Herdquitter Blog

We all know big birth weights can be disastrous in a first-calf heifer program because of increased labor and death loss.   However, there is a hidden cost associated with big birth weights that few ranchers have considered.

Birth weight is highly correlated to a calf’s gestation period.   Studies have shown big calves have longer gestation periods.   We’ve personally seen instances where big 90-pound calves have gestation periods that are 20 days longer than 70-pound calves.   I have heard of gestation periods in other herds that are as much as 10 days longer yet.

 The hidden cost associated with a longer gestation period is in the cow’s inability to get bred back on time.   It’s nearly impossible for a cow with an extra-long gestation period to have a calf every 12 months because there simply aren’t enough days in the year.

Based on the standard 283-day gestation period for beef animals, our start date at PCC Headquarters this year was May 16th.   Because of the calving ease (short gestation) that has been bred into our cattle, we were half done with our calving on that date.   That’s amazing!   We have always preferred calves that do most of their growing on the outside of the cow.

We are very excited to announce that Pharo Cattle Company is making plans to host its first-ever bull sale in Australia.   The demand for our low-input (high-profit) genetics has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years.   Aussie cow-calf producers, for the most part, are think-for-themselves individuals who are not afraid to think outside the status quo herd.         

We are forming a partnership with Furracabad Station in New South Wales.   Furracabad Station has been purchasing some of the very best PCC Angus bulls.   They are mating large numbers of non-pampered, highly-adapted cows to these bulls – and letting the chips fall where they may.   They are in a hurry to create one of the best PCC cowherds in the world.

This is exciting!   This will be our very first bull sale outside the Continental US.   We are starting with a large number of bull calves – mostly half-brothers.   We will push them hard enough to force 60% out of the program.   Only the best will sell.   They will be evaluated and scored just like the bulls we sell in America.   We plan to sell them at 18 months of age in late April or early May of 2019.  

• Good Mover:  Runaway
• Spirited:  Psychotic
• Excellent Disposition:  Never been out of the stall
• Bold:  Runaway
• Well-Bred:  Sire and Dam are also brother and sister
• Athletic:  Runaway
• Needs Intermediate Rider:  Runaway
• Event Prospect:  Big, fast horse
• Dressage Prospect:  Big, slow horse
• Pleasure Prospect:  Pretty color
• Flashy:  One white sock
• Attractive:  Bay
• Free Moving:  Bolts
• Pony Type:  Small and hairy
• Arab Type:  Looks startled
• Quarter Horse Type:  Fat

Elephants have been trained and used by humans for over 4000 years.   How is it possible for a 180-pound man to restrain an 11,000-pound elephant with a piece of rope and a wooden stake?

When an elephant is very young, it is tethered to a wooden stake driven deep into the ground.   This stake is physically able to hold the young elephant despite repeated attempts to escape.   After many unsuccessful attempts to escape, the young elephant eventually believes escape is impossible.   This belief is carried into adulthood.   When the elephant is full grown, it could easily break free from the stake – yet it never attempts to do so.   This extremely powerful and intelligent creature is held captive by nothing more than its own thoughts and beliefs.

Do you suppose you and I might have a few preconceived thoughts and/or beliefs that are holding us back?   Are we tethered to some outdated tradition or paradigm from which we could easily break free – if only we knew we could?   How long will we allow ourselves to be held captive by our own thoughts and beliefs?           

We all have paradigms that determine how we live our lives and how we run our businesses.   Most cow-calf producers limit their own profit and success because they remain tethered to the “Increase Production Per Animal” paradigm.   They need to make the shift to the “Increase Production Per Acre” paradigm.   While one is focused on increasing bragging rights, the other is focused on increasing profits.   This is Step One of the Ten Steps To Double Your Profits.

Hair coat is the best indicator of animal health and well-being.   A healthy beef animal will have a vibrant-looking hair coat – slick and shiny in the summer and cuddly-looking in the winter.   In contrast, an unhealthy animal will have a dull, dead-looking hair coat.

An animal’s ability to shed off quickly and completely in the spring is a very important trait to select for.   The late Jan Bonsma had much to say about this subject.   Among other things, he said, “In selecting livestock for functional efficiency there is no single factor which can give such positive results as early hair shedding.   Animals can shed their hair early in the spring only if they are well adapted to their environment, are in good nutritional status, and have the correct hormonal balance.”

If you live in a hot, humid environment, you can start evaluating animals for early shedding as early as March.   Mid-May through early June is a good time to evaluate hair shedding in cooler environments.   Many producers in northern climates mistakenly believe they don’t need to select for hair coat.   Animals that are best adapted to their environment will be the ones with the healthiest hair coat – no matter where they are located.

Since hair shedding is a moderate to highly heritable trait, we have been observing and scoring hair coat for most of the past 30 years.   The fall of 2006, however, was the first time we put hair coat scores in our sale catalogs.  A 5-star hair coat is as good as they get.   A 3-star hair coat is about average.   If you live in a hot, humid and/or fescue environment, hair coat is a trait you should pay special attention to.   Bulls with a 4+ to 5-star hair coat will work very well in those environments.

Pharo Cattle Company has had Angus, Red Angus and Polled Hereford cattle with substantial heat tolerance for most of two decades.   For the past ten years, we have been experimenting with the creation of a slick-haired, heat-tolerant composite that would be even more suited to climates with high heat and humidity.

To date, we are most satisfied with the results of breeding our slick-haired Red Angus females to Mashona bulls.   Mashona is an indigenous breed from Africa that originated with the Shona people in Zimbabwe.   The breed was developed under natural selection without any external inputs for thousands of years in an extremely harsh and unforgiving environment.   Mashona cattle have very low maintenance requirements.   They are very fertile and easy fleshing.

Mashona cattle are highly mobile grazers that have the ability to browse.   They have early carcass maturity and finish well on grass.   Mashona excel in hot and/or humid environments with low-quality forages.   They work well on endophyte infected fescue.   They have a very high resistance to parasites and disease.   Best of all, Mashona is a Bos Taurus breed.   They are much more efficient and much more fertile than Bos Indicus (Brahman) cross cattle.

We sold our first set of Heat-Tolerant Composite bulls this past spring at our Texas Bull Sale.   The bulls were very well received.   Click on the link below to see an 18-month-old bull that is 50% Red Angus and 50% Mashona.   Notice his outstanding hair coat (video was taken in February).   This bull’s name is Diamond.   We will be using him back in our heat-tolerant program.

Diamond

From the inception of Pharo Cattle Company, we have always been very different from the status quo beef industry.   In the mid-1980s, we realized the beef industry was headed in the wrong direction at a high rate of speed.   While nearly everyone was focused on increasing the size and individual performance of their cattle, we said, “It doesn’t matter how big your cattle are or how fast they can grow if they are NOT profitable.”   We decided to provide an alternative to the “bigger is better” way of thinking.

You can’t get something for nothing.   It was not difficult to increase size and performance – but most producers failed to realize that as individual animal performance and size increase, production and profit per acre decrease.   At the time, the land grant universities and seedstock producers were leading the way.   Unfortunately, they still are.   Within a few years, most cow-calf producers had substantially bigger cows.   This forced them to reduce their stocking rates and/or increase supplemental feeding to keep their so-called “new and improved” cows in production.

Being different is seldom easy – but we knew in our heart that we were different for all the right reasons.   Therefore, we persevered.   Slowly but surely, more and more commercial cow-calf producers understood our philosophies – and broke away from the status quo way of thinking.   We went from selling six bulls at our very first bull sale in 1991 to selling over 900 bulls per year 20 years later.   We have cowherds in 12 different states.   We are developing bulls, mostly on grass, in four different states.   We have proven that our philosophies and our genetics can increase profit per acre in every environment they have been placed in.

When I came up with the Herd Quitter concept in 2008, it was not well received within the PCC organization.   Although everyone understood the message I was trying to convey, very few wanted to be called a Herd Quitter.   I wondered why.   I soon found out that most ranchers have experienced the frustrations of dealing with a herd-quitter cow.   You know the type.   Whenever you are gathering the herd, the herd-quitter cow is always looking for an opportunity to escape – usually at a high rate of speed.   She will wear out a good saddle horse.

I have dealt with several herd-quitter cows in my lifetime – and I know how frustrating they can be.   Moving or gathering a herd of cows would be an easy job if it was not for the herd-quitter cows.   If a herd-quitter cow suspects something is up, she will do everything she can to get away.   She can make you so mad that you want to rope her and drag her back to the herd.   Consider this, though… out of the entire herd of cows, the herd-quitter cow is the ONLY cow thinking for herself!   I have developed a tremendous amount of respect for those herd-quitter cows.

We use the term Herd Quitter to refer to people who have enough courage to break away from the status-quo, herd-mentality way of thinking.   It is more about thinking for yourself than anything else.   If you follow the herd and do what everyone else is doing, you will never be above average and you will never have a competitive advantage.   Dare to be a Herd Quitter.

Quote Worth Re-Quoting –

“Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream.”   ~ Malcolm Muggeridge