Anderson Land & Cattle | Tom Bengard Ranches
Joe Davis Cattle Farm | Freedom Hills Ranch
JHL Ranch | Gale Rippey Farms
Slusher Valley Farms | Stephens Farm
Anderson Land & Cattle
Owner: Gayle Carlson, Oberlin, Kan.
Anderson Land & Cattle Inc. is a family-owned and -operated cow-calf, feeding and no-till farming operation located near Oberlin, Kan., in Rawlins County. Dennis Anderson assumed the cattle-raising responsibilities from his parents upon graduating college in 1975. His passion was to improve all aspects of the commercial and purebred Simmental cow herds using as much new technology as he could implement.
Dennis and Gayle were married in 1978 and worked together until his death from cancer in 1996. Now in its fifth generation of ownership, the Andersons’ two sons, Jason and Clay, are beginning to take the reins of the operation.
Artificial insemination (AI) has been employed on the ranch for 30 years, using synchronization protocols on 30-40 heifers and 200 mature cows annually. While building a purebred Simmental herd in the 1980s, bulls and replacement heifers were sold through state association sales, bull test stations and private treaty. Upon Dennis’s passing in 1996, Gayle made the decision to discontinue the purebred business and, with the same base cow herd, concentrate on raising commercial cattle that would perform in all areas. Red Angus breeding was introduced in 1998. This breed combination of Simmental and Red Angus works best for their program.
Cattle not retained as replacement females or sale bulls are finished in their feedlot, with all carcass data being collected. Total herd balance is stressed in the operation, from herd health to maternal performance to feedlot efficiency and carcass quality. Since 1996, the operation has become very family-oriented, with all members contributing to the daily duties, including feeding, calving, heat detection, AI work, pasture maintenance, and planting and harvesting crops. It is their goal to maintain and build on the profitability of this cattle and farming operation so it may be passed down to future generations.
Anderson Land & Cattle is nominated by the Kansas Livestock Association.
Anderson Land & Cattle | Tom Bengard Ranches
Joe Davis Cattle Farm | Freedom Hills Ranch
JHL Ranch | Gale Rippey Farms
Slusher Valley Farms | Stephens Farm
Tom Bengard Ranches
Owners: Tom and Terry Bengard, Salinas, Calif.
Tom Bengard Ranches own cattle in 16 different locations throughout California and southern Oregon. Due to the mild Mediterranean-like climate, cattle are wintered on annual rangeland and summered on valley irrigated pasture and mountain meadows. All cattle hauling is done by the ranch itself to maximize efficiency and limit exposure to outside cattle. In the last seven years, intensive forage management has increased forage utilization to the point that, except for a single severe drought year, no forage/hay nutritional supplement has been given.
The ranch is a cow-calf operation that retains weaned calves through yearlings. The ranch currently includes 1,800 individually identified Angus mother cows in a closed herd with only bulls purchased from top Angus breeders. The ranch annually retains 400 replacement heifers that are bred within a 60-day breeding season. Yearlings are marketed in two groups with individual identification (ID) remaining through harvest. The first group is marketed in the fall at 15 months of age, with steers weighing an average of 850 pounds (lb.) and heifers weighing 750 lb. The second group is held over to the following spring.
Yearlings are marketed for natural beef programs through multiple avenues, including alliances where meat is sold in high-end retail outlets and restaurants and through video sales. Special orders can also be made and shipped direct through online purchasing options. Carcass quality and yield, as well as feedlot data, are collected and returned for performance and price incentive evaluation.
Tom Bengard Ranches is nominated by the California Beef Cattle Improvement Association.
Anderson Land & Cattle | Tom Bengard Ranches
Joe Davis Cattle Farm | Freedom Hills Ranch
JHL Ranch | Gale Rippey Farms
Slusher Valley Farms | Stephens Farm
Joe Davis Cattle Farm
Owner: Joe Davis, Westminster, S.C.
The Joe Davis Cattle Farm is located in the foothills of northwest South Carolina near Westminster. The operation consists of six locations within a three-mile radius. Of those, five are owned and one is leased. The operation consists of 280 acres of pasture with the balance in timber. Cattle production has been a part of the Davis operation for 34 years (1976-2009), with Davis’s father managing cattle on it for the 10 years prior.
In 2001, Davis made a strategic business decision to expand the cow-calf enterprise and make it a critical component of his overall business plan. Since then he has implemented a strict two-breed crossbreeding system using Angus and Brangus breeds.
Cattle are intensively grazed year-round with the goal of feeding little to no hay. Replacement heifers, as well as first- and second-calf cows, are supplemented with corn gluten.
Due to pasture sizes, they have the capability to maintain single-sire breeding groups. All cattle are individually identified, providing the basis for documentation of individual animal performance that is the foundation for management decisions.
Since 2002, Davis has retained interest through the feeding phase, except for one year due to marketing decisions. Individual feeding and harvest data is linked back to the animal and its sire and dam. Strict use of all on-ranch, feeding and harvest data is extensively evaluated and used in herd culling decisions, selection of replacement females, calves to go to the feedlot and those calves to be sold at local auction.
The Joe Davis Cattle Farm is nominated by Midwest MicroSystems.
Anderson Land & Cattle | Tom Bengard Ranches
Joe Davis Cattle Farm | Freedom Hills Ranch
JHL Ranch | Gale Rippey Farms
Slusher Valley Farms | Stephens Farm
Freedom Hills Ranch
Owners: Jack Kruesi and Starr Weekes, Mount Carroll, Ill.
Freedom Hills Ranch is located 10 miles north of Mount Carroll in northwestern Illinois, just 20 miles east of the Mississippi River. It encompasses 2,800 contiguous acres, of which 1,400 is permanent pasture and the rest is used for raising row crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa. Accumulation of the acreage began in 1970 by the John Kruesi family from Tennessee. Most of the land was purchased during a period of 25 years from area farmers. Ten years ago an equitable agreement was made between Randall and Jane Adolph and Michael and Nancy Adolph, and they assumed operator responsibilities of Freedom Hills Ranch Jan. 1, 1999.
The cow herd consists of 150 purebred Red Angus cows and 500 commercial cows that are all bred to purebred Red Angus bulls. The calving season starts Jan. 1, with the purebred cows calving in January and February and the commercial cows calving in March and April. All cows are done calving by May 1.
The calves are marketed through different avenues, with most calves being sold privately at approximately 800 lb. in December each year. All cows are tested by ear notch for bovine viral diarrhea persistent infection (BVD PI), including replacement females that are purchased, thus ensuring the herd is BVD PI free.
In the past, replacement heifers had been purchased rather than raised, but with the incorporation of the purebred Red Angus cow herd in 2006, replacement heifers are now retained from within the herd.
In 2001, an electronic identification (eID) system was implemented in the herd. Each cow is tagged two ways — with an electronic button and a visual tag. Calves, which are tagged with a visual tag at birth, are tagged with an electronic button the first time they go through the chute. All calves are sold as age- and source-verified.
Freedom Hills Ranch is nominated by the Illinois Beef Improvement Association.
Anderson Land & Cattle | Tom Bengard Ranches
Joe Davis Cattle Farm | Freedom Hills Ranch
JHL Ranch | Gale Rippey Farms
Slusher Valley Farms | Stephens Farm
JHL Ranch
Owners: Art and Merry Brownlee, Ashby, Neb.
The JHL Ranch is owned and operated by Art and Merry Brownlee, of Ashby, Neb. It is located in the Nebraska Sandhills, a semi-arid region of grass-covered sand dunes. In spite of normally receiving only 12-14 inches (in.) of moisture a year and being in the midst of an eight-year drought, it is located over the deepest part of the largest aquifer in the United States.
The family’s cattle have been roaming the Sandhills since 1885. Art and Merry took the reins in 1995 and with them came the opportunity to apply research and analysis principles to ranching. Complete tracking and analysis of two end products — replacement females and carcass merit — have driven the operation since then. These actions have been made possible by the computer-based use of DNA, ultrasound, linear measurement and expected progeny difference (EPD) technologies.
The secondary factory consists of 1,300-1,400 Angus- and Braunvieh-cross cows utilizing the primary factory of 80 paddocks in an intensively managed rotational grazing system on approximately 30,000 acres. Calving season is late spring. Most of the herd is bred by AI in June, followed by cleanup bulls.
Weaning is begun at about 150 days. The calves are backgrounded and supplemented on grass at the ranch, then custom-fed with ownership retained to the rail. Marketing of USDA source- and age-verifiable product has occurred since 1994.
In 2009, after 18 years of tracking, verifying and incorporating the progeny, the original Braunvieh seedstock herd in the United States was purchased.
JHL Ranch is nominated by the Nebraska Cattlemen and the Braunvieh Association of America.
Anderson Land & Cattle | Tom Bengard Ranches
Joe Davis Cattle Farm | Freedom Hills Ranch
JHL Ranch | Gale Rippey Farms
Slusher Valley Farms | Stephens Farm
Gale Rippey Farms
Owner: Gale Rippey, Galax, Va.
Gale Rippey Farms is located in the mountains of southwest Virginia and is owned and operated by Gale Rippey. The farm has been in the commercial cattle business for 20 years. Gale and his wife, Gena, along with one full-time employee manage 200 cow-calf pairs and background 600 stocker calves on 1,150 acres of owned and leased land. A portion of that land is also used as part of the farm’s haying operation.
Rippey utilizes Gelbvieh and Balancer genetics on a British-based cow herd of Angus and Angus-Hereford females. Rippey calves all cows in the fall and weans in August with the goal of an 800-lb. steer calf, taking advantage of summer forage while calves are still on the cow. Weaning heavy calves in that time period provides a marketing advantage and fit with today’s high feed costs, bigger-in-weight and shorter feeding period goals of the cattle-feeding industry. The reputation of his calves and cow herd not only give him an extra premium at the feedyard, but has also helped him develop a niche market for very high-quality females.
Gale Rippey Farms is nominated by the American Gelbvieh Association.
Anderson Land & Cattle | Tom Bengard Ranches
Joe Davis Cattle Farm | Freedom Hills Ranch
JHL Ranch | Gale Rippey Farms
Slusher Valley Farms | Stephens Farm
Slusher Valley Farms
Owners: Terry and Katie Slusher, Floyd, Va.
Slusher Valley Farms is located in Floyd County in the southwest portion of Virginia. They are in the Blue Ridge Mountains at an elevation of approximately 2,700 feet (ft.). The original 110 acres has been in their family since 1892.
Terry and Katie are the fourth generation to farm this land. They started by purchasing his grandfather’s share of the cattle (27 cows) in 1980. The first few years, Terry worked with his father, trading labor for equipment and feed. By the early 1990s they had bought out his father’s cattle and equipment and had increased the cow herd to approximately 100 cows. Today the herd consists of 140 fall-calving commercial cows, 45 commercial replacement heifers, and 20 registered spring-calving Polled Hereford cows.
They own 110 acres and lease another 500 acres. Synchronization and AI are used on all cows and heifers. They retain ownership through the feedlot stage on all the steers and the bottom heifer calves. Their commercial cow herd is Angus-based, and they use Angus, Hereford, SimAngus and Simmental bulls. They try to keep their calves 50%-75% Angus. By doing this, it enables them to maintain hybrid vigor and have steer calves that average more than 93% Choice and 46% Certified Angus Beef® (CAB®).
Slusher Valley Farms is nominated by the Virginia Beef Cattle Improvement Association.
Anderson Land & Cattle | Tom Bengard Ranches
Joe Davis Cattle Farm | Freedom Hills Ranch
JHL Ranch | Gale Rippey Farms
Slusher Valley Farms | Stephens Farm
Stephens Farm
Owners: Donny and Pat Stephens, Marion Junction, Ala.
Stephens Farm has been producing beef cattle since 1957 and is currently owned and managed by Donny and Pat Stephens. Recently, due to urban encroachment, the family moved the cattle operation to Browns in west Alabama, where it has been located for five years. At present, the herd consists of 122 Angus and SimAngus-cross cows grazing 500 acres of pasture and with areas of planted trees for wildlife and shade. The 90-day, fall calving season begins in September and lasts through November. Last year, 93% of the cows calved in the first 63 days.
Seventy open replacement heifers are developed yearly, half being retained from the herd, with the remainder being purchased at Alabama Beef Cattle Improvement Association (BCIA) sales to maintain quality as the herd continues to grow. Feeder calves are marketed each July in the Alabama Feeder Calf Marketing Association teleauction. Vaccination history, negative status of BVD, management practices, and Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) certification are supplied to potential buyers. Stephens Farm also participates in the Alabama Beef Connection and the Southeastern Livestock Network for process verification. Replacement heifers failing to breed and cull feeder steers are fed out on the farm in the “Stephens Farm Freezer Beef Program” started by Donny’s father in the early 1980s.
Short-term goals are to improve marbling in the cow herd utilizing AI. Selection for AI sires with more predictability is the target, which means selection of older bulls with higher-accuracy EPDs. In selecting younger yearling and 2-year-old bulls for clean-up sires, bulls are only purchased from seedstock providers who provide complete performance and carcass data. The long-term goal is to have cows that will produce feeder calves that will grade 90% Choice or better with no yield grade (YG) 4s or 5s and yield carcasses with more than a 750-lb. carcass weight.
Stephens Farm is nominated by the Alabama BCIA.
Anderson Land & Cattle | Tom Bengard Ranches
Joe Davis Cattle Farm | Freedom Hills Ranch
JHL Ranch | Gale Rippey Farms
Slusher Valley Farms | Stephens Farm
