The Willis Family In picture, L to R: Wendy, Sam, Tim, Happy, Robin and Weston.
“For the past forty years the Willis Family at Roanoke Plantation has been using Knoll Crest Farm bulls on our farm. Through the years we have developed a wonderful relationship built upon trust and friendship with the Bennett family. They have advised as to what bulls would work well with our farm and shared their knowledge of the beef industry both locally and nationally. The Bennett family stands by their bulls guarantee. If there is a problem with a newly acquired bull i.e. soundness or disposition, they will help remedy the situation. They also listen and are interested in what their customers are doing and the feedback from them. They care. Throughout the years we have altered our goals and Knoll Crest Farm bulls have helped us attain those goals. We have found that the Knoll Crest Farm bulls have the genetic traits and bloodlines we look for: gentle disposition, moderate size frame with a deep chest and length, soundness, good maternal traits, calving ease, and longevity. They are local bulls accustomed to our environment. This type of animal is essential to our farm program. We are a family cow calf operation, which uses the mob grazing approach using single strand poly eclectic reels. During the summer the cattle are grazing summer grasses of Switchgrass, Johnson grass mixed with fescue and clover. Our end product is Natural beef. We are now introducing finishing our yearlings for local retail to our program. The Willis family at the Roanoke Plantation looks forward to many more years of buying bulls from Knoll Crest Farm and our close relationship with the Bennett Family.” -Robin Willis
“Knoll Crest bulls work for us because they are balanced, and in one package consistently hit our targets for maternal traits, growth traits, and carcass traits that both we and our customers value (commercial cow-calf producers, cattle feeders who get premiums for healthy, growthy cattle that grade well on the rail, and housewives who are cooking for their families). The catalog normally includes multiple bulls that are in the top 25% of the breed for all the key traits, and that match EPDs with performance. Add to the quality of the cattle the Knoll Crest warranty and you will see why practically all of our bulls begin at Red House.” Note from Shelton Miles, Aug. 15th 2013: “Shipped 54 GAP certified natural steers to buyers in Pennsylvania today, 38 on the heavy load and 16 on the light load. The heavies went to a multi-repeat buyer and according to the VCA fieldman and the LLsMkt manager probably set the price record for 700# feeder cattle in the US year to date. The whole group averaged 720 pounds and brought $177.75/cwt.”
River Bluff Farm Jody and Shelton Miles.
Bill and Claudia Tucker own and operate Tucker Family Farms in Amherst, Virginia where they market 200 performance-oriented commercial replacement heifers annually. Bill utilizes Angus, Red Angus and Gelbvieh genetics in his herd, and calves 600 cows every year. Bill is a dynamo cattlemen, and great friend of the Bennett family.
Tucker Family Farms Claudia and Bill Tucker
“Paul and I continue to challenge every breeding decision, constantly adjusting our thinking as new information becomes available. Every phone call is rooted in “what can we learn?”. That’s what we want in business, family, and friendship for generations to come. We have challenged each other’s thinking, pushed each other to be better, and always tried to honor the privilege that our family has given us to build on the past and be trusted with the future. I have been blessed in my life to count James and Barbara as close friends, confidants, and in James’ case a business mentor that has pushed me to the possible.” -Bill Tucker
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