he bulls in this catalog have all been rated for fleshing ability. Simply put, this is the animal’s ability to put on and maintain good body condition, even with a limited amount of feed. When feed is plentiful they’ll rapidly improve their condition. Later, this extra condition will serve as a reserve to help the animal survive the tougher times.

     Easy fleshing cows. We’ve noticed that our easy fleshing cows seem to breed back earlier and stay in the cow herd much longer than our hard keeping cows. There appears to be an extremely high correlation between fertility and fleshing ability. Therefore, fleshing ability has become a very important economic trait for us to select for.

     You’ll notice that our cattle are much easier fleshing than cattle in most seedstock herds. This is a result of requiring our cows to remain productive with very little supplemental feed. Hard-keeping cows simply cannot survive for long in a program as tough as ours. Fleshing ability is a trait that needs to be bred into the cattle — NOT fed into them.

     Easy fleshing bulls should sire daughters that are easy fleshing. Our sale bulls are rated with 1 to 5 stars for fleshing ability, with 5 being the best and 3 being about average. These scores will reflect the fleshing ability of both the bull and his mother. We believe you should pay special attention to this trait if you are raising your own replacement heifers.

	Use our unique "star" system to select your bulls.

oor disposition in a cow herd can be created by rough handling, but it is also very heritable! A bull with a bad disposition will not only cause problems himself; he will also produce replacement females with similar disposition problems. Before long, your entire herd will become more difficult to work with.

     Disposition is extremely important to us! Life is much too short to put up with nervous or ill-tempered cattle. At calving we give each cow a score for disposition, from 1 to 5. If there is a problem, we eliminate it! I want a momma cow that is protective and concerned about her new baby, but not to the point that she creates a hazard to my health. Every time our cattle are sorted or run through the chute we monitor and record disposition problems. We will not tolerate cattle that are nervous, wild, and hard to handle.

     All of our bulls have been put through a simple test that allows us to give them a score for disposition, from 1 to 5. We sort each bull off by himself in an alley and crowd him between two people. This measures the bull’s comfort zone, as well as his disposition. A bull that will stand calmly, with no signs of excitement or nervousness, will receive a high score. If a bull gets nervous and tries to run past you he will receive a low score. Each bull is rated with 1 to 5 stars, with 5 being the best and 3 being average. We think you will find our 3-star bulls to be comparable to everyone else’s bulls.

     Do not overlook. Disposition is an important economic trait that should not be overlooked. Never purchase bulls from herds that have a potential problem. Disposition problems are relatively easy to spot when you first walk into the cowherd or the bull pen.