The Grit Spring 2017

Page 1

Town Creek Farm Since 1993

SPRING 2017

Vo l u m e 5 , I s s u e 2 • P u b l i s h e d b y To w n C r e e k Fa r m , We s t Po i n t , M i s s i s s i p p i • B r a n g u s a n d U l t r a b l a c k

FifteenJ Cents Back R

BY OY EZNICEK comes from using Town Creek Farm bulls. I SPENT A DAY IN APRIL IN LOUISIANA WATCHING “My number one goal is produce top quality NEARLY 50,000 HEAD SELL IN A SUPERIOR replacement heifers,” says Thurman Floyed of LIVESTOCK BROADCAST VIDEO SALE. The sale

These bulls sell october 21, 2017.

The Grit welcomes your inquiries and feedback. The Grit is published by Town Creek Farm, West Point, Mississippi.

Town Creek Farm Milton Sundbeck, Owner Office: 32476 Hwy. 50 East West Point, Mississippi 39773-5207 662.494.5944 www.TownCreekFarm.com Joy Reznicek, President 205.399.0221 Joy@TownCreekFarm.com Clint Ladner 662.812.8370 CLadner@TownCreekFarm.com South American Representative Ing. Agr. Federico Maisonnave (011) 595 981 362 898 Skype: federico.maisonnave Maisonnave.Federico@gmail.com Total Commitment

Since 1993 JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST TO RECEIVE THE MOST UPDATED SALE INFORMATION AVAILABLE. EMAIL INFO@TOWNCREEKFARM.COM TO JOIN OUR FOLLOWING. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK. LAST CHANCE. FOR THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS, WE HAVE COMBINED THE ORIGNAL COW CREEK RANCH MAILING LIST TOGETHER WITH THE TOWN CREEK FARM MAILING LIST. THIS ISSUE OF THE GRIT WILL BE THE LAST MAILING COMBINING THE LISTS. IF YOU ARE UNSURE IF YOU ARE ON TOWN CREEK FARM’S MAILING LIST, PLEASE EMAIL, CALL OR GO TO OUR WEBSITE AND COMPLETE OUR ON-LINE FORM AT WWW.TOWNCREEKFARM.COM

featured calves mostly from Louisiana, Florida and the Gulf Coast; places where cows with a little ear influence permeates pastures. What struck me was how many mixed loads of calves sold in which sellers took hits on heifers ranging from $15 to $4 a hundred weight. In one instance from one ranch, a set of 1000 mixed load calves sold with the heifer calves 15 cents back. That’s real money. For this conversation, I will call this missed opportunity. Marketing easily can become a missed opportunity in production agriculture simply because we allocate most of our time to producing, and not to marketing. Or, in many cases, time is spent working a job in town. Over my many years in the ranching business, I’ve seen a variety of approaches to running cattle operations. In many cases, preferences in management, nutrition and marketing are widely varied from ranch to ranch. But what I see, as I travel and talk with our customers, is that our customers are capitalizing on adding value to their heifer calves. “I’ve got the best of both worlds,” says Marty Wooldridge of Oil City, Louisiana, when speaking of his Town Creek Farm sired steers and his heifers. After Marty bought his first Cow Creek Ranch Ultrablack bulls in 1998, he never looked back in terms of maximizing profitability. “I can sell my heifers as open heifers into a replacement heifer market,” says Marty. “Or, I can keep them, breed them, then make a decision later to sell them as bred heifers if my grass is short or my cash flow needs change. I just have so much flexibility with these genetics.” Marty hustles when it comes to marketing and he focuses on “not” missing marketing opportunities. He and his wife Crystal market all-natural beef raised on their ranch, all from the same Cow Creek based genetics from which they are raising and selling replacement heifers. “Our customers love our beef,” says Wooldridge. “Selling beef, marketing replacement heifers, selling a few breeding bulls and then having quality steer calves to sell just makes a lot of sense. It makes a tremendous impact to our bottom line.” Though not all our customers are as dedicated to marketing as Marty and Crystal, most still manage to take advantage of the value-added replacement heifer market that

Ville Platte, Louisiana. “I get as much or more money for my heifers than I do my steer calves. My steers usually sell right at the top of the market and are always in the top 10 percent of the market. They’ve never been docked for the little ear they carry.” Before using Brangus bulls and Town Creek Farm bulls, Floyed used Charolais, Simmental, and some Hereford bulls. He’s been using Brangus bulls for 15 years now. “I really like the heifer market and value I get from Brangus bulls,” says Floyed. Fourth generation Florida ranchers recently joined Milton and me for dinner. The evening was comfortable and engaging. We were all just thinking out loud, discussing and exchanging knowledge. We reached a consensus that the Angus breed has been moving in a terminal direction for some time. Our Florida guests reflected on their foray with registered Angus intended for use as a base for half-blood calves (Angus x Brahman). The Angus cows simply didn’t work because they required too many inputs to maintain. Through our own similar experience of running Angus cows we learned that their maintenance inputs far out-cost the inputs of our Cow Creek Ranch genetics. What we learned from each other that evening is that within breeds considered to be acceptable maternal breeds, the ramped race for high growth EPDs has led to inefficient cows that are too big volumed, often with too much milk, and cows who simply require too much money to maintain. We used to think we had to have maternal bulls to raise replacements and accept a discount on the steers. Then have terminal sires for steers to get top dollar and accept 15 cents back on the heifers. There are more profitable options to consider that hit more targets and provide much more flexibility and many more marketing options. What our customers are seeing is that by using the environmentally fitted Cow Creek Ranch genetic base they can raise or sell replacement heifers and still be near the top of the steer market. Sure, they’ll be some feeder heifers or culls, as we call them, in the mix, but with disciplined culling over time you will have fewer and fewer of those. Our customers are finding balance between maternal, growth and carcass traits and getting rewarded for each of these traits with one set of genetics and no missed opportunities.


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