2013 Seedstock Award Nominees

The Beef Improvement Federation announces 2013 Seedstock Producer of the Year nominees.

Bradley 3 Ranch, Memphis, Texas

Owners/Managers: Mary Lou Bradley-Henderson, Minnie Lou Bradley and James Henderson

Bradley 3 Ranch was started in 1955 with the purchase of 20 registered Angus cows. Today the herd is one of the few Angus herds in the country that has maintained more than 200 registered Angus cows for more than 50 years.

Early on, the Bradleys were committed to a disciplined approach to performance. As one of the first members of the American Beef Cattle Performance Registry, they maintained an emphasis on performance that is still the foundation of the herd today.

Bradley 3 Ranch is home to 400 registered Angus cows and 35 registered Charolais cows. The Charolais cows were added in 2009 to offer customers a crossbreeding opportunity. All of the cows calve in a fall calving season. I years of normal moisture, the only supplemental feed is protein supplement. They do not creep feed.

The ranch is located in the southeast part of the Texas Panhandle. Much of the ranch is rough with canyons, draws, mesquite and cedar trees. To complicate matters, the natural water on the ranch is very “gypy” and makes it difficult to introduce new genetics.

In 1986, the Bradleys started B3R Country Meats. In the next 16 years, they built the all-natural meat company to a 125-head-per-day harvest facility that harvested more than 30,000 head in 2002, the year it was sold. Customers were both beef producers and beef consumers. The beef producers were part of one of the earliest value-based marketing systems in the United States.

The experience gained at B3R Country Meats lends to a strong emphasis on muscle in their cattle today.

For more information about Bradley 3 Ranch, visit www.bradley3ranch.com/.

Coyote Hills Ranch, Chattanooga, Okla.

Owners/Managers: Ken and Sue Ann Holloway

Coyote Hills Ranch of Chattanooga, Okla., is located in far southwest Oklahoma. The ranch has been owned and operated by Ken and Sue Ann Holloway and daughters Shari and Shana at this location for 41 years. The ranch consists of some 3,000 acres of largely native grass and improved grasses, with some 500 acres in cultivation, mostly wheat and sorghum for silage.

The cow herd is made up of 250 cows, mostly Limousin and Lim-Flex cows with several registered Angus cows. A majority of the cow herd calves in the fall (80%), and the balance calves in February and March.

It is a seedstock operation whose primary goal is production of bulls for the commercial rancher. From the start, Ken was interested in evaluating bulls on performance and so he started one of the first performance tests in the Limousin breed in 1971. Bulls are marketed through an annual March production sale, and females are sold in an annual April female sale. Bulls are also exhibited in The Yards at National Western Stock Show to promote the herd to commercial and seedstock producers alike.

Some heifers raised at Coyote Hills have gone on to win major shows across the country for juniors. The Holloways have always been champions of the junior program, in which both Shari and Shana were very successful. Coyote Hills Ranch continues to help young people today in showing and in marketing the offspring of their projects.

For more information about Coyote Hills Ranch, visit http://hallchr.com/.

Hunt Limousin Ranch, Oxford, Neb.

Owners: Charles and Nancy Hunt; Managers: Charles and Daniel Hunt

“Conserve the land for the future generations, keep current and knowledgeable on the leading cattle issues, high-quality cattle for a fair price, and treat people with honesty and integrity.”

The Charles Hunt Family operation began in the 1960s after Charlie attended the University of Nebraska. With a love for God, family, the land and cattle, Charlie and Nancy were ready for the opportunity to do what they enjoy.

The 4,500-acre diversified operation consists of dryland and irrigated corn, soybeans, alfalfa, wheat and grass land, which supports 300 cows, marketable bulls and replacement females. Genetics have been placed all over the globe, including Argentina, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and 37 U.S. states.

Bulls have been displayed at the National Western Stock Show for the past 30 years. The Hunts have attended many Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) symposiums, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) meetings and numerous other agricultural conferences.

Charlie has been the recipient of many awards, including the first-ever Commercial Marketing Supporter Award from the North American Limousin Foundation. One of the most prestigious awards was being inducted into the Nebraska Cattlemen’s Hall of Fame.

They have met some of their best friends in the cattle industry. Hunt Limousin Ranch has hosted tour groups and individuals from foreign countries who want to learn the “Hunt Way.”

Charlie and Nancy have four children. They are blessed with nine grandchildren who keep the sparkle in their eyes and a smile on their faces. Their family is always ready and willing to offer a helping hand.

One of their greatest honors is to have their son, Dan, follow in Charlie’s footsteps. It is a joy having Dan; his wife, Melinda; and their children living and working beside them, benefiting Hunt Limousin Ranch and the beef industry.

For more information about Hunt Limousin Ranch, visit www.huntlimousin.com.

Little Windy Hill Farms, Max Meadows, Va.

Owner/Manager: Doug Hughes

Little Windy Hill Farms, owned and operated by Doug and Sue Hughes and family, is located in the lush green hills of Southwest Virginia in the Blue Ridge Mountains near the town of Wytheville. Little Windy Hill has been breeding seedstock cattle for purebred and commercial cattlemen all their lives.

After being raised on a Polled Hereford operation and then having registered Charolais from the late 1970s until 1993, the Hughes family entered into the Gelbvieh seedstock business for the growth, maternal characteristics and black hide color the breed offered. As the Gelbvieh operation grew and demand for Gelbvieh Balancers increased, Angus were added to the operation, which currently consists of 125 fall-calving registered Gelbvieh, Balancer and Angus cows.

A whole-herd artificial insemination (AI) program was implemented, and prominent AI sires owned by Little Windy Hill are used as natural-service sires.

Little Windy Hill Farms hosts an annual on-farm bull sale each November and has participated in the Virginia Beef Cattle Improvement Association (BCIA) central bull test program since 1983. Elite seedstock are marketed through consignment sales, including the bull futurity at the National Western Stock Show, to which Doug has provided leadership, serving two terms as chairman.

Doug was also a founding member of the Virginia Gelbvieh Association, served as president of Virginia BCIA, and has been an active member of American Gelbvieh Association committees.

For more information about Little Windy Hill Farms, visit their most recent sale book, http://issuu.com/ddmarti/docs/lwhf_salecat2012.

Lyons Ranch, Manhattan, Kan.

Owners: Jan & Frank Lyons and Karl & Amy Langvardt; Manager: Jan Lyons

Lyons Ranch is an Angus seedstock operation located in the native Flint Hills of east-central Kansas and headquartered near Manhattan. The ranch is owned and operated by Jan and Frank Lyons and their daughter and son-in-law, Amy and Karl Langvardt, along with their sons, Tanner and Trey.

Jan grew up on an Angus farm in northeastern Ohio and always loved working around the cattle and showing steers and heifers in 4-H and local shows. She and Frank started Lyons Ranch in Manhattan in 1977. They currently calve 300 females each year between the two ranches. Jan and Frank manage the headquarters, and Amy and Karl manage the south ranch east of Alta Vista.

Their goal is to raise Angus cattle with emphasis on traits that determine profit for all segments of the beef industry. They don’t breed for extremes, but focus on the predictability of balanced traits, including fertility, calving ease, carcass value, performance and efficiency. AI; natural herd sires; and, to a lesser degree, embryo transfer (ET) are utilized in the breeding program.

Cow herd numbers are managed so they can relate on a personal level with their customers. Rather than hire additional personnel, they prefer to work one-on-one with customers, which has built a high level of trust over the years. They maintain the highest level of integrity in all dealings and interactions with customers and in the reporting of data. They provide customers with the up-to-date information about their cattle they need to be successful, including EPDs enhanced with DNA for higher accuracy.

Their first production sale was in the fall of 1984. They celebrated their 25th annual bull sale in March of this year. They are gratified that many of their customers return year after year and are proud to own Lyons Ranch bulls, which speaks to their commitment to customers and their focus on helping them achieve their programs’ goals.

Their motto is “Your Source for Superior Genetics.” Their mission is to produce predictable Angus genetics to meet the needs of their customers and to ultimately satisfy the eating demands of the consumer.

For more information about Lyons Ranch, visit www.lyonsranch.com/.

Murphy’s Angus, Illiopolis, Ill.

Owners/Managers: Francis Murphy, Kevin Murphy and Stephen Murphy

Murphy’s Angus is located in central Illinois and comprises parents Francis and Suzanne; Kevin, wife Rosemarie and son Alec; and Steve and wife Jackie. The purebred black-Angus cattle operation started as an outgrowth of Kevin and Steve’s 4-H youth steer projects. While the emphasis in the early years was to develop animals for the boys’ projects, that changed and the farm has since focused on raising performance cattle with an emphasis on raising bulls for the purebred and commercial cow-calf industry.

The cattle operation consists of approximately 20 brood cows, and all animals born on the farm are the result of AI or ET. Cows are synchronized for breeding to calve in winter. Calving starts in December and ends by March to allow time for bulls to be adequately developed for buyers.

Murphy’s Angus focuses on raising sound, functional calving-ease bulls that do not sacrifice performance, growth or carcass merit. All animals are weighed and scanned by ultrasound, with the data being processed through the Angus Herd Improvement Records (AHIR®) program. DNA testing has begun to be used to further assist in identifying elite individuals.

Bulls are sold through the Illinois Performance-tested Bull Sale and private treaty, with females being sold by private treaty.

Management-intensive grazing is utilized to maximize production from a 14-acre grass-legume pasture. A break wire is used so that cows and calves are grazed in 1.4-acre paddocks, which typically provides 30 days of growth between grazing. An additional small hayfield provides supplemental forage.

For more information about Murphy’s Angus Ranch, visit www.murphysangus.com/.

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