Namminga Angus is a diversified farming/ranching operation located in southeastern South Dakota on the Missouri River breaks. The original farm/ranch was homesteaded in 1873. This five-generation operation has been raising commercial black Angus cattle, and the crops needed to supply feedstuffs, for more than 100 years. Dennis and Maxine Namminga, their son Mark, his wife, Kelly, and children, Riley and Kristen are owner/operators. Two hundred Angus cows start calving in mid-March. Replacement heifers are synchronized, and AI-bred to calve one heat cycle before the cows. Young cows are AI-bred for 30 days before being turned out with clean-up bulls. Steer and heifer calves not kept as replacements are put on feed and sold on high quality value-based marketing grids. Birth, weaning, and yearling weights are taken. Complete carcass data has been collected for 10 years.
Native grass pastures (1,300 acres) provide grazing during the summer and fall while corn stalks serve as a low cost forage source until calving in the spring. Supplementation with alfalfa hay usually starts 60 to 90 days prior to calving, depending on weather conditions. Corn, soybeans, alfalfa and tame and native grass hay are grown on 1,000 acres of both irrigated and non-irrigated farmland.
