Dutch Creek Angus Forage Genetics
Auction Listings
Foundation Cow Dutch Creek Beulah 219 816 AAA Reg. #16836898 - Dam of 308
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The Dutch Creek herd began in 1985 from the purchase of 10 brood cows from Jorgensen Angus in South Dakota. A few years later we added 4 more elite cows from their program, then in the early 90's we purchased 3 additional females from the Graham herd in South Georgia, one of which was one of their very top producing cows. Since that time our herd has been closed to outside female purchases. It is interesting to note that today our herd traces almost exclusively to three of our original purchases--all of the remaining cow families have since culled themselves out for one reason or another.
The bulls from which our herd has descended come from the strongest cow families we could identify. The sires which have had the biggest impact on our program include Crandell of Wye, a Leonid son, which was produced by a third consecutive generation pathfinder dam and a Gorthy of Graham bull which was loaded with productive pathfinder cows from the Graham herd in Georgia. The blood of these two bulls was concentrated and intensified in our herd through half sib, full sib, and cousin on cousin matings. It seems the more we concentrate the genetics of these two lines the better the cattle get and the more uniform they become.
We generally calve out about 65 females each year. It is not our objective to become the biggest, only the best. Each year we retain several bull calves for our own use and market the rest. Any bull not meeting our standards is made into a steer and grown out and marketed as grass finished beef. Same holds true for females. Our farm is certified Animal Welfare Approved for our management practices and we are also certified by the American Grassfed Association for our 100% grass finished beef.
Our objective in breeding cattle is to continually make them better in all of the economically important traits while working within a low input all forage, fescue environment. We consider fertility to be the #1 determinant of profitable beef production which is why we cull any female failing to produce a live calf each year. For this reason the extended pedigrees of our cattle are packed with literally 100's of pathfinder females which have never missed calving and have weaned calves well above herd average-- generation after generation. We find it interesting to read that data from North Dakota State University reports that from 2000 to 2014 North Dakota beef herds reported a 3 lb increase in weaning weights while pounds weaned per cow exposed decreased 21 lbs and cost per cow exposed increased 200%. It seems the purebred industry has lost sight of the importance of cowherd maintenance costs and fertility in making our cow herds profitable. It is our belief that breeding cattle involves so much more than simply pushing for ever higher EPD numbers.
The bulls from which our herd has descended come from the strongest cow families we could identify. The sires which have had the biggest impact on our program include Crandell of Wye, a Leonid son, which was produced by a third consecutive generation pathfinder dam and a Gorthy of Graham bull which was loaded with productive pathfinder cows from the Graham herd in Georgia. The blood of these two bulls was concentrated and intensified in our herd through half sib, full sib, and cousin on cousin matings. It seems the more we concentrate the genetics of these two lines the better the cattle get and the more uniform they become.
We generally calve out about 65 females each year. It is not our objective to become the biggest, only the best. Each year we retain several bull calves for our own use and market the rest. Any bull not meeting our standards is made into a steer and grown out and marketed as grass finished beef. Same holds true for females. Our farm is certified Animal Welfare Approved for our management practices and we are also certified by the American Grassfed Association for our 100% grass finished beef.
Our objective in breeding cattle is to continually make them better in all of the economically important traits while working within a low input all forage, fescue environment. We consider fertility to be the #1 determinant of profitable beef production which is why we cull any female failing to produce a live calf each year. For this reason the extended pedigrees of our cattle are packed with literally 100's of pathfinder females which have never missed calving and have weaned calves well above herd average-- generation after generation. We find it interesting to read that data from North Dakota State University reports that from 2000 to 2014 North Dakota beef herds reported a 3 lb increase in weaning weights while pounds weaned per cow exposed decreased 21 lbs and cost per cow exposed increased 200%. It seems the purebred industry has lost sight of the importance of cowherd maintenance costs and fertility in making our cow herds profitable. It is our belief that breeding cattle involves so much more than simply pushing for ever higher EPD numbers.