very important,” explains Stielow. “This is the way we’ve gone with our Angus program. We sample some outcross bulls every year, and have a significant AI
program. We give every female a chance to be bred AI every year, through synchronization, then use clean-up bulls. We have a small crew, and are trying to expose about 700 females each year to our AI program. We’ve chosen synchronization as most timeefficient for us,” he says. “To split the work load, we’ve stayed with a February calving season but hold one set of cows a couple months later in calving. Yearling bulls for our sale come out of the February group. Calves from the later group are summered their yearling year and sold as two year olds,” he says. Many people are interested in bulls with a little more age, especially producers with small herds — wanting to get by with fewer bulls — or running cattle in range conditions. There haven’t been many two-year-old bulls available, so the Bar S Ranch offers some. “We also have 100 head of fall calving cows to break up the workload. With just my son-in-law, myself, one full-time hired man, and some day workers, it’s a challenge to get all the cows bred efficiently at one
time. Stringing it out it makes it easier.” The ranch runs 600 cows and 100 heifers, with three quarters of the females being Angus and one-quarter Charolais. They sell about 175 bulls per season. “We sell a few bulls private treaty after the sale. We try to keep some inventory if someone suddenly needs a bull because of injury. We feel we do a better job of servicing our customers if we always have something for sale,” he says. “We’ve been ultrasound scanning bulls for a long time — before EPDs were built around them. We furnish a lot of data. Any that don’t make bulls are fed out. We own an interest in a feeding company 60 miles away. Cattle that don’t get sold as breeding stock are fed, which gives us a good perception of what’s going on in the industry and how our cattle fit in. Usually our cull bulls feed and grade with the top end of the cattle coming out of the feedlot. So we don’t feel like we’re giving up much by not being totally focused on carcass traits,” he says. — by Heather Smith Thomas
ranchers when they came home from World War II. Because of their service to this country the returning soldiers were eligible for a lottery and if their name was drawn they got land and the water rights that came with it. Now the freedom-loving country they fought for is attempting to take away their rights. Water for Life, Inc., was founded specifically to promote the agricultural community’s interests in their water rights, while advocating responsible stewardship of the land. It has been an ongoing battle for two decades now and we shudder to think how much worse it could have been if not for the efforts of Water for Life. According to the group, “As water issues and concerns began gaining more attention, the organization undertook the creation of a pro-agriculture group with the single-minded purpose of defending and promoting agricultural water rights. The vision was of an organization devoted specifically to agricultural water issues and to approach them from a producer perspective.” Today, Water for Life, Inc. is a fast growing organization that continues to uphold the founders’ original intentions in fulfilling the role of advocate for the agricultural water user community. “Over the years, many committed individuals, businesses and groups have helped Water for Life, Inc.
grow into an organization of influence, recognized for its high standards of excellence and professionalism. Our mission remains strongly focused on protecting agricultural water rights as private property rights in the context of environmental stewardship.” Water for Life, Inc. is a 501c nonprofit organization that is funded by a dedicated membership that includes corporations, individuals, and associations. If you attend many of the bull sales in the West, like the big ones at Red Bluff, California, or the one in Klamath Falls, Oregon, you’ll witness major and multiple fundraising efforts for the group. Often times purebred producers will donate a bull, which in many cases is then sold over and over again to raise money for Water for Life. These producers know how important their water rights are! Most of the members of Water for Life hold ag water rights, and represent a wide spectrum of commodity groups, including beef cattle, dairy cattle, hay, nurseries, potatoes, cranberries, onions, wheat, sheep and others. These members are extremely active in protecting their water rights. Members receive a quarterly newsletter and informational updates. Water for Life tries to achieve its goal of protecting water rights by acting as a watchdog for agricultural water users. They work
closely with producers and represent their interests during various agency meetings, hearings and workshops. They have gone to court many times to defend the producer’s and the public’s interests and they also lobby in opposition to policies or legislation that would adversely affect agricultural water-right holders. Water for Life also sponsors and is integral in “drafting legislation, administrative rules and policies that benefit and protect the interests of agricultural water-right holders. The group also seeks to educate the public, and particularly the agricultural community, on the development of administrative rules, legislation and policy affecting water-right holders. Staff members of Water for Life sit in on countless meetings where sneaky politicians and environmental groups try to snatch the farmer’s water through trickery and outright theft. We have a feeling there will be many more groups like Water for Life springing up around the arid West as big cities look everywhere for sources of water for their rapidly expanding populations. These urbanites have figured out that they cannot live without water. If the greenies continue to get their way those same citizens will soon learn that they also cannot live without food. — by Lee Pitts
Ken Stielow: “. . . we decided our future was in all-around kind of cattle.”
2009 Fall Marketing Edition
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