beef commercial herd

Being profit-minded for your next bull purchase

No matter how solid a bull’s genetics may be, much depends on an individual producer’s ability to keep that bull healthy and in good breeding condition.

October 14, 2024

Dirk Dempsey

What is the first word that comes to mind when you see a bull sale catalog in your mailbox? Usually, I hear responses like “profitable,” “cost-effective,” “traditional” or "necessary."

Efficiency matters, both in your feedlot and for your cow herd

While cow-calf herds may depend on different traits to be efficient than feedlot cattle do, selection for both sectors doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive.

September 16, 2024

Kenny Wells

Efficiency is efficiency, right? Turns out, it’s probably not that simple. Efficiency in a feedlot and at the cow-calf level are two very different things.

Changing the math

Fink Beef Genetics has embraced reproductive technology and built strong relationships to develop one of the premier operations in the country.

May 24, 2024

Tyrell Marchant

Fink Beef Genetics owns about 200 head of mother cows. Each of those, presumably, raises about one calf per year. Yet, somehow, in 2023, the Finks managed to sell more than 600 bulls carrying their herd’s genetics to customers across the country.

Data into profit: Using genomic tools to produce and select superior replacement heifers

Analyzing genomic data can help producers hone in on the most valuable traits for their operations. Genomic research shows that managing to improve hybrid vigor will increase fertility, longevity and lifetime productivity.

January 31, 2024

John Basarab and Kira Hames

Historically, the relative value of traits to the commercial cow-calf sector has been stated as the “10-to-2-to-1 rule of thumb,” where fertility traits are 10 times more important than carcass traits and five times more important than growth traits.

Farm Strategies: Guerry Incorporated

December 1, 2022

Kaylee Mecham

Where will the headwinds in agriculture come from in the next two years?

Bayou brothers come together at Neal Ranch

August 23, 2019

David Cooper

Most ranches in the U.S. take sterling pride in their family name and tradition. The Neal Ranch in Louisiana is no different, but the name and tradition goes several ways – all of them reinforcing the other.