July 22, 2010 - Five years ago, Richard and Marsha Rhodes of Broken Oak Farm retired from life in the fast lane and returned to Richard's roots in the cattle industry.
They set out to be the best seed-stock producers of Maine Anjou in East Texas, and thus far have already proven their stock both as a replacement heifer and bull producer, as well as the place to go for a show heifer or steer, all thanks to some heavy, educated culling.
"We cull for a lot of reasons. Because a lot of these cows go to kids to be in the show ring, disposition is a big issue, so we look at disposition," Richard explained.
In addition to disposition, cattle at the ranch are also culled based on conformation and production statistics. The process begins the day the cattle are born.
"From the time one of the hits the ground, our first look at culling probably comes based on birth rate," Richard said. "We can make some determinations right then. If we got one that is on the ground at 100-plus pounds, then he is not going to be a bull you know, we don't want them putting that kind of birth weight on the ground.
"So there is a decision made at that point, then probably the next decision comes when we bring them up for their first set of vaccinations," he continued. "We look at them again, and then our next decision point after that is when we do the second set of evaluations at weaning. Then we are separating them off into the ones that we are going to try to sell to the steer show market, the heifer show market, the ones that we are looking to keep for replacement heifers.
"So there are three sets of evaluations in the first six months -- of course the cows are under constant evaluation. If they have a calf, the calf needs to conform to what we are looking for. So, it is a constant culling operation, there is probably four to six evaluations a year on calves, and probably two evaluations on cows."
In order to keep the high quality they require to be a seed-stock producer, the husband and wife team work their cattle daily and keep close track of their herd's statistics.
"It is pretty management-intensive because of what we are trying to do," Richard said. "Our cattle have to perform at the farm, if they are going out as replacement heifers, they have to perform in the show ring or we don't stay in that business and they have to perform as replacement stock."
Staying in the seed-stock business, they have to ensure heifers are marketable, meet not only their standards but those of other producers.
"They have to be what people are looking for to bring into their herd," Richard added. "So we look for a nice moderate-framed, productive cow that milks well -- that is what we are trying to produce. And they have to have that look that they like in the show ring, and unfortunately that changes over time, so we kind of constantly have to adapt to that and the show heifers have to have a different look than the steers do."
To keep up with the demand for high quality genetics, the Rhodes utilize artificial insemination, clean up bulls, as well as utilizing their highest quality cows through recipient cows.
"We have a few donor cows out here," he said. "A recipient cow, she is like a surrogate mom, she is a common cow and we take the embryo from the donor cow put it in the recip cow -- momma is too nice. She has everything we want in a cow and we want more than one calf out of her a year."
When it comes to the consideration of their heifers, they have some guidelines that their ladies must meet.
"We want them to be productive, we want them to have a calf every year, and we want them to breed back," he said. "We want them to be moderate-framed, easy fleshing, they gotta be stout and well-made, but we don't want them to be masculine. We want them to milk, we want them to feed those calves with out being fed a lot of supplements.
"It is the same thing they are looking for throughout the cattle industry," Richard said. "But what we are looking for is the ones that put that little bit of extra look in a calf that allows you to sell them to the show market. So they have to be productive, they have to have all the production characteristics of a beef cow, but the look they are looking for in the show ring. It is a tough road to walk -- not many of them make it. You have to cull pretty heavily to keep what you are looking for."
Their bulls must work equally hard to prove themselves, putting that extra look on the calves. One of their younger bulls, Warrior, is proving to have the ability to do just that.
"He is not common looking at all," Richard said. "He looks like you could just throw him up in the barn and hit him with a little bit of feed and put him back in the show ring and he maintains that. A lot of bulls look good when they are young, and as they get older they get more common looking -- he retains that look and that is what we are looking for, and of course we want him to throw calves. We want them to carry that look."
To find out more about the program at Broken Oak Farm visit www.brokenoakfarm.com.
