Town Creek Farm Since 1993
SPRING/SUMMER 2018
Vo l u m e 6 , 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
Cattlemen Ask Revealing Questions BY JOY REZNICEK
SPRING GRASS AND GENETICS DELIVERED OUR HEAVIEST EVER FALL WEANING WEIGHTS.
LOOK FOR TOWN CREEK FARM CREW MEMBERS AND DISPLAY BOOTH AT THIS EVENT: • June 19-21, 2018 – Florida Cattlemen’s Convention, Orlando, Florida 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, Bull Development 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
25TH ANNIVERSARY
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TOWN CREEK FARM WAS RECENTLY ASKED TO BE A PART OF A SEEDSTOCK PANEL IN WHICH THE AUDIENCE WAS A GROUP OF COMMERCIAL CATTLEMEN who formally organized themselves to gain marketing and buying power, provide learning experiences and ideas for improvement, and to collect key performance metrics on their sold calves. Each ranching member selects and buys their own genetics and chooses breeds of cattle that work best for their operations. While selection of breeds of bulls is diverse among the ranchers, what they expect from their seedstock suppliers and how those genetics perform are exactly the same. To give the seedstock panelists a broader understanding of what topics might be discussed, a set of primer questions was sent out prior to the gathering. The questions revealed important issues that these ranchers face when buying bulls from seedstock providers. QUESTION ONE: At what age do you breed your heifers in your purebred herd? To my knowledge, every member of this ranching group breeds their heifers to calve as two-yearolds on minimal inputs with a production goal of high pregnancy rates. So why would they expect less from their seedstock suppliers? At both Town Creek Farm and Cow Creek Ranch we have a no-exception policy. Every heifer that does not conceive to calve at two-years of age is culled from our herds. No exceptions. I tell our team that if we do not adhere to this rule, our bull customers will find a bull supplier who does. Many moons ago we introduced to our herd a number of outside registered Brangus genetics in an effort to accelerate growth. These cattle were developed in a system that calves heifers for the first time at three-years of age. Today, few of those cow families survived our fertility boundaries. In fact, we just palpated our twoyear-old fall calving heifers and had only one open female. The open female was the last in the cow family of outside genetics to have survived to this point. Over the years, we’ve had opportunities to custom develop replacement heifers for a handful of our commercial bull customers. Since 2013, more than 1000 heifers carrying Town Creek Farm and Cow Creek Ranch genetics have been developed under our care and management. Heifers receive minimum inputs, are AI’d one time, and then kicked out with pasture bulls. Conception rates are consistently high. We’ve observed that the more our genetics are stacked in these heifers, the thriftier and more fertile the heifers.
QUESTION TWO: What are the culling practices in your herd (open cows)? For us, culling open cows is a mandate that resides front and center of the Town Creek Farm playbook. Within all our operations, Town Creek Farm, Cow Creek Ranch and our Bull Production Partners, we employ no-exception rules. Open or dry cows do not stay on our ranches. Cows must bring calves to the weaning pens and re-breed every year to maintain residency no matter her pedigree, her prior production, EPDs or any other excuse that could be brought to mind. Plus, we have a thriving cull cow market because of our Johnesfree herd. QUESTION THREE: How do we as seedstock breeders select for fertility? We’ve addressed in the first few paragraphs how we selected for fertility, but understand fertility selection is more than culling open and dry females. Fertility must be managed. We develop our heifers on grass with restricted feed supplementation and expect them to get pregnant under these tougher conditions. We prepare heifers for a lifetime of fertile reproduction on grass. They last longer in our herds and so do their daughters. Studies show that heifers developed like we do retain efficiency into their adult years. Said another way, heifers that are fed for higher average daily gains during post-weaning have a tendency to require higher maintenance levels throughout their lifetimes. We clearly recognize that nutrition in post-weaning diets can mask true fertility to a point where increased feed rates drive fertility more than genetics. Fertility was on the top of the list of interest by these producers. Other areas included, questions as to percentage of bull calves culled? Bull guarantees? Use of AI embryo transfer and in Vitro Fertilization? Selection pressure? Use of ultrasound? BVD-PI testing? Thoughts on introducing new, first generation Brangus to the breed? Selection of herd bulls in our programs? Johnes testing? Operating a seedstock cattle business and developing and marketing bulls encompasses discipline, vast knowledge and expertise. Seedstock suppliers must be geneticists, forage experts, people and employee managers, CEOs, accountants, data experts and marketers. Buying bulls is like buying life insurance. Genetics introduced in herds will be there for a lifetime. Bull buyers need to know and trust the people from which they buy. Commercial cattlemen want to find trusted seedstock producers whose methods and values are aligned with theirs. We are grateful for the opportunity to share our vision.