Mentes put focus on Maine Anjou

Justin, Dave and Stacy Mente are shown in front of pastureland used for their Maine Anjou cow-calf operation.

Julie Buntjer / The Globe

Rural Adrian family produces quality show, breeding stock

By Julie Buntjer | jbuntjer@dglobe.com

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ADRIAN — Located southwest of Adrian, Mente Cattle Company owners Dave and Stacy Mente, along with their three sons — Dylan, Trevor and Justin — have spent the past two decades improving the genetics of their herd with a focus on creating quality show and breeding stock.

Today, the Mentes raise a mix of Maine Anjou, Simmental and Angus cattle, with a continual move toward three-quarter and hybrid Maine.

“The foundation of our herd got started (in 1999) with my brother showing for 4-H,” shared Stacy. “We purchased a show heifer (a maintainer Maine Anjou) for him and bred her … and then we built off of that.” “We started buying groups of heifers from a guy I knew in Iowa,” added Dave. “We started with smaller groups and then bigger groups, and now we’re just keeping back our own heifers.”

Dave said he likes Maine cattle for their docile nature, good mothering ability and muscling.

The Mentes, who married in 1997, started out raising pregnant cull cows and “doing whatever we could to make money to buy the nucleus herd, just because we didn’t have land or pasture,” shared Dave.

Their break came when Stacy’s brother was offered a neighboring farm. “He was just out of high school and couldn’t afford it, and we had just gotten married,” Stacy said. In 1998, the young couple rented the pasture and farmland, and in 1999 they purchased the quarter section on contract for deed, with the acreage and 50 acres of pasture purchased outright.

“We are eternally grateful to them,” Stacy said.

While Stacy’s family operated a dairy, it was Dave who had experience in beef

Justin Mente walks toward a herd of cows in one of the paddocks on the family’s cattle farm.

Julie Buntjer / The Globe

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production. A native of Tipton, Iowa, he grew up showing cattle and had a 10cow herd for producing show heifers.

“I love the cattle business and the lessons my boys have learned in the cattle business,” Dave said. “There’s a lot of hard work, a lot of goal-setting, a lot of people you meet and a lot of life lessons.”

While the Mentes made improvements on their acreage to accommodate cattle — updating dirt yards to cement, building windbreaks and installing fence line bunks — the two biggest changes included the construction of a new calving barn and show barn, and converting all of the tillable farmland into rotational grazing paddocks. The Mentes received help through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to seed the grazing land, thus eliminating the need to rent pasture while keeping the cows close to home.

The paddocks were seeded with a mix of grazing alfalfa and six grasses — big bluestem, switchgrass, Indian grass, intermediate wheatgrass, meadow brome and orchard grass.

“We’ve got two sections — the north wheel and the south wheel,” Dave explained. “Each wheel has six pie shapes coming out of it.”

Up to 25 cows are in a paddock at a time, and they stay for just four to seven days in one section before moving. A common water source is located in the middle of the pie, so it’s accessible no matter which paddock they are in.

“The ideal is to not let the grass get below six inches in height,” Dave said.

The cows are moved to the pasture in mid-May, after the A.I. and embryo transfer work is completed, and are taken off by Nov. 1 to graze corn stalks on land farmed by Stacy’s dad.

“They pretty much run my dad’s half section from Nov. 1 to March 15 or so,” Stacy added.

Calving begins on the Mente farm around Feb. 1 and extends through early May.

The elite calves are weaned and sold starting around Aug. 1, with the second cut calves weaned by mid-September. The remainder of the calves are sold as feeders before the big fall run. as commercial bulls each year, Dave added. Primarily, sales come from show cattle, commercial bulls, elite bred heifers and commercial heifers. They also keep some back for themselves as they strive to hold to a 100- to 110-cow herd.

With all three of the Mente’s sons owning some cattle in the herd, Stacy said the hope is they can eventually come back to the farm. Already, they have their areas of expertise. Dylan, the oldest, prefers working with the feedyard and crops. He does some of the mechanic work on the farm and provides the manpower to get things done.

Trevor likes to work with the cows and knows every cow family and their pedigree. He offers suggestions on genetics, does well with clipping and fitting cattle for the show ring and is a true salesman.

Justin, meanwhile, loves showing cattle in both 4-H and other competitions.

Ranging in age from 18 to 22, the Mente sons keep things running smoothly when Dave is on the road for his fulltime job with Zoetis, an animal health company, and Stacy works in scheduling for the Sanford Hospital network.

Who we are

The Rock-Nobles Cattlemen Association was founded in 1971 as the Rock County Livestock Feeders Association. Its name changed in 1983 to the Rock-Nobles Cattlemen’s Association. The group previously hosted Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Tours in 1989, 2000 and 2011.

The Rock-Nobles Cattlemen Association is a partner with the Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association, working to defend producers and members of the beef industry within Minnesota. We are a grassroots non-profit membership organization, advocating on behalf of members to ensure cattle production remains a relevant, safe and sustainable way of life for generations to come.

We are part of more than 20 local county organizations providing the greatest opportunity for producer input and policy recommendations. We’re proud of our local members, including more than 200 active cattlemen and business partners. Our members are active in their communities every year, grilling thousands of hamburgers and steaks at events from Hills to Brewster. Our association donates to area food shelves, high school scholarship programs and FFA chapters in Rock and Nobles Counties.

For 2021, our association has two youth serving as Beef Ambassadors: Samantha Moser from Hills, and Brynn Bullerman from Adrian. Moser and Bullerman represent the RNCA in our communities by participating in area parades, being a part of the county fair beef shows, and giving out beef samples at the yearly home show in Worthington. Brynn Bullerman (front) is shown with the cow-calf pair she exhibited at the 2019 Nobles County Fair in Worthington.

Tim Middagh / The Globe

Sam Moser represents the Rock Nobles Cattlemen’s Association in an area parade.

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