The Art of Seedstock

by Joli Hohenstein

Editor’s Note: University of Illinois Professor Emeritus Doug Parrett was interviewed in the summer of 2022 before he passed away on August 26. IBA extends condolences to his family and many friends.

Art Farley thought the IBA Seedstock Breeder of the Year was just an award. He was pleased to be nominated, but for Art the cattle business is more than just breeding. So when IBA told him the award was about more than just raising good livestock, that got his attention. For Art, cattle are a business, but growing the cattle industry and its number of members right along with it are his passion.

The IBA Seedstock Breeder of the Year award recognizes individuals who exemplify integrity, leadership and success in the production and promotion of the purebred cattle industry. That, industry members say, is Art. “He is just a genuinely good person, very humble,” says Stan Tarr. “He raises pretty elite cattle, but he’s also interested in helping young people and families get started showing cattle. I’ve seen him do that more than once.”

In fact, that is something Art credits for his success — surrounding himself with good people. “My dad was the main support, and he was also a support in that he let me go and let me manage the way I thought it needed to be done,” he explains. “I had more of a passion for the breeding side of things than my dad.”

Professor Emeritus and Beef Cattle Specialist Dr. Doug Parrett saw that in Art firsthand at the University of Illinois.

“He was on one of my earliest judging teams,” he says. “You could sense this was something he wanted to commit to do. He had a passion for it.”

When Art founded C-MOR Beef Farms he was already taking a different path because he grew up around the Angus breed. He was also a one-man band with only a hired man to help with row crops. “I wanted to pave our own way,” he says. “The Simmental breed offered a lot more muscle, and you didn’t have to give up the maternal value. They gave you hybrid vigor and added performance.”

That background positioned Art nicely for success, Parrett says. “He understood live animal carcass and feeding way better than others in their twenties. He was always a balanced trait breeder with lots of understanding. From the beginning he said, ‘I want to raise really good ones, not just good ones.’”

With that mission as a compass, and using some of his Angus as a half-blood base, C-MOR was off and running. They AI’d the first black bull they used and got some really good crosses in the early ’80s. “In five years, we went from yellow to white to some pretty good black ones,” Art says. He cannot explain why, but black Simmentals just spoke to him. Call it instinct. By 1985, he was doing his first steer show with a black animal.

This visionary quality led IBA members to call Art a pioneer, which shocks him. In his typical humble fashion, Art’s only comment was, “It’s hard when you’re going after something that didn’t exist. I wanted the black and I had to sacrifice a few things and then continue to refine to get there.”

C-MOR grew to become a leader not just in the state but in the nation, raising champions and winning at shows continuously. They won nine state fairs with a female, and took the Pen of Three heifers at the National Western Stock Show in 2016. In 2002, Grand Cherry took top honors, and then her first heifer calf came back and won again two years later. “I don’t think anyone has ever done that,” Art says. Black Simmentals from C-MOR had become the standard.

Still, even with that landmark, Art would not consider establishing black Simmentals in the state to be his biggest accomplishment. “Hopefully, I’ve had some impact on people who come after me to raise Simmentals and any breed,” he says. “I hope part of my identity is that of Barnabas in the New Testament — the son of encouragement.”

By all accounts, Art’s reputation tells that story. “Art is just a very honest, easygoing person. He is the guy who is very engaged in helping young people. He will go out of his way to help them,” Parrett says. “I hear that over and over about him.”

Thanks to that passion for helping up-and-coming cattle producers, his neighbors Brian and Brenda Blackford and their four kids became like family to the Art. When Art ran the Pride of the Prairie sale for 10 years, Josh Blackford was his right-hand man. “They’ve been by my side through all of this,” he says. “Josh has kids of his own now, and I’m going to watch them show.”

When young producers ask Art how to get started, he gives an unexpected response: don’t start at the beginning. “I say start at the end; set your goals and then you can figure out how to get there,” he says. “You’ve got to have some goals; it’s better if they’re realistic. You’ve got to have a passion; it goes hand in hand.”

Mamas and babies.

C-MOR Beef Farms