Ranching Today With the Next 150 Years Top of Mind

by Teres

Lambert, for the Red Angus Magazine Alec Oliver’s family has been ranching in the same area in eastern Oregon’s Bear Valley since the 1880s. When the ranch’s cattle are branded with “A2” each spring, the brand they wear carries history as well, as the brand was first registered and acknowledged in 1878.

Pride in that history – coupled with a deep desire to keep the ranch moving forward and making it sustainable for generations to come – keeps Oliver motivated, innovative and dedicated.

“Same soil for five generations and hopefully for more generations to come,” Oliver said.

The family ranch, J.C. Oliver Inc., is a mountain valley ranch consisting of everything from meadows to sagebrush range to timberland located near the Strawberry Mountains. Bordered by forest allotments on the Malheur National Forest helps make one big continuous area, cattle can be moved by horseback and side-by-sides – no truck hauling required.

The Oliver’s closest town is the tiny ranching community of Seneca. In addition to having the coldest average temperature in the United States, Seneca holds the record for the coldest day in the state: 54 degrees below zero in 1933. Area ranchers are familiar with temperature extremes. For example, in July 2013, the morning started at 30 degrees Fahrenheit and jumped to a high of 96 degrees Fahrenheit.

While cooler, dry summers are the rule, winters average 59 inches of snow.

For years, the J.C. Oliver Inc. ranch was a commercial cowcalf, die-hard Hereford operation. When Oliver’s father shattered his pelvis in 2001 and worried he couldn’t continue to work on the ranch at the same level, the family transitioned.

Oliver’s cattle are on a year-round grazing program. A majority of calves are marketed via Country Natural Beef, a cooperative 100% owned by the rancher-members.

They sold off their Hereford herd and began grazing their pastures with outside cattle part of the year.

The family transitioned again in 2011 when Oliver graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in animal science and agribusiness and returned to the family ranch. With the family’s blessing, he set out to rebuild their herd.

But this time, the family ranch’s cow-calf operation didn’t go strictly Hereford.

“I wanted us to capture heterosis, so we added Red Angus,” Oliver stated. “I really like the Red Angus-Hereford combination for our environment and management.”

In 2017, fifth-generation rancher Oliver assumed full management of his family’s ranch after his dad passed.

Oliver is quick to point out that he “manages” the ranch and relies on others to carry out the day-to-day operations of the ranch. The “others” include ranch foreman Jake, who he calls “well-rounded,” two additional employees and Oliver’s mother, Tinka. A couple of guys fill in as needed, with some of those “guys” being Oliver’s fiancé Kailee and his sister Kati, who is married to a nearby rancher.

“I’ve learned to delegate,” he explained. “We have a great team.”

When a pickup accident in 2012 left Oliver paralyzed from the sternum down at age 23, he had a saddle modified so he could continue to move cows, rope and take part in ranching activities. A lift installed in the back of his truck maneuvers him on and off a horse.

Delegating traces to both “need to” and “want to” for Oliver, who works as membership director for Country Natural Beef, a cooperative owned by ranchers who sell meat directly to retail stores and food service companies. He is also a paraplegic, which means he needs to hire help for a majority of the physical tasks associated with ranching.

Red Angus Proved Itself

Red Angus bulls were initially used only on heifers, but that changed when Oliver saw the performance of the resulting offspring.

“Those F1 crosses were always on the top end of quality,” Oliver said. “They just did better. That convinced us to use Red Angus on more than just our heifers.”

Today the cow herd of 700 head is a blend of Red Angus-Hereford, with a bit heavier on the Red Angus. The ranch’s bull battery is about 70 to 30 Red Angus to Hereford.

Year-round grazing is not the norm, needing to supplement feed for five months of the year. The grazing program is basically “take one bite of each grass plant while they’re growing, then bring the cattle back after the plants have matured.”

During the winter, when haying is needed, it is spread throughout the meadows.

“When we are feeding hay, we aren’t just feeding hay to cows,” he elaborated. “Our haying grounds are our most productive hay fields. We try to get our hay spread out across our meadows the best we can. The leftover hay that doesn’t get eaten by the cows – plus the manure and urine

To oversee the ranch efficiently, Oliver has relied on to check females at calving, make certain the cattle have water, look for stragglers and see that gates are shut.

excreted by the cows – provide nutrients back into the soil.”

Oliver likes his cows going into calving season at a body condition score of 5 and 6. Calving season starts mid-March, with 90% of calves arriving within a 45-day window. He credits cow nutrition and the ranch’s mineral program with helping calves being programmed to thrive.

Calves stay at side of their dams until they come off the forest the end of September. At that time, the calves are pre-vaccinated.

The calves then spend a couple more weeks at side of their dams before they are given a second round of vaccinations. The goal is to wean the calves at about 7 months of age.

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“We want the calves vaccinated the second time and weaned 45 days before the winter gets bad,” Oliver stated. “We want all the stress over for the calves before winter hits.

“And winter can come early where we live.”

Approximately 80% of the ranch’s heifer calf crop are selected first round as replacements and exposed for 30 days. Of those exposed, about 75% will get bred during that tight window. Those not settling are marketed as beef.

The ranch markets in a couple of different directions. For diversity and cash flow, some steers will be sold via video auction.

“Our video auction offering will be comprised primarily of Red Angus steers, as they typically are best to sell on the open market for what we have,” Oliver explained.

Open heifers and a vast majority of steers are marketed through Country Natural Beef, the cooperative that Oliver works for. The cooperative is 100% owned by the rancher-members, with all profits going directly back to the ranchers. Country Natural Beef, which markets 60,000 head a year, owns the product all the way through, selling beef to retail customers. Per its website, the company “strives to bring urban consumers together with rural ranchers by providing a clean, wholesome beef eating experience for all families that transcend the boundaries of city and country.”

“Country Natural Beef is our most stable market, and we like the fact that we get feedyard performance data and onthe-rail data on our cattle and can even compare our cattle

to those owned by others in the cooperative,” Oliver stated. “The data on our cattle help us determine our bull selection. With our program the maternal side is important but then so is feedyard gain and carcass performance.”

Oliver points out that another advantage to participating in Country Natural Beef is that “color of an animal doesn’t matter price-wise.”

“We get paid for the full genetic benefit – and not the color – of an animal,” he stated.

To be a part of Country Natural Beef, the Oliver’s cattle must be “all natural” – no antibiotics, no added growth hormones or promotants and be on a 100% vegetarian diet. Cattle must be GAP-certified.

“We believe that going the natural route has made us better managers,” he explained. “Our records show that 95% to 99% of the calves born on the ranch never see an antibiotic during their time on the ranch.”

Cattle from J.C. Oliver Inc. are pooled in the feedyard with other Country Natural Beef cattle from the cooperative’s additional 100-plus ranchers throughout the western states.

Oliver says he and the ranch have gained significantly –monetarily and networking-wise – by being a part of CNB.

“Networking with other ranchers within the cooperative has helped refine practices on our own ranch,” he said. “I learn so much from our rancher-members – animal handling, animal management, grazing plan, etc. I have access to some of the best cowmen and thinkers in the beef business.” //

On December 12th, 2022, the $Profit® System made its largest modification in history.

This unprecedented change was driven by new technology, better data, and changing markets. The primary drivers of the changes were as follows:

Change #1. The system incorporated the Zoetis Cow Fertility EPD into $Ranch® and $Profit®. The Cow Fertility EPD predicts large differences in the calf crop percentage expected from a bull’s daughters!

• The Zoetis Cow Fertility EPD was launched in May of 2021. It included data on over 160,000 dams with over 975,000 calving records. These dams have pedigree links to the entire 1.4 MM animal $Profit database. This includes cowherd data from all of the $Profit Partner herds listed below

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