Making Tough Cattle That Look Good Too

IBA Seedstock Breeder of the Year Cardinal Cattle Company strives for the whole package.

Tough is a word with a variety of definitions. Here it is used as another word for strong and durable. Beauty, as always, is in the eye of the beholder and here it is used to describe form and function while attracting buyers and enhancing value. Toughness and beauty; two qualities many strive for in different walks of life but to those in the cattle business these words have special meaning, especially to the crew at Cardinal Cattle Company, Wyoming, Illinois. Their everyday focus is to create cattle with toughness to enhance performance and longevity as well as beauty to add value, versatility, and enjoyment to their program and those of their many customers.

Nestled somewhere in the rolling, treeless, cropland between Peoria and Davenport, Iowa, is a surprising and unique stretch of strip mine ground featuring steep cliffs, rolling hills, deep ponds, and abundant wildlife. Fifteen hundred acres of that plays host to Cardinal Cattle Company and its renowned seedstock operation. Managing partner, Jeff Wisnefski, has spent the last 32 years building the Cardinal program into what it is today, one of the best in the nation that was recently recognized as the 2023 Illinois Beef Association Seedstock Producer of the Year.

Though he grew up on a grain farm, Jeff’s love and unique skill for the cattle business took off while young and the owners at Cardinal Cattle Company, Jack and Kay Riley, saw his potential and brought him onboard. Beginning with just 40 cows, Jeff says the couple used their capital to enable him to use his abilities to “breed eye-appealing, high-performing cattle.”

Yet, Jeff did not always know what that meant. “I was not born with an eye for good cattle, I had to learn that, as everyone does over time and practice” he says. As his skill and understanding grew, so did the operation. Today the operation runs 300 cows and Jeff and his wife, Laurie, own part of the operation with the Riley’s. Each year they host two auctions, selling around 50 bulls on the first Saturday in February and 120 bred heifers and cows on the second Saturday in December. Their auctions are closely watched in the industry and typically claim customers in many states and Canada.

Jeff and the Riley’s built their herd with a strong foundation of Angus females and that is still their core of success and quality. Early on they sampled Chianina genetics to add performance, muscle, and style; several of those cattle were national winners and helped the Cardinal herd to gain notoriety. Later they added high-level Simmental genetics which also resulted in National Champions and widely used AI sires. Cardinal hangs their hat on the value and production of their purebred cattle, but they have also become popular for the quality and producing ability of their crossbred females where, as they like to say “The Proper Blend Makes All the Difference.”

“We started with a great foundation by starting with elite Angus. We kept many of them pure but also bred up with other breeds to give our customer more options,” Jeff says. “It seems like as we sell more breeding cattle, it gets easier to sell them,” he adds. “I attribute that to having more variety.” Cardinal’s main goal is to appeal to as many producers as possible: commercial, seedstock and juniors.

Tough and Good Looking

So, what is Jeff Wisnefski’s ideal animal? As a producer seeking to appeal to all facets of the industry, it is an elusive target for sure but one that gets closer, it seems, with each new generation of Cardinal seedstock.

“Cattle need to be born with manageable birth weights, first and possibly foremost, for me and my customers. Then, they need growth, and they need to have a big enough frame to raise a high performing bull, but not so big that it takes too much feed to raise them”, Jeff says. “They need to be efficient and raise pounds. They need to have proper feet and fundamentals to do their jobs without hassle. We expect a lot of them, and they need to able to do most of it on their own.” He wants cows to raise half their body weight in their calves by weaning. “We do not pamper them much. We feed the young cattle more as needed and if we are getting them ready for an auction, but these cows need to thrive on grass and little else” he says.

Jeff does not believe in focusing on phenotypic features if it means compromising the functionality of the animal in the beef industry. “Years ago, when I was a youngster, twenty-some years old, I had an older gentleman tell me, ‘You know, sometimes the cattle have to work for you.’ And that has always stuck with me,” Jeff says. Cardinal wants to raise “tough cattle that perform but look good doing it,” he says. Though he uses genomics as a tool in sire selection, he is adamant that genomics should only be used in unison with the phenotype of the animals, as well. His son, and coworker, Lucas, agrees. “You must go back to the basics and raise good-footed, well-structured cattle that still have a little bit of look and presence,” he says. “But they have got to have performance, they must have body and rib, and they have got to be balanced.”

Goals Lead to Growth

According to Jeff, the basic goals of Cardinal Cattle Company are as follows: polled, black, docile, moderate birth weight cattle with consistent growth, frame size, versatility and total quality. “It’s really hard to define quality. It is balanced symmetry in many traits, quality head and structure, having the length of their neck match their length of hip, and their length of body, consistency of type and kind throughout breeds, crosses, and in large groups. It is hard to do, I can tell you that. We work at it all the time.” he says.

Mark Mueller of Diamond M Cattle Company, Hiawatha, Kansas, is a 40-year friend and customer of Jeff’s, who runs a very similar operation to Cardinal’s. Mark views Jeff as someone of integrity who also seeks to be an innovator in the cattle business without losing hold of the roots that got him to this point. “They have done a really good job at diversifying their program [at Cardinal]. I have made some purchases there that have made big differences in my herd, and I really enjoy our relationship,” he says. Other long-time customers like Steve Tipsword, appreciate the combination of both look and performance.

Jeff also believes the work they have done to develop their own cow families has led to better bulls and all-around results. Out of the 30 bred heifers that Cardinal retains each year, Jeff and Lucas choose their next donor cow. This is something Jeff believes is getting lost in the industry due to the popularity of embryo transfer making it more convenient than creating new blood lines – “we strive to make new cow families and great individuals from within, and we make the cattle prove themselves before we mass produce them,” he says.

Another focus of Jeff’s is to produce and share great bulls, and over the years Cardinal has become known for producing and owning popular, widely used AI sires. Some of their most successful sires have been Cardinal Snap Chat, True North, Uproar, Warranty, Patriot, Answer and Crossover, plus a pair of bulls purchased from Illinois’ own Musgrave Angus, Pure Product and Sky High.

Over the years, Jeff involved son, Lucas, and daughter, Sydney, in the show cattle industry. Their success extends to two Grand Champion Percentage Simmental Females of the North American International Livestock Expo, another at the National Western Stock Show, and Lucas showed the Grand Champion Steer of the Illinois State Fair in 2016, a son of Cardinal Snap Chat raised by longtime friend and partner, Dave Cox. Dave works closely with the Wisnefski’s, specifically working with Lucas to grow the quality of their herds together. “They treat their customers well,” he says. “And stand behind their cattle. I have done very well with my purchases from them.”

With the money he received from selling his steer at the Illinois State Fair, Lucas paid for his college and started buying cows to start his own operation. After college, he eventually became a full-time employee of Cardinal Cattle Company. “I get to work with livestock, I have my own cows and I get to do what I love,” he says. “Working with family is something I cherish. We have our arguments, but we all care so much because we are all trying to make the next best thing,”

And that is what Jeff and Laurie taught their kids. “We used the showing and 4-H to get them social skills and work ethic and realize that we can all work as a team and work together to be successful,” Jeff says.

Still Winning

Jeff attributes the award of Seedstock Producer of the Year to the cattle. “It means a lot because people are watching, and people are recognizing and seeing our cattle have quality and recognizing their ability to work for people and make people money,” he says. “That is what keeps people in the business for 30 some years, me included.”