22
Highlights of Sydenstricker Angus History
Ralph Sydenstricker began his farm machinery business in 1944 with an International
Harvester dealership in Paris, MO. One of his salesmen, Grant Dickson, came in one day
and told Ralph he believed he could sell the Super C Farmall tractor on the lot, if Ralph
would take two registered Angus cows with heifer calves on the trade, and allow the
customer $1,000 apiece for them. Ralph, Grant, and 12-year-old Eddie went to look at the
cows and close the deal.
Eddie and his sister, Betty Jo, became very active showing in 4-H and FFA. Eddie was
involved in forming the very first junior Angus association in the U.S., when, in 1956, the
Missouri Junior Angus Association was organized at Monroe City, MO. Eddie served as
the first President, assisted by Ronnie Rodgers, vice-president; Fred Blades, secretary;
and Liz (Moore) Coon, treasurer. Lyle Haring, regional manager for the American Angus
Association, and Ed Stout, Missouri Angus Association fieldman, were instrumental in
this project. Later, Eddie was selected by Dean Hurlbut, the newly appointed Director of
Activities at the American Angus Association, to participate in “An Angus In Your Future,”
a film produced by the Association to encourage youth to get involved with Angus cattle.
Eddie continued his involvement in FFA, serving as State Secretary in 1957-58, and re-
ceiving the American Farmer degree in 1960.
Ralph teamed up with Jim and Ray Blades in 1959 for their first production sale. Col.
Roy G. Johnston was the auctioneer, and the ringmen were Lyle Haring, Mark Dempsey,
Wes Hays, Veryl Jones, Ed Stout, and Nick Iman. Ralph continued to have production
sales through the sixties. The top bull in his 1964 sale was a son of TA Ekonomist 7 that
sold for $1,000. Ralph was elected President of the Missouri Angus Association in 1966.
In 1960, the family moved the cattle to Mexico, MO, as Ralph purchased the John Deere
dealership in Mexico. Eddie and Connie were married in 1961, and lived in Macon from
1965 to 1969, managing the International dealership they acquired in 1965.
In the seventies, Ralph stepped up the pace a bit, and, looking for a little more growth,
imported several heifers and bulls from Canada. Twenty females with a total price tag of
$21,980 were brought to Mexico, MO, in December 1974. He found Happyvale Olympic
012H at the side of his dam in June, 1976, and returned later to Canada to make him the
top-selling bull in the Happyvale sale at $20,000.
While Ralph was expanding the cow herd, Eddie and a talented mechanic named Van
Botkins designed and campaigned the Cajun Queen pulling tractor, winning every National
Championship there was. Eventually, John Deere Engineering at Waterloo, IA, took the
engine from this tractor to develop the 466 cubic inch engine that was used in all the 40
and 50 series tractors made by John Deere for nearly 20 years.
Ralph decided he needed some help with the quality herd he was putting together, and,
in search of a herdsman, scheduled Wayne Kestler to come to Mexico for an interview on
January 6, 1977. Wayne Kestler did come to Mexico that day, as did many other Angus
friends, but it was not to discuss the position of herdsman, it was to attend the funeral of
Ralph Sydenstricker.
Eddie, busy with the dealership for many years, now had a decision to make, regarding
the farm and the cattle. Obviously, he chose to continue the Angus operation, known as
Sydenstricker Angus Farms, and to hire Wayne Kestler as herdsman.
Eddie wasted no time. In March 1977, he acquired Eisa BAS 89 for $2,000. She pro-
duced the $33,000 SAF Windwalker and the $12,000 SAF Windjammer during her tenure
here. On June 21, 1977, Eddie acquired an interest in Happyvale Marshall Pride 013G,
known as “Mighty Marshall.” He was owned with Erdmann Angus, Wetonka, SD, and Jim
Baldridge, North Platte, NE, and sired the Grand Champion Carload of Bulls at the 1978
National Western, along with the top selling pen of heifers at the 1978 Denver Foundation
Female Sale. Although Ralph had had several sales over the years, Eddie began the Annu-
al Production Sale in November of 1977.
An early female who left a mark on the entire Angus breed was Schearbrook Wendy
N023, purchased for $5,100 in June 1978. A son was grand champion and top selling
bull at the 1981 Missouri State Sale, and she produced many other show ring champions
and top sellers for the program, including a $14,000 daughter. Wendy herself topped
the 1981 sale at $18,750 to Coy Glenn in Mississippi. Today, descendants of the Wendy
cow are some of the most popular in the western U.S., all tracing back to our heifer calf
consignment to the 1987 Missouri Angus Futurity.
Through the seventies and early eighties, Eddie and Connie’s daughters, Kim and Lee
Ann, showed extensively in junior shows throughout the country, perhaps highlighted by
Lee Ann’s last show heifer becoming the farm’s first Missouri State Fair Grand Champion
Female in 1984, with a descendant of Wendy. Kim and Lee Ann were both active in the
Missouri Junior Angus Association their father helped start, and both served as officers.
Eddie served as treasurer of the Missouri Angus Association for many years, and
served three years on the American Angus Association Board of Directors. In 1995, Eddie
received the Livestock Person of the Year Award from the University of Missouri Block
and Bridle Club.
The first Annual Production Sale was held in November 1977. The sale was man-
aged by National Livestock Brokers, and the auctioneers were Jim Baldridge, Nick Iman,
and Al Conover. The ring help that day were Veryl Jones, Tim Lackey, Paul Gibbs, Mark
Dempsey, and John Barton, as 141 lots averaged $1,332. In 1978, Don Simpkins joined
the crew until his retirement in 1991.
One of the most talked-about bulls of his era was Cracker Jack Baros 2459, better
known as “Prime Rate.” On the day Prime Rate was shown at the Iowa State Fair, a
cattleman called the John Deere store, and talked to a parts man not at all knowledgeable
about the Angus herd. When the cattleman asked, “What did Prime Rate do today?”
the parts man, wondering why anyone would call an implement dealership to check on
interest rates, replied, “Went up again, I suppose,” and hung up. In the 1981 sale, the first
Prime Rate calves were featured at the most successful sale held to that point. Col. Ray
Sims and Col. Jim Baldridge cried the sale, with Veryl Jones, Dean Pike, Greg Garwood,
Tim Lackey, Mark Dempsey, Lyle Eiten, John Barton, and “Doc” Smith working the ring.
National Livestock Brokers managed the sale, and John Rudolph and John Ponticello
served as consultants.
Bill and Li Bowman were hired in 1981, staying through 1989, and had a significant
impact on the program during the eighties, exhibiting 34 State Fair champions in 1987
alone. Ben Eggers joined the team in 1982. Many other good employees have come and
gone through the years, including Charley Boyd, Lewis Moten, Dale Randolph, John Rip-
perger, Randy Graham, Bonnie DeYoung, Todd and Tracy Ragsdale, Ed and Mandy Raith-
el, Dan Sharp, Allen Robinson, Randy Ray, Ken Rhodes, John Schneider, Travis Sharon,
Brent Schuering, Matt Gruber, Nelson Groves, Josh Lewis, Stacy Loyd, Pat McCarty, Nick
Schafer, Dave Pickerell, Suzy Harrison, Aaron Ishmael, Anthony Carey, Chris Beedle, Matt
Rouse, Tyler Allen, Eric Allen, Sammy Breid, Jennifer Russell, Brad Porter and Brittany
White.
The eighties were an exciting time at Sydenstricker’s, as the foundations were laid for
many of the cattle we still have. The purchase of three females from the mating of Brost
Power Drive to Leachman Lass 1004, two of them as heifer calf pregnancies and one as a
$19,000 heifer calf, gave us the base to produce such herd sires as SAF Fame. Also from
Jay and Les Leachman, an $18,000 heifer named Leachman Royal Queen 2027 founded
the Royal Queen family here, eventually producing SAF Royal Queen 5084. A Rito 2100
GDAR daughter, Pride Queen T 4155, purchased at the NILE, put her stamp on the Angus
industry with a flush of calves born in 1986 that included SAF Power Shaft 6021, the
$33,000 SAF Pride Queen 6013, and the record-holding highest selling bull and heifer to
ever sell at a Missouri State Sale, the $12,500 SAF Power Fix and the $40,000 SAF Pride
Queen 6012. Then, in 1989, in Manhattan, MT, we outbid three competing syndicates to
acquire two-thirds ownership in VDAR New Trend 315, the bull who defined multi-trait
superiority, and set the tone for the Sydenstricker program through today.
In 1990, we shocked the Angus community by scheduling the Dispersion minus Fifty
sale, where we sold down to 50 registered females in what turned out to be our high-
est-grossing sale to that point, proving that truth in advertising can work, and that at least
67 bull calves can be sold in Missouri on one day. No sale was held in 1991, so we used
the extra time available to scour the country for fresh genetics to bring in. The deal to
“pick” six heifers from the entire Gartner-Denowh heifer calf crop, on an alternating basis,
turned out to be one of the best things we’ve ever done, as females like GDAR Forever
Lady 178 and GDAR Forever Lady 246 have proven their value many times over.
Throughout the nineties, we put more and more emphasis on the commercial side
of the industry, stepping up our carcass evaluation of herd sires, exploring new pro-
grams that could benefit our commercial customers, supplying more and more useful
performance data to our customers, and creating the Sydenstricker Influence Sales. We
published our first Herd Sire Directory in 1993, the same year a calf named SAF Fame
topped our sale at $27,000, and actively pursued the direct semen sale market. We had
the first 100-head bull sale in Missouri in 1996, where we also sold the top selling bull
calf in our history, SAF Focus of ER, at $68,000. In 1997, we received the CAB Seedstock
“Commitment to Excellence” Award, primarily for our focus on carcass traits equally with
performance traits. SAF Fame became the second most heavily used bull of the breed in
2000.
In 1993, Ben Eggers was elected President of the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association,
and served on various committees as well as the Board of Directors of the National Cattle-
men’s Beef Association. In 1998, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the American
Angus Association, serving as President in 2006. At the Annual meeting in Louisville,
Ralph was inducted posthumously into the Angus Heritage Foundation in 2004, and Eddie
was inducted in 2006.
Entering the new millennium, we took a big step. Wanting a distinctive prefix, and to
send the message that we are selling genetics, not just cattle, we changed our name to
Sydenstricker Genetics. In 2001, the first bull to sell with the new SydGen prefix, SydGen
Refocus, broke his full brother’s record to become our top selling bull ever, at $100,000.
At the 2001 Beef Improvement Federation meeting, we were awarded the Seedstock
Producer of the Year Award, the most prestigious award in the seedstock industry, sig-
nifying the national impact of the Sydenstricker program. We also joined with several
other seedstock partners to found ORIgen, Inc. Ben served on the Beef Improvement
Federation Board of Directors for eight years, and was elected President in 2011. In 2013,
he received the Continuing Service Award from BIF.
In our most recent decade, we have been a tour stop on the National Angus Tour and
the BIF Tour, as well as hosting part of the LEAD Conference in 2011. Eddie and Connie
were inducted into the Honorary Angus Foundation in 2013 for their work in support of
Angus youth.
Sydenstricker’s of Missouri has received the Managers’ Club Award, John Deere’s
highest award, many times. In 2013, they were named “Best-in-Class Farm Equipment
Dealership” by Farm Equipment magazine. Eddie received the Missouri Angus Breeders’
Pioneer Award in 2014, and the Allied Industry Award from Missouri Cattlemen’s Associ-
ation in 2015.
Daughters Kim and Lee Ann are both involved in the dealerships, with Kim working
at the Mexico location, and Lee Ann doing PR for all ten dealerships. Grandson Chase
Monte, Kim’s son, has exhibited at the last seven Missouri State Fairs, and the last five Na-
tional Junior Angus Shows, winning the Grand Champion Carcass Steer in 2014 and the
Grand Champion bred-and-owned Carcass Steer in 2016, along with a class-winning heif-
er. Chase is now a Senior at Mexico High School and President of the Mexico FFA Chapter.
Grandson Blake Briscoe graduated from Vanderbilt University with a B.S in Finance and
is now an investment banking analyst for Harris Williams & Co. Granddaughters Sydney
and Paige Briscoe are now sophomores at Ole Miss.
From the early Sire Evaluation reports printed twice a year, to today when a new sire
evaluation report is online every Friday, along with genomic-enhanced EPDs and the abili-
ty to DNA test for parentage and genetic recessives, we have seen technology change the
face of the beef industry. We will continue to keep this herd at the forefront of the Angus
breed, and supply our customers the genetics and the customer service they need to
compete.
