Town Creek Farm
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bacterium infection happens in the first few
months of a cow’s life but she may stay healthy
for a very long time. The disease is contagious,
which means it can spread from one cow to
another, but it is predominately passed from
mother to calf through fecal matter during
nursing. Clinical presentation is rapid weight
loss and diarrhea while maintaining a healthy
appetite.
Since 2006 every cow and herd sire on Town
Creek Farm and cows owned by our Bull
Production Partners are tested by both “blood”
ELISA and “fecal” DNA tests at weaning. If a cow
tests positive by either test method, both the
cow and her calf are culled from. The level of
confidence we get from both tests enables us to
make hard culling decisions with complete
confidence, to ensure absolute eradication and
to guarantee our bulls are Johne’s free and that
their mothers were Johne’s free when their bull
calves were weaned.
SELECTION INDEXES
Each bull lot lists in-herd selection indexes
for Calving Ease, Growth, Fertility and Carcass.
These indexes optimize selection on a number of
traits in a particular production scenario by
optimally weighting adjusted phenotypic data.
Indexes represent a validation of the individual
animal rankings of our bull offering and
opportunities for our customers to make simple,
streamline decisions in selecting bulls.
FORAGE-BASED GENETICS
We believe forage utilization efficiency is a
key component to profitability. We develop
cattle that are capable of high reproduction
efficiency on a forage-based system though
phenotypic data collection and feed efficiency
testing.
We believe future success for commercial
producers will center on forage efficient
cowherds from both a fertility and forage
utilization standpoint.
FESCUE TOLERANT GENETICS
Brangus cattle are carriers of Brahman genes
that deliver relief to heat stress caused by
grazing fescue. Brahman supplies an internal
cooling mechanism that dissaptes heat
produced by fescue toxins better than any other
breed of cattle.
TruBrangus™
First-generation Brangus bull Pathfinder was born
in 1987. He represented new breed genetics evolving
fromangus and Brahman foundation bases. Pathfinder
was the number one used a.I. sire in the Brangus breed
for many years. It was written that never before had the
breed been in need of such a bull.
The need for such a bull has come again. Three
years ago, Town Creek Farmmade a commitment to
research foundation angus and Brahman genetics and
to dedicate ourselves to developing new 5/8 angus 3/8
Brahman bloodlines that we identify as TruBrangus™.
we are in our second year of breeding up to
TruBrangus™. Currently we have 35 half-blood (1/2
angus 1/2 Brahman) females in our herd generated
through invitro fertilization. we are utilizing the most
fertile, functional, sound, moderate sized Brahman
cows in the country from the kempfer Cattle Co.,
Florida. we use Dna to maximize exposure to desireable
traits andminimize exposure to undesirable traits.
Like the founders of the Brangus breed
discovered, Town Creek Farmbelieves the 5/8 - 3/8
standard creates the
true
value of Brangus. within this
combination is the Braham cow, we call the
invisible
cow
, who maximizes heterosis, and is drought
resistant, disease resistant, increases longevity and is
heat tolerant. She also provides genes that minimize
heat stress in cattle that graze fescue forage.
The importance of heat tolerance was driven
home by researcher raluca mateescu, PhD, University
of Florida, presenting at both the Beef Improvement
Federation (BIF) and the International Brangus
Breeders association (IBBa) conferences. Her work
with body temperatures of angus x Brahman crosses
clearly demonstrates that a miniumof 3/8 Brahman is
needed to achieve a level of heat tolerance for 40
percent of U.S. cattle populations.
we believe innovation is necessary to create value
that our customers expect.
