Snow Creek Cattle Co. - Sire + Dam Directory Fall 2022

Thank you for taking the time to look through the Snow Creek Cattle Co. Sire + Dam Directory. This Direc tory is an update to our prior editions and includes our most recently acquired Sires and Dams as well as those Sires and Dams who have served as a foundation to our program and many others.

As always, we welcome the opportunity to talk cattle, and look forward to speaking with you about our program, your program, and any ways in which our programs can work together to accomplish a common goal.

Snow Creek Cattle Co. is a diversified seedstock cattle operation located amongst the rolling hills of Middle Tennessee. In our 40 year history in the cattle business, we have been commercial operators who sold exclusively at local markets, hybrid commer cial-registered operators who sold both at local markets and off of the farm, and now registered operators who sell, almost exclu sively, off of the farm.

While there are many ways to accomplish it, the philosophies and strategies we have implemented have had a singular goal - and that is to establish as much independence as possible for our cattle operation. And, for us, that independence began to fully materialize as we embraced three very foreign concepts to our program - Selection for Hybrid Vigor, AI Breeding (ie, artificial insemination), and Embryo Transfer.

This Directory will answer, for you, many of the questions we had as we worked to move our cattle program forward through the years. It is a year-to-year process that brings excitement and a sense of accomplishment as you see the direction of your program take shape.

OUR PROCESS

Because we know first-hand the barriers to entry, we have attempted to simplify the buying process for semen and for embryos, as well as for shipping and storage.

Embryos and flush opportunities are available on all active females in our herd. Click to view our Live Inventory to view the available embryos and prices as well as our females available for flushing.

With the exception of a limited supply order, the pricing for semen on our Sires is standardized

FAQ

HOW DO YOU PLACE AN ORDER?

Orders can be placed by calling, texting, or messaging any of the contacts provide in the Our People section and payment options: by phone, online, or by check.

HOW DOES YOUR PRICING APPROACH DIFFER?

It has become commonplace in the frozen genetics space to ar tificially limit supply in order to command prices for semen and embryos which can reach into the thousands of dollars. How ever, this has limited the impact of elite genetics which could potentially advance their respective breeds and the industry as a whole. By setting standard pricing, it allows you, the produc er, to pick the best genetics for your program.

WILL I NEED TO PURCHASE A SIRE CERTIFICATE TO REGISTER THE CALF?

CAN YOU HOLD MY ORDER OF SEMEN OR EMBRYOS UNTIL I AM READY FOR IT?

Once you place an order, we can store the order in our inven tory, at no charge, for up to 90 days.

WHAT IS A LIMITED SUPPLY ORDER?

On occasion, we offer semen on a Sire who is deceased or is in short supply – in those cases, our semen pricing may vary.

WHAT CONCEPTION RATES CAN I EXPECT?

OUR PEOPLE

Dustin Kittle Genetics and Partnerships

e : dustin@snowcreekcattle.com m : 256.996.5822

Ashley Posey Heifer Development and Herd Health

e : ashley@snowcreekcattle.com m : 757.570.5014

No. While some breeds allow companies to add a certificate fee to register calves; when you order from us, you can register the resulting progeny, with no additional fee.

HOW DOES SHIPPING WORK?

Most orders will ship from Lookout Mountain Genetics in Fort Payne, Alabama. Orders can be shipped to your farm, to your veterinarian, or to your AI technician. Shipping is billed directly by Lookout Mountain.

DO YOU OFFER VOLUME DISCOUNTS AND/OR DISCOUNTS TO COMMERCIAL PRODUCERS?

Yes. If you are looking to order 50 units of semen or more or if you are looking to order 20 or more embryos, please contact us to discuss our volume discounts. If you are a commercial cattle producer who currently uses AI in your program or you are considering the use of AI in your program, please contact us to discuss the discounts available to commercial producers.

Conception rates can be influenced by a variety of factors, ranging from the condition of the cows to the weather on the day of breeding. To give you the best opportunity for concep tion, we maintain strict quality control standards on the semen and embryos we offer, by putting a threshold minimum on the number of cells in each unit of semen and by only offering embryos that are Grade One quality.

DO YOU OFFER SEXED SEMEN OR SEXED EMBRYOS?

From time to time, we offer bull and heifer sexed semen out of certain Sires in our lineup as well as sexed embryos through a custom flush. If you are looking for sexed semen or embryos on a Sire or Dam, please contact us to discuss.

HOW DO I KEEP UP WITH YOUR MOST CURRENT SIRES AND DAMS AS WELL AS A LIST OF THE SEMEN AND EMBRYOS YOU MAY HAVE AVAILABLE?

This Directory provides a look at the most featured Sires and Dams in our program as of 11/1/2022. For a list of the semen and embryos available at any given time, click to view our Live Inventory here:

LIVE INVENTORY >

Dalton Forrester Bull Development and Operations

e : dalton@snowcreekcattle.com m : 256.601.0426

Let us know if any of us can help you in any way!

Snow Creek Cattle Co. 2752 Fly Road Santa Fe, Tennessee 38482

If someone tells you they have the secret to making bookoos of money rais ing cattle, run like your life depends on it, because it very well might. With the rising costs of fertilizers and feeds and the uncertainties of a highly-ma nipulated market, there is just no way to predict with any degree of certainty whether a cattleman will come out ahead, no matter the time or the work or the money they put in.

A cattleman can, though, implement certain strategies which will place them in a better position to control their own destiny. And once they do that, many a marriage can be saved, as that cattleman has positioned themselves to lose less money than they ever have before - and who knows, they may even have enough left over to put a few dollars in their pocket.

I was 33 years old when my Dad passed away unexpectedly. He was 55 and, in addition to his family and his steel business, his life revolved around the herd of cattle he had built. The sustainability and legacy of that herd continues to be one of my greatest responsibilities.

While there was a sudden transition at that time, the trajectory of our pro gram and the philosophies behind it were unchanged. In that regard, I often tell people that the common thread in the way I run this cattle operation and the way my Dad ran this cattle operation is the willingness to be innovative. And what that means for us is the willingness to try new ideas.

UTILIZING HYBRID VIGOR IN YOUR PROGRAM:

Our program has never been breed specific. As commercial operators, we were constantly looking to improve and sampled herd bulls who were Angus, Simmental, Charolais, Hereford, and Gelbvieh. By doing so, over the years, we could identify the strengths and weaknesses of each breed as it related to producing the type of cattle we wanted to build our program around. And hybrid vigor showed up on the scales before we really even knew what the term meant.

Hybrid vigor is nothing more than the concept that a mutt dog who walks up on your porch is gonna be healthier, stronger, and maybe even smarter than your neighbor’s $10,000 King Charles Cavalier Spaniel. While mating the perfect pedigree is the dream of a Purebred breeder, creating the perfect animal should be the goal of a commercial producer - and you are playing with both hands tied behind your back if you are passing up on the oppor tunity to use multiple breeds in your cattle program.

Half the time, I still can’t even spell Gelbvieh. They say it means “yellow cow” in German, which seems precisely what we should call the breed over here, since 99.9% of the American versions are Black or Red. But it works, and that is due in no small part to the simple fact that Gelbvieh cattle are something different.

In the 1990s, we took a black-hided base of Brangus and Simmental-influ enced commercial cattle and bred them to a Red Gelbvieh bull, and it was like you had injected those calves with steroids. It was not that we found a better bull necessarily - it was that we didn’t have a drop of Gelbvieh blood in our cow herd, and we had effectively created a calf crop chocked-full of the heaviest weaning mutts we had ever raised. And from that point, we made Gelbvieh an integral part of our breeding program.

A typical Gelbvieh cow is an easy going, heavy milking, beef producing phenomenon who, in some cases, is as ugly as homemade sin. And I can say that because I’m not a breedist — I’m a realist who understands that no breed has the market cornered on perfect cattle. Your “Gelbvieh” could be Red Angus, or South Polls, or Black Baldies, but implementing cross-breed ing into your program should be a consideration for every cattleman who wants to improve their bottom line.

BOB WILLS / BALANCER BULL

The success of cross-breeding has taken hold at every level of the cattle industry, with Registered breeders now mak ing cross-breeding a priority. This 11 month old “cross-bred” calf is out of an Angus Sire and a Gelbvieh Dam and is registered through the American Gelbvieh Association as a Balancer.

Dustin Kittle / Snow Creek Cattle Co.

UTILIZING AI BREEDING IN YOUR PROGRAM:

If we had implemented AI breeding into our program earlier, we could have greatly accelerated what we were trying to accomplish. That’s about as straightforward as I can say it. But, we just didn’t understand how accessible that process could be for us - and it only took doing it once to realize we had been missing out.

My Dad never saw an AI calf born on our farm. In fact, he never saw a cow AI’ed on our farm. But what he did do was leave a blueprint of planned matings that I followed when we AI’ed our herd for the first time in 2014. And that calf crop opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities.

It is true that your herd bull’s calves will sometimes turn out better than the AI calves. Auburn beats Alabama some years too. But by the odds, AI breeding can allow you to pick and choose the perfect mating for your cows to produce the type of calf you want to build your program around and be known for.

And it’s your neighbors who will see it first. At some point, those people who were driving by our pastures every day noticed that our calves had joined a gym and weren’t skipping leg day. It was then that they wanted to buy our heifers and our bulls, includ ing those out of commercial cows, directly off of the farm.

If you have cows you can catch and a chute to put them in, you can have AI calves. And in doing so, you can create a niche that becomes your calling card in the cattle business.

UTILIZING EMBRYO TRANSFER IN YOUR PROGRAM:

I heard someone say one time that AI breeders are playing checkers, while ET breed ers are playing chess. But much like chess, an Embryo Transfer (ET) program is not for everyone.

Our first ET calf was born on the farm just four short years ago. It was some wizardry that I was, and still am, mighty proud of. Instead of selecting just half of the genetic equation with an AI Sire, Embryo Transfer allows you to control 100% of the genetic equation and select a mating that, you hope, produces a rockstar.

ET matings don’t have to be specialized, but for our first ET venture, we took a 13 year old Gelbvieh cow, Post Rock Enjerica, and mated her to a proven Angus commodity, Mytty in Focus. Enjerica had raised our top bull calf numerous times, but she had only produced two heifers in her first 11 calves. So there, the ET process allowed us to dip into those genetics and provide some insurance that the Enjerica cow family would endure in our program.

The ability to use a recipient female from your own program, who is a good momma but may lack the numbers or the look or the name, and to turn her into a producer of

the most elite genetics in the world is an exciting concept. But looked at another way, the ET process allows a breeder to steadily build a program in the vision they want with their own resources; and instead of buying that $400,000 donor cow you read about, you can change your program, oftentimes just as effectively, with the placement of a $400 embryo out of that very same cow.

The ET process is just another tool at your disposal to produce the type and kind of cattle you want to be known for producing. And when you evaluate it all from that perspective, it becomes clear that the way to gain the independence you may seek for your program can be as simple as doing what others are not.

If you want to take the next step with your cattle program, you have to create an identity. And I’m here to tell you that identity should be singularly-focused on raising the type of cattle you enjoy being around every day.

It’s not easy but ignore for a minute the numbers or colors or traits. Find what is your TYPE of cattle — and go for it. Because if you’re genuine with yourself and consistent in your selections, the appreciation you will have for that herd will resonate with oth ers. And those people will want to be a part of what you are working to build.

Our Selection in the 2022 National Gelbvieh and Balancer Sale, a heifer who was the result of an AI Breeding between a Red Angus-influenced commercial female and a Registered Red Gelbvieh Sire

Full ET Brothers produced in the same flush by the same cow, born two days apart and raised by recipient commercial females.

WILDFIRE / GELBVIEH

GROWTH FUND / A012 BROTHERS

FINNEGAN 4F

Gelbvieh

A LEGACY”

We really shouldn’t have favorites but it’s hard to deny the pride we feel in Hills down Finnegan being a part of our program. Finnegan was raised at Hillsdown Gelbvieh in Canada, where by three (3) years old, he had already produced the Ca nadian Bull Futurity Winner and had sold semen across the globe, including to us.

But in the Fall of 2021, the Hillsdown program, operated by Eddie and Wanda Marsman, made the difficult decision to disperse their herd. Finnegan was the centerpiece of that dispersal sale, commanding a record breaking $70,000.

To say Finnegan is elite is an understatement. He is in the top 1% of the Gelbvieh breed for Calving Ease while achieving the heaviest recorded Weaning Weight in the history of the breed, mashing the scales at 1,036 pounds.

While those numbers may be difficult to believe, seeing his calves is proof positive. The average birth weight on Finnegan’s first calf crop at our farm was 74 pounds - and the growth of those calves since is jaw-dropping. The Finnegan calves have a natural thickness and vigor that make them easily spotted, even in contemporary calf groups with the stiffest of competition.

Finnegan is owned in partnership with Kevin and Stacey Ireland, who operate Red Ridge Gelbvieh of Trenton, Missouri.

Wanda Marsman passed away on January 8, 2022 after a long and brave battle with breast cancer. We dedicate the entirety of our work with Finnegan to Wanda Marsman - and we owe an incredible debt of gratitude to her for raising a Bull who is truly a masterpiece. Wanda would be very proud of the fact that their legacies will forever be intertwined.

Boxcar Willie is a superstar who is poised to follow in his maternal brother Ditka C85’s path. Mature beyond his age, Boxcar froze top tier quality semen at 12 months old and walked past every other Bull in a standout class. Calving Ease, Power, and Eye Appeal will be his trademarks. Don’t get left at the train station on a great bull - hitch up

Red Wine is one of the most physically imposing bulls you will ever come across. And while the photos of him are stunning, I’m not sure it is possible to convey just how massive and striking he is when seen in person.

Years ago, the Duff program threw out the numbers and began selecting cattle based on a combination of objectively measured data and their eyes. And while we own Bulls who peg the needle on numbers, I must admit that seeing is believing when it comes to the Duff cattle.

Red Wine is a real world Bull who will deliver elite performance and excep tional carcass traits. The same genetics utilized to create Red Wine fuel the Duff program’s 5,000 head feedlot and beef business, where they have con sistently graded 93-95% choice and prime - with their beef distributed across the Southwestern United States into Whole Foods.

Duff Red Wine is owned in partnership with Charlie Varney, the operator of Charlie’s Cattle Company in Columbia, Tennessee.

Even knowing full well his good nature, it is difficult to walk across the pasture and not be intimidated when you get a glance from Viper. I’ve seen him walk down bulls in adjoining pastures and dare them to cross a line.

Viper sold for $66,000 as a nine (9) month old calf in the 2018 National Gelbvieh and Balancer Sale in Denver, Colorado. He was then and is now a freakishly awesome Bull in terms of his extension and his mass and his overall look.

While he has been the subject of controversy with his prolific Dam, Toasty, having never qualified by DNA-testing to any known Bull from any breed, Viper’s own DNA proves him to be 75% Gelbvieh, qualifying him as a Purebred by National Show standards. And if this Bull isn’t exactly what we are all trying to produce, then we may need to re-eval uate the priorities.

Viper has been used on heifers with success in the U.S. and Canada. He has also produced a passel of sale-toppers in both countries - and we believe his best work is still yet to come.

Gelbvieh

Judd Ranch is one of the premier breeders of seedstock cattle in the United States. If you view the pedigree of most any worthwhile animal in the Gelbvieh breed, you would be hard-pressed to not see that JRI prefix show up in there somewhere.

Trade Secret is one of the most unique Gelbvieh bulls we have ever laid eyes on. His skull shape and front third is impeccable - and his dapple coloring is not just gorgeous, it’s a visual sign, according to the principles of legendary cattle evaluator Dr. Jan Bosma, of increased fertility.

He is a “sleep all night” heifer bull who packed a 17+ inch ribeye when carcass scanned prior to his first birthday. He is also exceedingly docile, as he was Judd’s Lead Bull on halter in the National Pen of Three Com petition in Denver.

Power, Power, and more Power. J.P. Perry of Deer Valley waited for years to use the name Bucket List and finally landed that name on a bull he has hailed as the most powerful Deer Valley Growth Fund son that has been produced to date.

Bucket List is one of the only Angus Sires who combines a Weaning Weight, Yearling Weight, and Calving Ease Maternal score in the top 1% of the breed. Early returns on his calves back up those exceptional numbers, with him stamping bulls and heifers with a signature look of power and style.

Bucket List commanded an $80,000 purchase price for half-interest and has been used in his first two breeding seasons as a walking sire for the Deer Valley program. Bucket List has shown the same consistency of his legendary sire, Growth Fund, with the propensity to produce a rockstar calf in terms of performance, look, and numbers.

Bucket List is owned in partnership with Coach Mike Ditka’s Bar 89 Angus and French Farms of Big Clifty, Kentucky.

Deer Valley Ditka is a Bull who allowed us to expand our partnership with Mike Ditka into the Angus breed, following the success of our orig inal AI sire, Ditka C85. Raised at Deer Valley in Tennessee, he is about as close to a total package Bull as you will find.

Sired by the record setting $580,000 Baldridge Colonel and out of a flushmate to the dam of Deer Valley Growth Fund, Ditka has extreme length of body, muscle shape, and depth of rib. And after seeing his first progeny, it is apparent that those traits will be stamped into his calves.

We have bred Ditka to both mature females and heifers and his name comes up again and again when identifying what Bull each cow needs. With his pedigree, his performance, and his look, the guesswork is min imal in the type of exceptional cattle he will produce.

In addition to our continuing partnership on Ditka with Coach Mike Ditka, Ditka is also owned in partnership with Joshua and Tonya French of Big Clifty, Kentucky.

Ditka is the Bull who started a new direction for our program. By 2016, our cattle operation had developed a strong reputation locally (within 100 miles of the farm) but our goal was to expand that market regionally (the Southeastern United States) and, ulti mately, to make our program known on a national level.

At the time, I felt the way to get to that point was to make some kind of splash. And we did.

One night, I was flipping through a catalog for a Bull Sale that was to take place in Springfield, Missouri. Although he wasn’t pictured, a Bull jumped out at me for one odd reason - his sire was an Angus Bull named Sandpoint Butkus.

I’m a life-long sports fan, and the first thing that popped into my head was the powerful connotation of the name Butkus, with images running through my head of legendary Chicago Bears’ middle linebacker, Dick Butkus. But what made it all so strange was that, when I looked up at the television, there was an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on about the ‘85 Bears.

That team was fierce, and flat out bludgeoned the opposition on their way to a Super Bowl Championship, led by their no non-

sense, hard-nosed, man’s man coach, Iron Mike Ditka. And for as much as I loved the name Butkus for a bull, I loved the name Ditka even more.

I decided then, that if I acquired the Bull from the sale catalog, he would be named Ditka. But just as I started to get comfortable with that idea, I imagined, briefly, how amazing it would be if the Bull was not only named Ditka, but if in some fairytale world, Coach Mike Ditka could partner with us on the Bull.

I had no connection whatsoever to Mike Ditka. But I read that he had multiple steakhouses and a cigar business, and those were ventures that fit perfectly into the image of what I thought we could create in the marketing of the Bull.

So, I took a chance - and I emailed Coach’s agent, who was based in Chi cago. And within a few days, my phone rang with an Illinois number, and it was the agent, who was intrigued and wanted to know more on how this all might work.

The pitch I made to the agent, and later to Coach, was based on my re search into John Wayne and his 26 Bar Hereford Ranch. In 1964, John Wayne, who had a larger than life persona built off of numerous starring roles in Western movies, purchased the Milky Way Hereford Ranch in Arizona (which had been owned by the Mars Candy Company), re-naming it the 26 Bar and taking over the herd of Hereford cattle.

From that point forward, the 26 Bar became a hotbed for Hereford genet ics, with cattlemen driving across the country to acquire Hereford bulls who had hands laid on them by “The Duke” himself. And no matter that the bulk of his cowboying had taken place on the big screen, John Wayne conveyed an image of grit and toughness that fit perfectly with the mindset of the American cowboy.

Mike Ditka was no cowboy, but he was the epitome of toughness, as a play er and coach. He had a charisma and a rugged charm that was relatable to blue collar folks who appreciated the value of hard work - and that was enough, I thought, to add some credibility and character to the marketing of our Bull.

Coach Ditka ultimately gave us the green light to move forward, with a detailed plan to market the Bull for semen sales. And the hope was that,

like John Wayne had done, Coach would add that extra layer that would excite people about having calves off of the Ditka Bull.

Still, I wanted to be a good steward of the trust that Coach had placed in me, so I arrived early for the Sale where the Bull was to be auctioned. And it was then that I got a sign which let me know that I was doing the right thing.

Our truck had not been parked more than five (5) minutes when I walked past a hundred or so bulls to get to Lot 85. There, a gentleman was al ready in the pen, studying the calf closely, and with apparent approval. The man introduced himself as Gary White, from Kansas.

Years earlier, my Dad had told me there was a Gelbvieh breeder in Kan sas named Gary White, who had an exceptional eye for cattle. My Dad was so fond of Gary’s type of cattle that he purchased some of the first elite females in our program from Mr. White, and one of those would later become our first donor, Post Rock Enjerica.

Gary White’s approval of the Bull, prior to the Sale, gave me the confi dence I needed to go all in and purchase the Bull for $28,000. That was almost four (4) times what we had ever paid for a bull in the history of our farm - and, at the time may have been the highest price paid for a Balancer Bull to date..

Through semen sales, Coach’s investment was returned within 90 days. And fortunately for us, the calves off of Ditka C85 were incredible - they came easy and had such explosive growth that he would be used by breeders again and again, long past the time our initial marketing buzz would have faded..

He remains elite. And if my paycheck depended on one bull to produce a superstar calf, he is still the one for me who would get the call.

In addition to our partnership with Coach Mike Ditka, JKGF Ditka C85 is owned in partnership with Joshua and Tonya French of Big Clifty, Ken tucky.