drought and how much bigger and healthier their calves
were than the calves on the Angus cows he owned. In the
high desert country of Nevada, on a ranching property
that is 80 miles long and 20 miles wide, a customer shared
about the ability of the Brangus bulls to travel this country
and service cows instead of waiting at the water tank for
the cows to come to them. An acquaintance, with a long
history in the cattle business primarily with Angus and
Hereford cattle, is now caring for cattle with Brangus
influence. He was very complimentary of how few health
problems they had with these cattle compared to the
straight bred cattle they ran of the other breeds.
We hear these same comments from Florida,
throughout Texas, the Midwest, the northwest and yes
even the foreign countries that we travel to-- Brangus fit
a very large segment of the world’s cattle population. The
breed make up of the US and the majority of the rest of the
world is predominately Angus. The Brangus breed, in our
estimation, is the breed that has the genetic profile to best
fit those genetics in a planned crossbreeding program that
will enhance the economically important traits of fertility,
calving ease, growth, longevity, and carcass merit.
Our other challenge has been the ever increasing
cost of feed and fuel and how it has impacted ours and
our customers’ bottom line. We are thankful that over
the past several years, and even before the creation of
GENETRUST, our programs were intent on producing
genetics that would be more functionally efficient and
require less input costs to adapt and survive. We have
not chased the fads of maximizing and selecting for just
one trait but have directed our programs to a long term
commitment of balanced trait selection and improvement
in all traits. This is a plan that we feel will bring more
consistency and uniformity to our customers’ calf crop.
We realize that fertility and the ability of your cow herd
to breed and raise as high a % calf crop as possible with
limited amount of input is still the most important driver
of profitability.
GENETRUST at Chimney Rock Cattle Company - Page 2
