Cattlemen team up to better manage operations

By JULIET BRISKIN | Central Texas Edition

One of the Buelingo cows at the Five Eagle Ranch in Caldwell takes a moment to check out the crowd. -Staff photo by Briskin

May 23, 2002 -- Norman Eagleton's Five Eagle Ranch in Caldwell was the site of the Burleson County beef and forage tour on May 16. Eagleton took the group on a brief tour of the ranch and provided information about the Buelingo beef cow.

According to Eagleton the Buelingo breed was started in North Dakota by Russell Bueling. Eagleton purchased his first Buelingo bull in 1991 for use in the 1992 breeding season. His herd was developed by breeding the Buelingo bull with Brangus cows.

"We got into this mainly because we liked the looks of them," ex-plained Eagleton. "But then I found that they grade better than the Brangus in particular."

He now uses his herd for replacement heifers or first-calf heifers.

Eagleton's Buelingos do qualify for Certified Angus Beef because they are over 50 percent black.

Following the walking tour of the ranch, Dr. Dennis Herd, Extension beef cattle nutrition specialist, addressed participants on the Beef PEP Program (Texas Beef Partnership and Extension Programs). "If we go back about 20 years ago to Idaho during a calf scours epidemic we can see the beginning of this program," he explained. "They learned real quick that no one guy had all the answers so they began putting teams of people together. The teams were made up of veterinarians, nutritionists and forage specialists."

Norman Eagleton, ranch owner, discusses the Buelingo breed with participants of the Burleson Co. Beef and Forage Tour at the Five Eagle Ranch. According to Eagleton the Buelingo's are a beef breed, the average carcass size is 786 pounds, they grade better than Brangus and were developed in North Dakota. -Staff photo by

Over the years the Idaho example served as a model for what is now know as the Texas Beef PEP program. According to Herd the goal of the program is to make sure everyone in the beef cattle industry is on the same wavelength. "The Texas program began about eight or nine years back and the original part of the program was to get veterinarians, county Extension agents and animal specialists together," explained Herd.

The program expanded to include information about the inner workings of the ranches in Texas including such things as economics, fertilizer programs, nutrition programs and agronomy. "As a result we chose 12 herds of cattle across Texas to study," explained Herd. "Pfizer contributed the money for us to come in and take forage analysis, perform blood work and analysis, and study the overall health of these herds."

According to Herd one of the things they have learned from the program is that operations across the state run into very similar problems. "But the big thing separating our profitable ranches were those ranches that held their costs down," he said. "It wasn't your weaning weights, your breeding program or the type of cattle you've got. Those things are important, but keeping costs down is the key."

Upon recognizing that across the board cost control was the greatest determining factor for success of cow/calf operations, the PEP program began implementing a program known as SPA on all the PEP ranches in Texas. The SPA program (Standardized Performance Analysis) is a standardized economic evaluation of cow/calf operations in the United States. "If it is SPA in Kentucky it is the same program as SPA in Texas," stated Herd.

What the ultimate goal of these programs explained Herd, is to be sure that Texas has the most efficient beef programs possible.