Town Creek Farm Since 1993
SPRING/SUMMER 2019
Vo l u m e 7 , 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
Risk Abatement BY MILTON SUNDBECK
THIS YEAR’S HISTORIC FLOODING, SNOWFALL, AND TARIFFS DEFINE THE MAGNITUDE OF RISK FARMERS AND CATTLEMEN OFTEN FACE. As I write this article Mother Nature is piling it on with a sudden drought that has hit the Mid-South. These natural phenomena have prompted me to review things we do to abate risk at Town Creek Farm (TCF) and Southern Ionics, the chemical company I started in 1980. Southern Ionics (SII) manufactures aluminum and sulfur chemicals. We own and operate the Houston ammonia terminal and last year we manufactured and shipped over 2.5 billion pounds of product by pipeline and tank trailers. We have nine manufacturing plants and more than 300 employees. Five of the plants are in hurricane ally between Houston and Mobile, Alabama.
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
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In the last 39 years just about everything and anything one can think of related to risk has happened in our business; hurricanes, floods, power outages, sunken ships and barges of raw material, derailments and runaway tank trailers. Management of risk is always on my mind. SII has teams of professionals who focus on risk management throughout the company. So, one would think that owning and managing a Brangus seedstock business with less than 10 employees verses a chemical company would be a piece of cake with respect to risk management. Wrong! The seedstock business is fraught with its own set of unique risks. Chemicals aren’t bred, fed, born, sick, vaccinated or dead. In the cattle business risk comes to us from every direction, from under the ground, to heavens above, from Washington DC to everything in between. Cause and effect of risk can be learned over time with experience in the cattle business. However, not one of us will live long enough, or has enough money, to endure its learning curve. I rely greatly on experience and advice of our team here at Town Creek Farm, particularly that of Joy Reznicek, our president. My first bit of advice is to find and hire individuals who are educated, experienced and have knowledge to see risk for what it is and are not afraid to act. I think in terms of risk “abatement” rather than “risk management.” Abatement requires specific action to achieve an acceptable level of risk. For example, we know well-timed fertilizer applications are required to harvest high quality Bermuda hay and baleage. To abate damage to our Bermuda grass from armyworms, our farm manager must check pastures daily. Secondly, set up a systems approach to ranch management. Every undertaking carried out in our ranching operations has standard operating procedures to improve efficiency and quality of work. Our systems approach abates risk by preventing rework, which costs time and money, and prevents well-meaning employees from potentially making deficient decisions. Town Creek Farm team’s mindset is that when we act to abate risk, it abates risk for our customers when they buy our bulls and females. Here are just some key elements and action items we take to abate risk to our business and our customers. HEIFER DEVELOPMENT: At weaning we make our first cull, vaccinate and send heifers to the best ground and forage available, which is the Tombigbee River bottom at Cow Creek Ranch near Aliceville, Alabama. Under the watchful eye of Joy and Brice Allsup, heifers are developed to reach target weights to breed at one year of age. Heifers are weighed often and unsatisfactory performers are culled. As yearlings, heifers are bred by artificial insemination. A pasture bull goes in seven days later. Heifers that do not breed in a 60-day period are culled. We expect heifers to calve in a 60-day
period, then, breed back to calve as three-yearolds. Opens are culled and bred three-year-olds come back to TCF, and at four years of age they join the main cowherd. The risk of passing on infertility to future generations of bulls and heifers is significantly abated in this system. BULL DEVELOPMENT: After strict culling for feet and legs, structure, disposition and performance, our weaned bull calves go to our 600-acre bull development facility. The facility is divided into 12 pastures that provide plenty of forage so grazing habits of weaned bulls are never broken as it is with “dry lot” development. Our feed ration is based on Sumrall Bermuda grass baleage, brewers’ grain, soyhull pellets and minerals. From weaning to a year of age, 12.5% corn is added to ration. At yearling time, corn comes out of ration. Bulls are weighed monthly to keep on target for proper development. Our bulls are fit and ready to breed at sale time. Risk of bulls falling apart after the sale is significantly abated by these practices. MATURE COW MANAGEMENT: Managing our mature cows starts with a stringent culling system to abate risk of passing on undesirable traits to our buyers. We cull all open cows and cows that don’t bring calves to weaning pens. Cows are culled on disposition, feet and legs, udders and structure. HERD HEALTH: At weaning, blood and fecal samples are taken from every female for Johnes and Anaplasmosis testing. Johne’s disease is widely present in seedstock cowherds throughout the country. In 2007, with support from Mississippi State University Veterinarian School, we put in place a program to eradicate Johne’s from our cowherd. Fecal samples are tested by “PCR” DNA tests and ELISA serum tests blood. With a positive result, the cow and calf are culled from the herd. We’ve virtually eliminated Johne’s from our cowherd and guarantee our bulls to be Johne’s free. Johne’s can rarely be detected in bulls younger than 36 months of age, so testing dams at weaning greatly abates health risks to our buyer’s herds. We never reuse needles, subcutaneously or intramuscular, which greatly reduces risk of disease transmission among animals and contamination of vaccine bottles. Needles are cheap and they deliver expensive vaccines. FORAGE AND BALEAGE: We take advantage of our geography and soil type to grow winter Fescue and Ryegrass, and summer Bermuda grass, which provides abundant forage year around. When I bought the ranch in 1993, Fescue covered every inch of ground. Over time, with great effort and innovation by our farm manager, Jim Brown, we have converted nearly half our ground to Sumrall Bermuda for grazing, baleage and dry hay. Sumrall Bermuda produces excellent baleage with near perfect protein content for bull development. Forage development on the ranch has taught me that if we can see gifts the natural world provides, and take advantage of them, we can abate some of the risks nature delivers.