Santa Gertrudis on the Commercial Operation

today's commercial breeders need maximum performance levels from their herds they're raising beef and they're paid by the pound this is a terminal production which means they sell everything we'll be speaking with some ranchers who will share their data and show us how their herds perform let's get started I'm here with Jerome urbanovsky in South Texas at Rancho de sueños with a beautiful set of commercial females Jerome tell us about yourself in this operation Jenna I've been a purebred Santa Gertrudis breeder for 41 years now and here at Rancho de sueños we wanted to accumulate a set of Santa Gertrudis or Santa Gertrudis cross females which are called star fives and that's what we've selected is Santa Gertrudis star five females that are half Santa Gertrudis and half Hereford how did you get started with this operation well my very best friend in the world Tony mccorvey wanted to purchase some land here near Lockhart Texas and it was scrub oak and he developed a beautiful setting and then wanted to have the very best cattle that he could have in the world and we sat down and had a very extensive interview process and we selected the star five Santa Gertrudis which would be crossed with Herefords as our base mother cow herd what were some of the key things that he was looking for Tony told me that he wanted the best commercial female in the world and I felt the best commercial female in the world be the star five Santa Gertrudis and so we wanted to find enough star five Hereford Santa Gertrudis females to stock his ranch up to five hundred females explain to us what a star five heifer is a star five Santa Gertrudis means that she is half Santa Gertrudis and half some other breed it can be any other breed we've selected the Santa Gertrudis crossed with Herefords and what was your rationale for using this Senegal tree to star five they are moderate frame very efficient in rate of gain they take care of themselves the very heat tolerant they milk extremely well a desirable other attachment and perfect teat size to wean a calf that's over 50% of the mother's body weight so it sounds like these are pretty low-maintenance animals they are low-maintenance animals and that's what we were looking for cows that could get out hustle and turn grass into meat so we note that they're low maintenance now what are they do to your pocket with our profit generator for the ranch here we wind a 95% calf crop we have 422 females we wind over 400 calves that we were able to market we thought that was remarkable and that's the kind of results that we expect and we've been getting every year Wow so you guys seem to understand what your herd is at sounds like you keep records we do have records we do have a vision the cows have what's called Santa Gertrudis star five papers on them each female does but we don't keep up with each individual calf we sell them by the truckload we've been topping the market we're very proud of that congratulations thank you now you keep talking about pedigrees of the star five females that seem to be the base of the herd what's the advantage of starting out with known genetics predictability reputation from the people that we buy the cattle from and we think that's very important all of the females that we've bought here were raised by the Nunley brothers in Sabinal Texas currently generally using very high quality Black Angus bulls that we're buying from gardener and from other top Angus breeders and so what is the benefit of using the Santa Gertrudis mothers they are the perfect mother cow for today's environment you can take the star five Santa Gertrudis female bring her to a non Brahman animal and if you use an Angus then it will certify as Certified Angus beef now there are many people and your and mister McCorvey situation what are some tips that you would have for them about starting up an operation of this kind and what things that they should look for in their early selection process the first thing that we would suggest is that they be in the grass business first make sure your fence is in your grasses are in good shape to support the cows so you you're off to a good start and have a goal have a vision and have a goal our goal was to produce high quality calves that would top the market with consistent females that get out and take care of themselves we didn't want to have a lot of maintenance a lot of manpower are involved we wanted them to be uniform so that's why we bought all-star fives that were of the same breeding now you speak of having a goal and a vision does everyone's goal and vision have to be the same it does not it does not my goal I'm a purebred Santa Gertrudis breeder myself and my vision is different than the vision that we have here at the ranch at Rancho de sueños and each of those visions can be made to work with Santa Gertrudis females they can purebred or the star 5 they represent many different options that people can have if someone prefers a black cow you can have a Santa Gertrudis crossed with an Angus or a brain goose and that can be a star 5 also and you can also have the same benefits of a real hustlin type female where would you suggest that they go for their knowledge base I would recommend that they use the AgriLife Extension Service which is funded by the state it's available in every County those people are knowledgeable to trained and can offer good advice and take that advice and then use their own common sense their own desire and their own goal to manage that to what they want it to be well can I speak to Tony yes Tony mccorvey would be the person that you need to talk to that can give you the full dream that he came up with wonderful Jerome thank you so much for your expertise knowledge and experience we really appreciate you Jenna we're here with mr. Tony McCrory owner of rancho de sueños Tony Jerome told us earlier that there was a plan that you guys hatched out before you started this project tell us about that plan well Jerome and I talked about it and Jerome was in the purebred Santa Gertrudis business and I I couldn't commit to that and but I wanted to be in the cattle business and I told him that I wanted to be able to raise cows and take them to auction and I wanted to have great cattle and tell us about the progression from buying the land to manicuring at getting to grass together before the cattle came my wife and I were going to her family reunion and we cut across and we saw for sale sign and so I contacted the folks found out they were members of the King Ranch family the Clayburgh family and we we finally after about a year and a half made a deal and I was able to buy this land and and when we bought this place it was just solid trees there was one acre of clear ground on eight hundred and forty-four acres in talking with Mike Reynolds with the Clayburgh family and talking with him he told me if I wanted to learn about the King Ranch that I would buy a book called worldwide sea of grass in that book basically Robert Clayburgh Jr's described how he did his properties which was to clear off all the valleys and the side hills and leave all the trees on top of the ridges and that gave it a more dramatic effect and so we we followed that plan and my sons and I we came up here and we we used a topographical map 2,250 rolls of surveyors tape in about two and a half years coming up here on weekends and so we've landscaped 844 acres is basically what we've done here Tony being a family man this branch gives you a recreational value and being a businessman it gives you a profit and even a legacy for your children I think other people might be interested and recreating what you've already done where can they get this information on how to get started with star 5 how to get started with star 5 they need to go to the Santa Gertrudis breeders International Association down in Kingsville maybe it's located on the King Ranch now and they can give them all the information I believe they would need on the star five cattle wonderful well Tony thank you so much for being here with us today I really enjoyed it we're here with David Harris of Harris farms David we're standing next to a wonderful set of cross bred females tell us about your operation we're a seed stock purebred breeder but about 50% of our efforts are dedicated to the commercial side of things with that said we develop cross bred heifers feed cross bred steers along with the rest of our stairs and offer buybacks to some of our customers with the right type of cattle now you talk about buybacks what exactly is that we buy we cap crops out of genetics that we've either sold or we know the genetics usually they're out of santa cruz bulls and we offer a buyback on the entire calf crops just like the sale barn we'll give them a number one price whatever the cattle are selling for that day and then we bring them back and we develop the heifers along with our heifers and you know we feed some percentage bulls but a lot of a lot of those calves are steered and they go into our steer pens and we feed the cattle how well do see negative genetics work in the feedlot we've been really impressed with the results of known all along you know from work other breeders had done how efficient the cattle would be in the feedlot but our cattle have been probably gaining and we've had several pen history anywhere from three and a half to over four pounds a day in the feedlot and the cost again on those cattle have been running somewhere between 65 to 70 cents that's wonderful now talk to us about your santa gertrudis females we are in a white business and they will probably wean up his heavier calf as any other whether you're using a star 5 or whether you're using the purebred the flexibility that it also gives you is your red and color by nature so your heat tolerant you can virtually crossbreed the cattle with any bull out there whatever you're trying to accomplish in your program they will be easy Kevin as heifers and we'll raise your extremely good calf and when the cattle are mature another real positive is you really don't have to background the steers when the cattle come off the cow by the time you get your background shots they're they're about ready to go the feedlot you talk about background can you explain that to us well when you win the calves you want to get them straightened out on feed know what feed is and get shots in them to protect them for when they go on the feedlot they'll stay healthy and a good friend of mine once told me the way to make money in the feedlot is gained four pounds a day and stay healthy and I believe he's right you talk about gaining four pounds a day what did the profits look like you know we had some cattle this year that you know they came off anywhere from thirteen and a half to fourteen hundred pound that brought almost $2 a pound that makes you really when the markets like that if it was a consistent market it almost puts you out of bull business so you've also talked about the power of Santa Gertrudis bulls what have been what's been your experience in that you know we've been pleased with the results we've been pleased to to market the Bulls the Bulls design primarily for the commercial sector so would you say that you have to have an excellent set of commercial females in order for the Santa Gertrudis bull to do is no no they will work on anything I mean they will work on a mix herd and they will kind of uniform up your calf crop and they will add winning weights on the back side of your calf crop and I think you'll be pleased with that at the end of the day now you've talked to me about having regular buybacks and regular customers what can you say about what their testimonies have been to you they've been real pleased and they've been pleased with the program as far as they know that they have a buyer for their cattle when it's time to wean it's been a good business relationship because when it comes time for Bulls they give us a call and talk to us about maintenance of these cattle well they're extremely low maintenance there's some people that have small herds that are in them every day and as you go further south the Midcoast down into South Texas there's a lot of those cattle that aren't seen twice a year they go in them and they win the cash but they've had sent and katroo this cattle for years and years David you've spoken to us about how the cattle do down in South Texas how do these cattle do in different environments well the cattle Ward design for South Texas Texas heat but through the years we found that the adaptability of the cattle a that they'll go anywhere I mean we've got cattle in Canada Colorado just anywhere they'll adapt to the climate and they'll grow air they'll grow hair that would surprise people now they'll adjust what is their performance like you know the performance holds up the same way and I know that we like our steers we feed some steers south and we feed steers north and we don't pick a particular time of year if it's if it's winter and they need to go to the panel that's where they go and the steers have held up and done well it there now you talk to us about profitability for big numbers but there's also the fact that some people don't have large numbers in their herds how are Santa Gertrudis genetics well suited for them if you do have a small herd maybe you ought to consider finding a person that would work with because on the commercial side things things are done in truckloads and you got to work yourself up to that I don't care what kind of breed that you have if you go to the cell barn and you have one or two calves and they're ball and they haven't been preconditioning they're there they're going to get penalized no matter what so so the key is to to get uniformity to get a group and to move cattle in groups and that way a buyer can feel confident that these cattle can't perform for whatever sector they're on though with so a small breeder might take that in consideration when they consider making a bull purchase if they have a greater that will work with them and possibly offer them a buy back are at least helping market the cattle a lot of other breeds are breed included they help these people market their cattle and that's at the end of the day you have to get the cattle sold and get the cattle so as much money so stay to gertrudis cattle in both the purebred industry and the commercial industry help bring up the bottom end yeah because in my opinion in my world it still comes down to a wait business however your marketing your cattle at the end of the day that mill cut and that lower end it's going to come down the way and I think in my environment in my ranching operation I can produce more way with Secretary's genetics and I can with any other breed so Santa Gertrudis cattle can work with anybody yeah I think so I mean particularly the Europeans and it's an excellent cross for those there be some environments that you wouldn't want to probably use too much Brahmin influence but your Europeans and Continental I mean the Yatta it's a perfect fit we're here with Justin Geisinger of arrow W ranch in Delaware Oklahoma Justin tell us how you got involved with arrow W ranch come from Colorado moved down here year-and-a-half ago there was job opening and Vince hired me I've been around Brammer influence cattle most my life so the Santa Gertrudis was a different breed but it wasn't that different for me and talk to us about the operation with lease crown we have right around 1,500 acres we run two and 50 cals we have 135 Herefords which we run our Gert bulls on and then we have approximately 80 purebred Gert cows which we run Hereford and Red Angus bulls on and then I have another 30 head of heifers that were breeding to put back into the herd alright now you talk to us about your Santa Gertrudis bulls Brady breeding your Hereford cattle how the calves been has been great having that ain't rebel Kevin it seems like they grow really well have good weaning weights coming off in the fall you know and there's a really good market for these extras now talk to us about what that means in terms of maintenance standpoint on the ranch well I've been here a year and a half now so I've weaned two different sets in the first year I think I doctored one calf after I weaned off the sec year this year I have doctored nothing I mean they just they seemed like once they get them get going you just don't have any trouble with them talk to us about hi weaning weights why is that important well for the cow man if you don't win very high gives me dollars and in this business it's about dollars pounds equals dollars and what do you guys do with the calves that you wean we do a buyback program with David Harris we use Harris Bulls mainly and then he buys back our heifers and our steers usually I just go right to town here in South Coffeyville and you talk to us about your purebred Santa Gertrudis females and that you're putting Bulls on them can you talk to us about that side of it well we're kind of going a little more commercial right at the moment we bought some Hereford bulls and a couple Red Angus bulls that we're putting on our purebred females to get the same calves that will still get the star five calves out of them where we live right here it's a little our profitable to raise a commercial calf that is a purebred calf and how I'm descending retreat is genetics matched up with your crossroad operation I think great the cow's milk really well so the calves especially off the Gert cows I mean they're growers they'll top 650 pounds come falling so like I said is more dollars in our pocket Justin if I was a commercial cow man and I called you and I was looking for some animals to buy what would you tell us about the cattle that we're seeing here today I day that they're the best of both worlds with the cross between the Gert cross and the English cross you get a lot of heterosis in this country they're very heat tolerant they're cold tolerant they milk very good they're just really good cattle you've talked to us about taking the cattle into the sale barn how have they done I took a set of steers in last year and they sold at the top of the sale right along with any black camel which you know I'm a firm believer and the red is coming back and I'm but I'm a firm believer and good cattle or good cattle no matter what color they are Justin this has been a wonderful opportunity to get to see your operation and you've given us some great information we really appreciate you having you thank you for coming we're here with mr. Vince Westbrook and his father dr. Carl Westbrook of arrow W Ranch and Delaware Oklahoma dr. Westbrook tell us how you got started in agriculture well I grew up in these sexes with the brandman cattle and it was one or two herds of Santa Gertrudis and I took a liking to him and so that's what I wanted to do how long have you been watching Santa Gertrudis cattle 50 years watching him what have you noticed in terms of the last 50 years with the breed they've spread out practically all over the country there's herds in most states as Santa Gertrudis now and and they really contributed to the breed so and in your professional life what it was it that you did well I started out as a voyage teacher in Texas and when I became a directors brats college for New Mexico State University I had a grants and then head of a state vote at school in New Mexico I worked for any a one year in Washington DC he sent a four-man team down to Columbia South America and I was added specialist on that team and there's one of the most wonderful experiences I had in my life also don't forget that but when you were with your background in agriculture he was president of a more Community College which he started their famous horse program there and then when he when he left Colorado and was hired at Conner State he was president at Conner State for 16 years and then for three years he went out to Panhandle State the Santa Gertrudis breeders approached Connors in the early 80s when your grandfather was one of the breeders and also with the other famous ranches that they donated a group of heifers and the herd that they put together is something that we watched later in my during my high school career now Vince tell us a little bit about how you got involved with agriculture and raising cattle well I would think that probably being brainwashed and by my father and getting started in my career we had been apart probably for 15 20 years and day as he was winding down his career and I was getting going online we had made the decision at one point we were going to build a ranch and if we were going to build a ranch we were going to raise senator trees cattle so you've been brainwashed but now as an educated man how have Santa Gertrudis performed for you you're sitting here in the Osage which has a lot of history and a lot of the big ranches running black cattle I thought that with my background being in tennis and a Division one coach if they thought that we were all little nutty we're going to come up here and the first thing we were going to do is turn a Hereford ranch into a Santa Gertrudis ranch so we kind of met halfway we kept the Hereford cows the timing was perfect we were adding the Santa Gertrudis and buying from buying a lot of the top Santa Gertrudis around the country from your grandfather from King Ranch Harris all the big names we have cattle on this ranch from those ranches two years ago we did the national feed out in Kingsville Texas and we won one of the classes so we were in the business two years so we were very fortunate that we were able to win one of those classes which is a national performance program in terms of efficiency can you talk to us about that in the Santa Gertrudis breed growing up in East Texas with a lot of rain a lot of grass a lot of timber a lot of insects they were among the most 50 breeds they just have some things that the other breeds don't have and now that you're up in Oklahoma how are they doing they're doing great of course this there's also a few herds in Canada so these you find these cattle everywhere there are probably other people out there that have an existing breed that they're working with would you advocate adding Santa Gertrudis into their herd absolutely whether you're whether you're die-hard Angus red or black or if the her furs and you're in breeds I think the senator just really adds a lot of heterosis and that's something that you get free so if you're smart about your cross I mean that's something that adds and that makes money for everybody if you're cattle or breeding earlier they're winning a bigger calf it's a pretty simple formula and how has a turnover been with your cat are they breeding back each year and producing good calves I would say on an average what do you think dad it's been 85 85 to 90 percent oh yeah at least 10 tell us about the cattle that we see behind us well I'm glad you asked me that question you have a vested interest here also of course these cows came from your grandfather and he was using top quality Hereford bulls and as you see the calves that hit the ground we'll have some calves here that will wean five six hundred pounds on an average which is we're very happy with and it looks like this will probably be the best weaned cattle we've had since we've been in the business the last four years well gentlemen it's been a pleasure getting to see your ranch and speak with you you guys have great information and I wish you all the best we very much you're welcome back anytime thank you well we've heard some amazing testimonies about the performance of Santa Gertrudis cattle steed stock producers commercial cattlemen and feedlot performance and so much more these cattle were designed to perform and they do the bottom line Santa Gertrudis cattle will add a valuable commodity to cattlemen all over the world we invite you to check them out by visiting our web page at WWE and Gertrudis calm and contact a producer near you you

Channel: AgSmartTV

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Keywords: santa, gertrudis, cattle, commercial, save, money, time, easy, profit, profitable, cow, calf, bull, steer, heifer, raise, efficient, hybrid, vigor

Id: M_Da4qebcTE

Length: 24min 55sec (1495 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 20 2012