We believe that seedstock producers should create genetics that generate profit in the beef industry. To do so, we must produce genetics that put beef on the table that consumers enjoy and want to eat again.
We must also be creating genetics which cause the commercial beef producer fewer problems and with which they can efficiently produce high quality beef. We believe that, in addition to low to moderate birth weight and real calving ease, genetics must provide great growth through slaughter. But there is far more. Cattle must be efficient - both in the pasture and in the feedlot - especially as we see four dollar corn. Cattle must have excellent carcass merit - large ribeyes AND high marbling! But ribeye and marbling must be coupled with tenderness! For true efficiency, longevity and fertility must have been bred in for many generations. And disposition is important. Research is showing that it is important for more than just the safety of those that work with the cattle.
Our cattle are raised under conditions that commercial cattlemen would think of as "practical." No fancy outfit here. Nor are our cattle pampered. Nor is failure to perform tolerated.
A long time ago now, as I was just starting into cattle, I had gotten some cows whose hooves grew long-toed. I called my mentor in the business, asking who he used to trim hooves. His instant reply was, "The Loganville Meat Market." It took a moment for me to grasp what he meant, but the lesson was learned. It has proven to be a critically important lesson. It is a lesson that has been used consistently and aggressively throughout the thirty plus years we have raised Herefords.
Fewer Problems
The trip to the meat market has been our solution to several traps we found along the way besides the foot trim. When we started in the business in 1973, prolapse was all too common among Herefords. It seemed like we had more than our share. Our vet at the time was not slow in making his comment, "Every female that prolapses needs to go to slaughter! No exceptions! No excuses! But if you want to be serious about producing seed stock, you will also ship the dam of the prolapsing cow, all of her daughters, and all of her siblings!"
Whew!
We followed his advice.
Cancer eye also used to be an issue among Herefords. We saw a bit of it, although it was never the problem that prolapse was for us. But the solution was the same.
If you are wondering if we kept the Loganville Meat Market busy, the answer, all too sadly, is "Yes!" - for a few years.
But gradually, we saw no more of the problems.
Over-reaction, as some would say? Probably! We undoubtedly shipped some good cows, but we kept the great ones.
Today we can say that no hoof has ever been trimmed and we have seen no cancer eye for more than two decades. Prolapse, yes, one prolapse in 18 years and she, her dam and all daughters and siblings went on the short ride to slaughter.
Calving Ease and Low to Moderate Birth Weights
Again, when we started in the business, we got up every two hours throughout the all-to-long heifer calving period. We had to. We had learned to expect that nearly half of all heifers would need some assistance with calving.
Oh, god, I'm glad those days are over!
Along the way we took pelvic measurements and utilized other techniques, but the key was definitely finding the genetics that provided the growth-through-slaughter that we need to have to make a profit, while holding down the birth weights. The advent of the Calving Ease EPD was really important, because while birth weight certainly affects calving ease, there is more to it than that. Again, with thirty years of consistent effort, we now have the genetics which has really minimized the need to assist. It does occur, but almost always it is a case of a bad calf presentation.
We are not dogmatic about low-birth weight. Different programs can definitely have different goals and targets. The size and age of the cow certainly matters as does the environment and the feeding program. Clearly there are situations where heavy BW bulls might work just fine.
But they are NOT necessary. Not anymore.
Calving Ease and Low Birth Weight does not have to mean Slow or Low Growth.
Growth-Through-Slaughter
In today's market, for most commercial cattlemen, this is what makes for profit or loss! Everything else comes second. No argument here.
We learned that lesson a long time ago, back when we ran a couple hundred commercial cows. Our first set of steers we weighed back in the beginning weighed in just below 350 (and that was the adjusted 205-day weights). We now average better than 600#, consistently. We learned the lesson.
But we learned a couple of other lessons. First, growth-through-slaughter means just that. It does not mean that large mature size is required! Second, while birth weight is correlated with weaning weights, yearling weights and mature size, it is quite possible to breed cattle that do not fit that general pattern. We believe strongly that there are moderate framed cattle with low-to-moderate birth weights and excellent calving ease that absolutely excel in growth-through slaughter. We'll address this more later, when discussing efficiency, but, for now, it is enough to say that you can have it both ways!
Growing and feeding programs vary from farm to farm and region to region. We are in a region where forage is plentiful and rainfall is quite substantial. Our genetics, if utilized for rapid growth, can produce 1,250# steers in approximately 12 months. That is growth-through-slaughter.
Excel in Carcass Traits
We believe that this topic is so important, we have dedicated an entire section of this web site to a more through discussion of the topic. But, briefly, we believe that this will become a huge factor in producing profit or loss in the beef industry. It is no secret, beef has a problem that has been getting more and more severe inconsistent quality, particularly tough, tasteless meat.
If we want to lose market share to other meats, all we need to do is keep producing what we have been.
Just as Herefords earned a reputation for prolapse and cancer eye, they were not known for particularly great carcasses either. Genetic selection had reduced the size of the ribeyes and marbling was not a strong suit. Even the tenderness, which had been the hallmark of the Hereford for hundreds of years, was drawn into question.
Well, today you have a different kind of Hereford available.
Ribeye:
There is no reason for Hereford breeders or commercial cattlemen using Hereford genetics to worry about ribeyes that are too small. In fact, as a breed, we need to make sure that we don't get them too big to fit the box.
Whether it is data from the Certified Hereford Beef program or from the Meat Animal Research Center (MARC) at Clay Center, NE or research at Colorado State University or other universities around the world, the results are uniform, the typical Hereford now has more than adequate ribeye size.
But our cattle at Ramer's Herefords are not typical. Our senior herd sire, Feltons MO 612, has a ribeye of +0.29 compared to the breed average of +.24.
Careful to not get them too large, we do insist that our cattle achieve a standardized ribeye measurement of 1.0 - 1.25"/hundred #. In other words, that 1,200# steer would conveniently "fit the box" with a ribeye of 12 - 15".
Marbling:
Herefords have not been known for excellent marbling. That may be one reason why Herefords lost market share in the last thirty years.
We believe new consumer dietary practices and new meat quality and consumer preference research like that being done at Colorado State University, may well lead to reductions in the importance of marbling in the value systems of the meat industry. However, in the present, the fact is Marbling PAYS.
If you need proof that we at RAMER'S HEREFORDS value marbling highly, just check the EPDs of our cattle. The breed average EPD for IMF is 0.00, our cow herd average is +.05, our yearling heifers average +.11 (which would, for an individual animal would put her in the top 10% of the bred) and our senior herd sire is an amazing +.23.
More importantly, check the EPDs for our females, strong in both ribeye and marbling for as many as three generations! That means, consistency bred in.
In other words, you can have BOTH appropriate sized ribeyes AND high marbling.
For commercial cattlemen, you can have the extra 15% of growth that comes from cross breeding without giving up the marbling you associate with the Angus breed.
Carcass data for every bull and every retained female in the RAMER's HEREFORDs herd has been collected at a year of age. Insufficient marbling, as much as insufficient growth or insufficient testicle size, would element a bull or a heifer from our program.
The yearlings we tested last year ranged from 3.19% IMF to over 5% IMF. We expect better every year.
Tenderness:
While we believe that the future may see the importance of marbling diminish, we expect tenderness to only become more important. This belief is reinforced by the consumer who doesn't like that "fat." It is furthered by the price of corn as it goes over $4/ bushel.
You don't have to be a believer in "grass-fed beef" to see a future where corn will play less of a role in beef production. That day might already be here.
It is interesting that research has recently been confirming what was known on the range and in the feedlots for a few hundred years. Hereford beef is tender. There is none better.
Consumer research also confirms that the tenderness of a piece of beef is the number one determinant of consumer satisfaction.
Imagine our joy when we got the results back from Bovigen that our senior herd sire, Felton's Mo 612, has one of the 6 highest scores for Tenderness reported so far for any Hereford. His 4 Stars for tenderness on the GeneSTAR© panel adds another huge plus to our program.
But we are not relying just on MO to move us forward on this important trait. All of our breeding selections are being actively affected by the importance we place on tenderness.
Longevity
Many registered Hereford breeders chase the fad genetics of the show ring. We do not.
Many other registered breeders believe in "turning" their cow-herd as rapidly as possible. We do not.
We like the proof of cow longevity that a sixteen year old female can give you. Strong udder. Small tight teats Calf on time every year. No hoof problems. No prolapse. High indexing calf at weaning. These are the traits that we prize most highly.
Most of the cows in our herd are from cow families that have been with us for 5 to eight generations. They are proven. They are consistent. They perform year after year.
They are good enough that it takes one hell of a good replacement female to fight her way into the herd.
And yes, we sell some awfully good females! But we have kept many of the great ones!
Efficiency
Efficiency comes from a lot of things. Certainly, as discussed above, the consistency of selection and culling practices helps breed in traits that are crucial to economic efficiency of the cow herd.
We recently visited a large commercial beef operation where cow life was only about 5 years. To say the least, they were paying a dear price in female development costs for such a poor record in longevity.
But the efficiency that is researched a lot today is the historical efficiency of the Hereford. For hundreds of years, the Hereford cow was known as the supremely efficient beef animal and the Hereford steer or the black baldie was known as the champion for feed efficiency in the feed lot.
Current research is proving that those perceptions had sound facts behind them. Herefords, it turns out, do have an advantage that really pays off in the pasture, in wintering costs and most importantly, in the feed lot.
But again, there are differences within the Hereford breed. We are doing all we can to assure ourselves and our customers that RAMER's HEREFORDS cattle excel in these important traits.
This winter, we are participating in the feed efficiency and RFI test being conducted at the University of Wisconsin facilities at Arlington, WI.
Our genetics will also be evaluated for feed efficiency and RFI as part of the American Hereford Association's National Reference Sire Test which was started in the summer of 2006 at Amana Farms.
We will keep you posted on the results as they come in. More importantly, you know that we will be using the data gained to make selection and culling decisions in the future.
By now we figure you appreciate that we will continue to use every technique, every technology that becomes available to continue to assure our customers an optimal product.
One last word on efficiency - Heterosis! We, of course, can not take advantage of the extra 15% gains that can be achieved by the commercial cattleman using a structured cross-breeding program. But our commercial customers sure do.
The key word there is "structured." Unfortunately what we see today, is not that, rather what we see is the mongrelization of the cow herd in the US. They are mostly black, but black what?
Much is being said today about the need to return to the disciplined approach to cross-breeding we all know leads to profits. As our section "Why Herefords" discusses, there is strong evidence that Herefords are ideally situated to be the breed that delivers that extra profit. To read more, click here.
Calm Disposition
While visiting another large commercial operation recently, I was surprised to hear the herdsman say that along with longevity the disposition of the Hereford brought a lot to the table that they wanted.
I mean, I know that calm dispositions are important to us. It was a major factor back when I ran commercial cows. I mean, safety means something when it is your family that might be hurt.
But an operation with thousands of cows?
It didn't take long for that herdsman to set me straight. Whether it was the repair needed to chutes and facilities, the time it took to work the cattle, the risk of injury to his workers or himself or visitors, disposition mattered and it mattered a LOT.
It turns out that they had another reason - they feed out their own cattle. They are convinced, and plenty of research supports their finding - cattle with calm dispositions simply gain better and tend to have higher quality carcasses.
Heck, I'll take that! Need I say more?
Structurally Correct and Pleasing to the Eye
I must admit, when I first started in the cattle business, I didn't get it. I was from a business background. "The numbers" mattered, but form? I mean, after all, doesn't "form follow function".
Nope, not necessarily!
Clearly structural correctness effects longevity and is therefore important in that regard. But that is just the beginning.
We are clearly "production" oriented rather than "show ring" oriented. But this is NOT "Either/Or."
Our cattle MUST be productive, but they must also be correct and pleasing to the eye.
It affects my ability to sell my product. It affects the pride I feel as I watch the animals in the pasture. And both of those are really important to us.
We used to hear of breeder's who had "front pasture" and "back pasture" cows. The ones that looked good out by the road, and those that really "produced" out in the back forty.
Not at RAMERs.
And the reason is more than philosophy - we just don't think it works!
It's like the seedstock producer whose cows were all bred by somebody else. Does that make sense to you?
Backed by Thirty Years of Data
Maybe I'm lucky, but the older I get, the more I appreciate what you gain from having been around a while. One of the things we have gained is all the insights from having been measuring and reporting our performance data since 1973!
When I go to buy genetics, I like to look back several generations to see what the animals in that pedigree have done or what they have failed to do.
When I started with Herefords we simply did not have such data to access. Breeder reputation was almost all you had. That and show ring results. And marketing programs.
Glad we are no longer dealing with those fables.
Now that so much data is available at the American Hereford Association web site, anyone can do good due diligence. It is now easy to go back generation after generation.
But there is still more, however, and good breeders are more than eager to share the full information with anyone who wants it.
Of course there are some breeders who do not collect the data. There are those that believe that such information is all nonsense. But in my opinion these are cattle breeders not seedstock producers. Some might even call them cattle multipliers, not even cattle breeders.
Breeders that can not provide data, complete data, on their cattle, to me, represent the seriousness with which they breed.
It is the same for breeders that can not explain their herd health programs or who have not gone to the expense to be able to say that they have tested for Johne's or other infectious diseases that might be in their area.
We at Ramer's Herefords are very proud to be able to display the American Hereford Associations's Gold TPR Breeder Logo. We strongly believe that it represents the seriousness with which we have undertaken the task of providing cattle the industry needs.
The Female Program at Ramer's Herefords
For even more detail about how female's are planned, selected, developed, tested and culled click here.
Our Guarantee
One of the things I remember about my father was something one of his employee's once told me about him, "His word is better than any contract."
In Scouting I learned about the importance of Honor.
In the Marine Corps, I learned more, a whole lot more, about the same.
But I learned the most from that.
Our cattle are Guaranteed. Period!