The American Rancher- Holden Herefords

welcome to the American Rancher I'm Pam Minich today's show takes us north to the Big Sky Country of Montana where ranching in the winter is a little different than other places our stop is with our good friends Jack and Tricia Holden and Valier well we'll see a first-class Hertford operation for years on end holdin her furs adopted the best in line one breeding and still does so today in our story will see this Montana outfit up close and visit with a number of Stockman who know the program well we've got a great show for you we're glad you joined us so stay tuned we'll be back in a moment welcome back to the American Rancher Holden Herefords is built on more than 50 years of line one breeding in his own by Jack and Tricia Holden the ranch is located a few miles from Glacier National Park near the Canadian border through the years cattlemen have come to Montana for genetics program is regarded as one of the best in line one genetics and consists of nearly 300 head of cows that are rigidly called each year holden Herefords was started by Jack's grandparents lesson Ethel Holden in the early 1950s by the 1970s the work of the Holden's had gained notoriety as Hereford breeders from across the nation began coming to Montana to buy their cattle due to the performance and quality we've been buying bulls here for Oh probably since in the 70s and you know they're a great family to work with they've got a really nice set of line bred cows that had a lot of maternal side to our our program in the Hereford business there's probably not that many large breeders of Hereford gatlin and to build the records and the performance that we need and get the predictability and the data we like to pick from large herds of cattle or select from large herds and and and Holden's have one of the large large herds of good cows in the country I'm Jack Holden and hold the word Holden Hereford ranch had located a Blair Montana up in northern Montana it's only about 60 miles south of the Canadian border up on the east slopes of the Rockies my grandfather les Holden was a real pioneer in performance testing and that's part of what really put our operation on the map he started selecting for performance in in Hereford cattle back in the late 50s in 1956 they were one of the charter members of the Montana beef performance Association these cows I guess are the result of you know 50 years of selection for these type of females we we we really pride ourselves on our cow herd and are recognized I think you know nationwide for having a great cow herd my wife and I took over in 1987 from my grandparents to cover management to hold in Herefords Jack's grandmother Ethel was a very important part in our life and mine she taught me a lot of values about ranching keeping books and she'll probably really instilled how important the ranching is with your family the Holden Hereford cattle have continually been developed and maintained on performance close attention has also been paid to ensure that the calves will maintain efficiency as well as the ability to range well and breed back our registered Hereford operation is made up of about 250 cows we'll have about 240 to 250 calves a year our line breeding program with the line one cattle has really helped enhance the quality for our customers because the consistency and predictability and uniformity that you get out of our cattle really comes through it's it's kind of a what you see is what you get they know our customers know that the animals they buy are going to breed true to what they are and they know the quality will come through for generations down to come our calves average about 90 pounds of birth weight we start calving basically the 1st of January and we'll calves in January in February we will wean in early September and our calves will our bull calves will average about 725 pounds off the cows yearling weight wise our cattle at yearling time will average the Bulls will average around 1250 to 1300 pounds at 365 days of age I got to love the disposition of Hereford cattle you know easy to get along with easy to work we've strived to produce those kind for for 50 years and you know this this group of bulls hairs just really shows we feel the the type and kind that's that's really right for the industry today the Holden's aggressively use ultrasound embryo transfer and DNA testing these measures are combined with practical culling and evaluation to improve and maintain a high standard in their Hereford program the Holden Hereford females are some of the very best cows one can find the line one breeding is very well balanced in a number of traits and helps cattlemen add or put back stability in their programs we really like the maternal base of the Holden cattle and the function ability of them and the other quality and pigment and they have a lot of things that it takes a long time to work yet already weeded out in the foundation of the cows is a really safe start for us and we use the cows for not only horned use but also to produce some pulled cattle and the bottom side using a Holden cow for us as a complete outcross the most polled cattle gentleman that started our organization jsfiddle was one of the premier Hereford breeders in his day and after his death we just continued with the Hereford breed we found them to be a very good base mother we do not are not crossbreeding operation but our basic County isn't Hereford County we've been coming up here for I thought believe it's eight years now Bulls from from cold at Hereford I'd say that we've been able to increase our weaning rates probably 40 50 pounds by using holden Herefords and holden genetics over the years the performance of programs like holden Herefords are a good reason why good Hereford cattle continue to assert themselves in today's market Stockman with cow herds are extremely happy using holden bulls we purchase Hereford bulls because they mix well with we run Black Angus cows also so they mix well with the black cows we like how they give off a little bit heavier weights a little bit of vigor in them and stuff like that very good very good heifers coming out of them our steers weigh up every year since we started using Hereford bulls we've got pictures of the kids out in the Corral's with them I mean they're walking right up next to our these are holding Hereford bulls all the time we've been using Holden Hereford since 2001 and we like to cross them with black cattle and we've got off good results and the calves were pretty well bringing top dollar at the markets in Arkansas crossed with those Hereford bulls with those vengeance tails and bringing the scales also it's a super operation with super nice people Jack and JD and the families do a excellent job with the cattle got superior cattlemen I'm gonna take them home breed them on some black cattle and get some black Baldy calves and there'll be some of the best selling calves at market Herefords are really experiencing a resurgence out amongst the industry today America's cow herd is Angus based and and one of the best crosses there is is crossing Hereford Herefords and Angus together these Bulls really typify the hold of Hereford bull great combinations of muscle thickness pigment you know high maternal rail grady PDS as far as moderate birth weight high growth combined with the carcass traits coming this March 12th cattleman again had the opportunity to acquire these fine Hereford genetics the sale will be carried live over rfd-tv and is brought to you by superior productions this year's offering includes a great selection of yearling bulls along with the select group of powerful 18 month-old bulls Jack and Trisha will also be offering some choice yearling heifers log on to Holden Herefords calm for an online catalog and more information Holden Herefords is a fine family operation situated in the beautiful yet sometimes harsh country of northern Montana the Holden program is well established they breed for the best and they deliver it this is the American Ranger stay with us welcome back to the American Rancher premium beef cattle genetics must deliver needed traits such as performance fertility disposition soundness as well as a number of other characteristics we now continue our story of holden Herefords with cattlemen who know these genetics all the years of breeding and their efforts you could see was today because there was some of the great breeders of Hereford cattle and commercial cattle all across this continent here today and be one of the great cow herds there isn't of any breed there is on this continent and I think that's what draws people from we sold Bulls to Texas we sold Bulls Tennessee Missouri Pennsylvania California Nevada I mean they just went all over including Montana and the surrounding states here but if you look in pedigrees of Hereford cattle the last 50 years the HHS the Holden prefix has been a huge influence on the Hereford breed Holden Hereford customers come from literally across America and overseas to lay hold to these genetics jacket treasure roll out the hospitality and the auction event is a grand time those who know the program understand the quality and continuous refinement that the Holden name carries in the cattle business we started off with a bloodlines back in probably 98 99 and then we they started to sheriff what we were looking for or we started importing him direct from Jack this is our first visit over to the States to look at the cattle themselves we were very impressed with a uniformity of the cattle and milking ability in there especially the other attachment car is no of no importance to us this great carcass cattle very maternal lines anyone that hasn't discovered these cattle is they don't know what they're missing out on they're very sound cattle very easy on the eye and and they can back it up with farmers to go with it Hereford cattle overall have long been known for their fertility temperament and the ability to range well the holden program keeps these traits in mind plus a number of others such as pigment predictability natural thickness and flushing ability our operation is basically a strictly registered her for operation we do a lot of embryo transfer work on our leat cows our herd was based off the line one breeding which line one was a line of cattle developed at the Mile City research station at Fort Fort Keogh research station at Miles City Montana what line breeding does is really enhances the consistency and uniformity predictability of the cattle we've stacked in the performance traits and all the phenotype that we like and everything else and then with the line breeding program all those traits is what you see is what you get those cattle really breed true people really come here they know they they know that those cattle are going to breed true to their EPDs and pass on the traits the positive traits that they have we have a really stout set of herd bulls bottom Bulls we've raised or purchased we don't do a lot of AI work to outside bulls in our program except in the embryo transfer program we figure that we'll just buy the Elite Bulls or or keep the elite Bulls out of our own program to use and move our program forward and and so we've gotten just an outstanding set of herd bulls that we're using right now that really combine you know lots of performance moderate birth weight lots of carcass carcass traits and lots of maternal in there it's absolutely a tremendous opportunity what what's happening for the beef industry in Russia at the moment the demand for quality beef genetics specifically British breed cattle is just tremendous at the point at this point in time in the sense of looking at whole herd expansion for the entire country Jack Holden and I were fortunate enough to have a significant ship that was exported last fall and going through calving season right now and they've already went through tremendous effort on preparing for future sales and the demand for the Hereford and angus genetics at this point in time is almost unprecedented what Holden Herefords will do for genetic stimulation will be unlike anything they've ever seen in that country the cattle that they do have to work with would be native breeds or imported cattle that came some 50 60 or 70 years ago so the instant response on that modern type genetic will will be unprecedented in terms of growth rate and carcass quality customers have holden Herefords almost to a person will tell you that doing business with Jack and Trisha is always a pleasant experience when you had great cattle to this along with great service it's a pretty unbeatable package they're great people to work with and and have done us an outstanding job they're great breeders of cattle they're dedicated to it and they research out the good pedigrees and there's always striving to produce a great product so that we can go on and use in our program also I'm Jack Holden I'm holding Herefords Villere Montana we'd like to invite you to attend our annual production sale we promise to show you some of the world's greatest Hereford cattle some great scenery and a really good time to deal with some great people and sold cattle all around the country and around the world and we would love to make you our company join Holden Herefords for their 46th annual production sale on Monday March 12th at 12:30 mountain time at the ranch the auction will be carried live over rfd-tv and brought to you by superior productions Jack and Trisha are great Ranchers her supplying cattlemen everywhere with the best in her for genetics not long ago the Texas cowboy Hall of Fame held its annual induction ceremony and welcomed a new class of honorees the Texas cowboy Hall of Fame honors Texas men and women who have excelled in the sport and business of rodeo and the western lifestyle this year as always boots were shined and hats were shaped as former inductees dignitaries friends and family all welcomed in the class of 2012 former Hall of Fame inductee Pam Minich served as the evenings emcee well our city of Fort Worth celebrates its history and works hard to preserve its western heritage Fort Worth has been named one of the most desirable cities in the nation in which to live and I say actually in the world don't you agree the Old West will forever live on in the artwork of the spirit of Texas award winner mr. Joe grandi Awards the pinnacle of the event was hearing from the inductees themselves as they don't their gold medallion and acceptance of their honor being here tonight across the street from where superior started 25 years ago and is still headquartered there brings a rich state stream of memories and happy feelings it is it's just such a great honor to be here but to be included in this company you know I sing about Cowboys and I talk about Cowboys and tell stories about Cowboys and I look around this room and I see real cowboys people who are an inspiration to me thanks to the Texas Hall of Fame for this great honor George's death was not in vain from his death the prominence of stand alone bull riding was born well somebody asked me what my speech was and I told him making speeches didn't get bigger riding bucking horses did so I don't have a big speech I certainly appreciate everything that everybody's done for me we'd like to thank Jack and Tricia and everyone at Holden Herefords for a great show don't forget to look up their sale for more information about us check out our website the American Rancher calm or become our friend on Facebook we'd love to hear from you for the entire American Rancher team I'm Pam Minich thanks for joining us we'll see you next time you

Channel: Superior Productions

Views: 18,906

Rating: 4.7600002 out of 5

Keywords: Holden;superior;livestock;bu, Ranch, Livestock, Cow

Id: ZrRqx4stCDM

Length: 19min 35sec (1175 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 07 2012