Maternal Gems Sale - Thank You!

 

Humbled, Honored, excited, overwhelmed, ecstatic are just a few words to describe how we feel about the 2^nd annual Maternal Gems Sale held Saturday May 8^th.  We work so very hard to produce cattle that check all the boxes for phenotype, genetics and performance.  I have wanted to post since the sale but with Mother’s Day and Gall Bladder surgery I am running a bit behind.  I had a wonderful Mother’s day and all I can say about Gall Bladder surgery is ouch.  We want to throw out a big thank you to the Adams family for all they do to make this event such a success!  You can’t find folks any nicer than the Adams I hope they know how much they are appreciated.  Mark Sims, Sims plus LLC does a great job managing this sale putting together the lots and then doing the auctioneering he.  The consignors are just awesome everyone works so well together and they dig deep to bring you the very best, this sale is going to develop a reputation for quality!  And the buyers, Thank you, Thank you Thank you!  A very special thank you goes out to the buyers of the Gizmo Angus Lots:

Lot 24 and Lot 25 - to Will Chapman of Limestone Genetics in Cub Run KY, I have not met Will as yet but look forward to making it to KY to see his operation.  Watch out for big things from this operation.

Lot 24A, 47 and 53 - Upchurch Brothers LLC, Lineville AL, Ronnie and I have known the Upchurch Family for many years.  We met Randall and his brother Jason at a Junior National Show when Randall was still a teenager.  It has been an honor watching his growth, into a man that understands how to treat people, love his family and his God.  Randall as a teenager could impress you with his depth of knowledge of pedigrees and he has done nothing but improve on that knowledge in the 25 years since we met.  I can’t wait to see what he does with these females I expect to see the lot 47 in the donor pen and the 24A I am already having seller regret!  She is a double bred Wulff’s EXT you just can’t get any better than that!  The lot 53 is out of a first calf heifer but man did that heifer bring in a winner. 

Lot 25A - Randy Crowell Plantation Farms, Elrod Al, another heifer that gives me buyers regret.  I think this heifer could make the donor pen she has it all phenotype, genetics and performance going for her.  Her grand dam had a production record of 13@105 for WW, 13@103 for YW, 10@105 for IMF and 10@105 for RE.  I can’t wait to see what Randy does with this exceptional female.

Lot 45 – Scott and Ryan Clark of Clark Farm LLC Newton, AL the Clark’s got them a good one in this young productive cow. The dam of this young cow is out of our now deceased donor SAV Blackcap May 0524 and our Coleman EXT 6149 bull then sired by Coleman Charlo 0256.  I am a huge fan of the Charlo offspring I know most people think about the 5 million dollar flush that came out of SAV and I agree that is impressive.  However I feel his lasting legacy will be in his daughters they just do everything you can possible ask for in a female.

Lot 45A – Charles Chaz Bridges Damascus, GA I look forward to seeing this bull walking the pasture as a two year old he is going to be a good one!  Chaz has purchased bulls from us in the past and knows what they can do for his program. 

Lot 46 and Lot 48 – Lucas Chittom Booneville, MS Lucas the lot 46 cow is going to be a good one for sure.  She is out of a flush sister to the lot 47 cow that Randall Upchurch purchased.  The bull calf she had at side was a stout sucker.  The lot 48 cow is just a beast her dam was a Pathfinder in our herd as was her maternal sister the calf in her out of Niagara should be exceptional.

Lot 46A, 47A and 48A – Doug Smith Circle S Farm Dothan, AL Dough got him some really nice young bulls to develop.  We had the pleasure of meeting him for the first time at the sale and look forward to getting to know him better.  These three calves should develop into sure enough good herd bulls.

Lot 50 and Lot 55 – Scott Haynes Hayes Farm Blountsville, AL Scott is another young man that we have had the pleasure of meeting and watching as he has developed his herd.  He has a phenomenal eye for cattle and he is tenacious.  He visited our farm a number of years ago our calves were just babies.  He picked out a bull calf that was if I do say so myself the best calf in the pasture.  He asked are you going to sell him I told him only time would tell.  I had forgotten all about the conversation when months later at a bull sale he comes up and asked me again.  We ended up partnering on the bull, like I said a good eye and memory!  The lot 50 heifer is powerful in every aspect phenotype, genetics and performance she is the kind to go into the front pasture then the flush pen.  The lot 55 heifer doesn’t have the well known genetics that the lot 50 has but she is the type that can also be in the front pasture and she will earn her way to the flush pen.  The Duchess Cow family is the real deal this is one to keep an eye on.  Another farm that is on our tour list!

Lot 51and 52 – Vince Santini Shady Brook Angus Leoma, TN, The lot 51 heifer is out of the flush sister to the lot 24 heifer if Will wants to see what lot 24’s calf will look like all he needs to do is look at lot 51!  The two flush sisters D33 and D39 are peas in a pod which is consistent of what I have seen with Coleman genetics.  The lot 52 is an ET daughter of our now deceased SAV Blackcap May 0524 cow.  0524 was a good one and her daughter’s just work!  I know a tour of Shady Brook is in our future!

Lot 54 – Tim Hopkins Cedar Creek Ranch Ashford, AL Last but certainly not least, Ronnie and I met Tim at the Junior National Show back in the 90’s.  A friendship was born and has stood the test of time!  Tim has an eye for cattle we spend hours on the phone discussing them.  He is my go to guy for phenotype and I am his go to on genetics (and paperwork).  The lot 54 heifer is one of the hidden gems of the offering like lot 55 not the pedigree that is as well known but she is going to make an awesome cow.  She has the phenotype for the front pasture, genetics that will work in our environment and the performance to make it to the donor pen. 

Now you see why it has taken me so long to write my Face book Thank you I really felt it was better not to try to write while on the drugs they sent me home with!  And now you see why I am so honored and humbled at the response to our offering at the Maternal Gems Sale.  To have elite programs like the ones described bid on your cattle is just a tremendous blessing.

The Great Adventure Cheyenne Wyoming

I had big plans to blog all about our five week adventure out west, well we arrived home on August 16th and I am finally caught up enough to blog again.  The trip out west was wonderful, we stopped in at OCC Cattle Company in Palmer Ks.  I actually managed to blog about that visit.  We spent a couple of days in Cheyenne Wy visiting our Nephew Marc and his family.  Marc is stationed at Warren Air Force base in Cheyenne.  What a cool base, so much history, Marc took us on a driving tour of the base it was just beautiful.

While we were visiting Marc they took us on a tour of downtown Cheyenne it is just a cool town.  We also toured the Cowgirl museum!  I just loved it, seeing the impact that women have had over the years in the development of the cattle industry and their impact on shaping this great country was just neat to learn and to be able to share the time and experience with Marc and his family was such a treat.

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We were in Cheyenne the week prior to the Frontier Days Rodeo, so we missed the rodeo but did get to see the cattle drive bringing in the cattle to be used during the rodeo.

After seeing the cattle drive we said our good bye's to Marc and his family and Ronnie and I headed out to see Fort Laramie and a stop to a preserved portion of the Oregon Trail.  It is hard for me to put into words the impact of actually standing in the ruts made by the pioneers had on both of us.  We stood in those ruts and imagined the sweat and struggle of those that came before us.  In our world of instant everything to imagine walking hundreds to miles to chase your dream of a new home in an untamed land is just hard for us to imagine and very humbling.

After stopping to see this part of history we went on to another part of history.  Fort Laramie sitting out in the middle of nowhere.  It was like taking a step back in history.  The buildings have been preserved to help you get the feel of what those brave men and women faced each and every day.  

We finished up our tour of Fort Laramie and headed back to the camper tired but excited to continue our great adventure.  Next stop Dubios Wyoming, I decided to learn a new skill for this adventure I put a slide show of our different stops into a short video. It was fun to learn and neat to have as a fun reminder of our trip. The first video is of the first three days of the trip out to Wyoming.

The second video is of the visit to Cheyenne, the Oregon Trail and Fort Laramie.

The Big Adventure Days 1-3

Ronnie and I started out with our cattle as a hobby back in the mid 80's.  Needless to say we grew from a hobby to a full blown business.  Over the years we have made our share of mistakes.  One of the things we discovered is that just because it works for one operation doesn't mean it will work in ours. So many factors influence a cattle operation, environment, genetics, management just to name a few. We love getting out and visiting with others in the cattle industry, but between managing the farm and working a job off the farm it isn't something we have been able to do as much of as we would like.  As of July 1st that has changed a bit.  Ronnie has been semi retired from our family business for the past two years, but I have still been working.  As of July 1st I stepped away and we can now start checking off items on the ole bucket list.  Our big adventure began on July 11, 2017, thanks to our eldest son Lucas who loaned us his motor home we have hit the road, just the two of us and one of the dogs.

Cuddles getting her first look at MO!

Beautiful country

 We drove to Mo the first day and stayed the night in a Sam's parking lot.  This worked out great for Ronnie, however I soon realized that I had indeed watched to many episodes of Criminal Minds so sleep was not in the cards for me.  We started out early Wednesday morning for Kansas we had reservations at Farnum Creek Campground for Wednesday night.  We arrived around 3:00 and finally got set up around 6:00, discovering the importance of level campsites!  The thing that surprised me the most was the heat.  It hit 104 here late yesterday afternoon, it was HOT!  I will say that it is a different kind of hot, 104 in Florida is worse but it was still miserable.

104 now that is hot!

Beautiful morning drive over to OCC and the temp was low 70's!
What a difference a day makes!

We had contacted Tim Ohlde of Ohlde Cattle Company to see about a visit while on our adventure.  We have used OCC cattle for a number of years and sure like what they bring to the table.  The Ohlde cattle are thick and deep with beautiful udders, and they make a living on grass!  We met Tim at the Ranch around 7:30 a.m. and started out looking at the herd sires he had penned.  They were what I expected deep, thick heavy muscled bulls.  We have used OCC Juneau 807J, OCC Missing Link 830M and OCC Paxton 730P with Paxton and Missing Link being favorites.  I wanted to see what up and coming bulls I would like to use in the future.  I can't say we found a favorite, because we found several that we want to use, I will say the top two would be OCC Big Time 746Z the picture they have of this bull on their web site just doesn't do him justice!

OCC Big time 746Z and my photo doesn't do him justice either!

  He is a good one!  Another is a young bull Zodiak my goodness he is nice.

Zodiak out working.  This is one I sure want to have in the tank!

I just loved the look of the Paxton daughters they had the most I have ever seen in production.  They were all pretty darn sporty.  Tim knows his cattle and his genetics, it was a pleasure to finally get to meet both him Trudy and Jake. The cows we saw were all very uniformed and all thick, deep, with beautiful udders which was exactly what I expected to see in this herd.

Ronnie and Tim talking cows.

Tomorrow morning we head out to Cheyenne WY for a short visit with our nephew Marc and his family.  Then on toward MT.  I will be posting more about our adventure in the coming weeks!