, in an environment they are not familiar with and people who might not be familiar with livestock, this was an obvious choice. We tried other breeds, black, Simmental and Limousin. Once a neighbor gave my daughter a hereford to show about 10 years ago, we were supporters of the breed. They have great attitudes and are terrific mothers. Most importantly, they yield a great tasting carcass.
If my personal testimony has not convinced you, look at these facts. The data was collected by Circle A staff (an Angus breeder) and analyzed by Dan Moser, associate professor of genetics at Kansas State University and Vern Pierce, professor of agricultural economics at University of Missouri.
Here are the highlights:
600 Angus cows were randomly bred to 10 Hereford bulls. The resulting progeny was compared to the offspring from three proven Angus sires.
The Hereford-sired calves were 3 lb. heavier than the Angus calves at birth. But averaging 72 lb., the weight was nearly ideal for commercial operations.
At weaning, the Hereford-sired calves were 11.9 lb. heavier than the Angus-sired calves, despite the Angus sires ranking in the top 20% of their breed for weaning weight EPD.
Heifer calves were bred with the baldies showing a 7% advantage in conception rates over the straight Angus heifers.
75 of the Hereford-sired bred heifers were sold at Circle A’s annual production sale, where they sold for about $110 more than their Angus counterparts.
Part of the steers were placed on feed efficiency test at Circle A’s feedlot. The Hereford-sired calves outgained the Angus by .15 lb. per day.
While both breed groups were similar for fat thickness (Angus = 0.52 vs. Hereford = 0.54), Hereford-sired steers had about 13 more lb. of carcass weight and about 3/4 of an inch more ribeye area.
Pierce set up an economic model to measure the advantages of this data for a typical operation. He says the advantage of using Herefords will be multiplied over the 10-year model.
In the model using Hereford bulls on Angus-based cows will add $514 net over 10 years or about $51 per year per cow.
Economic models also predicted that if replacement females were retained over a period of 10 years, Hereford-sired females would generate a 20% advantage in herd size for the same relative cost versus the straight Angus commercial cows because of increased fertility and longevity.
Pierce says, “The bottom line is if a rancher with Angus-based cows uses Hereford bulls compared to using Angus bulls and gets the same response as we had in this study, he will have improved cash flow, increased herd size and more calves to sell over a 10-year period.”
That is probably not something you want to advertise on the internet. My wife wanted 4 laying chickens. I ordered 6 (just in case). The feedstore, Kistlers Reynolds Feed, thought we better have a couple more. So, here they are.
So, if you are looking for some quality beef, e-mail or call us. I hope to be setting up a store for some boxed products. Not sure how we could efficient ship, but can arrange local pick up. We have steaks, ground beef (including patties) roasts and beef sticks. The first individual products will be available in about two weeks. I just took two steers to Reasons for processing on Monday. Now that we have completed what seems like a mountain of red tape and paperwork, we can get down to business of selling the best beef you have ever had. The final two pieces are ordering custom labels (which I have a picture of) and some health permits for the city.
Yesterday, we had the vet come over and do some work. Routine pouring, vaccinations, preg check, etc. Another good quality of herefords is their temperament. I don’t think I had to cuss once. Neither did the vet, Dr. Joel Sullivan. We also set up about 7 cows/heifers for breeding this weekend. The interglobe rep is supposed to deliver semen today or tomorrow. I am going to use THM Durango and then turn the cows in with our bull Purple Cotton Club (CRR Cotton x Reload). Durango is the sire of the current Denver Champion bull, CRR About Time. Durango is a son of Boomer 29F. I have been trying to get some of his genetics in our program for the last year or two. He has great numbers for birthweight and milk. Two things that I want to focus on for this breeding season.
Last item: feel free to leave comments! We have a lot of visitors from all over the place and would like to hear what you are looking for or how your beef program is.
I thought March was supposed to come in like a lion and out like a lamb (or vice versa), so why did it come in like a lion and now go out like a lion with 2 inches of web cold snow?
Been almost a month since the last update so, it’s time to get everyone caught up.
Since last time, I have attended the Illinois Hereford Association spring sale at Lowderman’s Auction Facility in Macomb. Only 25 head cataloged, but a nice sale. Would have been nice to see more people in the seats, but, you only need two bidders for each lot. Bulls averaged $1,750 while the heifers averaged $1,915. Everything else has been sold with the exception of our new yearling bull BOF Kilowatt 801 (kilo x pure gold). We were looking for the best Devo son we could find to flush our Colyer Pure Gold cow to and came up with Kilo. We also have a couple of nice show heifers available.
Speaking of bulls, our 4 year old herd bull, Buddy, is still for sale (you can see his youtube video here). I really think a commercial cattleman or purebred breeder will love what he offers. We are asking $1800 for him (which as you can see is only slightly above average from the March sale and below average from the Illini Classic in February). If you are interested, send me an e-mail or give me a call 309.738.0811. We just had a baldy out of him (out of a recip) hit the ground this morning. I will try and post a picture later in the week.
Finally, we are in the final stages of preparing to sell Hereford beef at farmers markets in the area this spring and summer. Hopefully, we will have details posted soon. Look for a shopping page where customers can order beef cuts online and pay with paypal.
Just got back from the 2009 Illinois Beef Expo. After talking to the Illinois Beef Association staff, they were pleasantly surprised with the turnout. Over 600 junior members showed cattle. The bull auction was the third highest average ever (helped by the polled bull $2450).
Arika, second from right, at the National Polled Hereford Queen contest in Denver
At the IPHA meeting, I was honored to be elected to Board of Directors. My oldest daughter retired as the Illinois Polled Hereford Queen. She was quite honored to represent Illinois at the National contest held in Denver, where she was second runner-up.
HARFST Coalette
Jake purchased a nice new show heifer at the Illni Classic Sale. The heifer, HARFST 6086 Coalette, will be a great addition to our herd. Her mother is a full sister to to Tamar Adcock’s Reserve Jr. National Champion Polled Female, BH L7 Connor 723. We have a sister to Connor in our herd out of Purple Tonic. She was a class winner at the Illinois State Fair in 2007 (I think that was the year).
Finally, I have updated the for sale page. We have sold one bull, but we have another to offer. Please check it out if you are looking for a herd bull. Also, I am slowly building the rest of the site adding some past winners. Hopefully I can find all the pictures I need to make the site better.
As always, if you need more information, please feel free to contact me. You can find my information on the right side of the page.
I have put together a couple of video clips for the bulls and heifers. I also included a picture of buddy that I took yesterday. That is him in his working clothes. He has been in the pasture for 2 years with no additional creep. As you can see, right now he is running in corn stalks. They have access to hay and a protein tub. The only time they get corn is if I need to get them in. In the video, you can see how docile he is (I had a hard time getting him to walk). . I have never pulled a calf from this bull. All of his birth weights have been between 60 and 78 pounds. He is very easy on fences (ours are terrible) even with a pasture of steers and heifers to the south of us. I would like $1800 for him (I figure that is about market price)
The yearling bull was born September 3, 2007 (The date on the video is incorrect). His mother was a class winner at the Illinois State Fair a few years ago. His maternal sister was sold a couple of years ago to a girl in Missouri who showed her all over the place. She was 2nd high in the point shows for two years in a row and Division Champion in both open and junior shows at the Missouri State fair. As with Buddy, this bull has a great disposition. I would like $1300 for him ( figure he weighs about 1400 pounds. I could have sold him as a steer to my customers for that. He probably would have been a steer, but a neighbor reneged on the deal to buy him as a bull after assuring me 3 times he wanted him).
Two of the heifers were show heifers and the other was not. Both of the show heifers come from our best cows, the other heifer comes from our best “pet.” They are fall calves because we flushed the mothers in the spring and it set them back.
712 is out of a cow that is full sister to a National Champion. Her mother won her class at our state preview show and state fair. We have sold several calves out of her. Recently, an embryo that we sold to a family in California won her class in Reno national show as well as Reserve Champion at the Western regional show. She is Purple Reign breeding.
713 is out of a cow that we also showed (from Idaho-Colyer Herefords). Her siblings have won classes at the Junior Nationals and division champion at our state preview show.
714 is out of a cow that we bought from Randy Owens (from Alabama). She is extremely docile. This is the only heifer out of her that we didn’t show, mainly because we had the other two that were older.
I have found a couple of nice recources I would like to share with our customers. Many times, people wonder where different parts of the steer certain cuts come from. I have a link here to a downloadable chart that explains it pretty well. It’s called the Beef made easy retail cuts chart and is provided by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association at the retail beef site.
I thought March was supposed to come in like a lion and out like a lamb (or vice versa), so why did it come in like a lion and now go out like a lion with 2 inches of web cold snow?
