MANAGEMENT GENETICS Active Herd Sires

WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO:

We develop efficient, easy-keeping cattle because we believe life is too short, and there are things far more important, than unnecessary problems.  We believe in developing and providing quality commercial seedstock and background calves in order to give our customers peace of mind, not problems, that will afford customers the ability to enjoy additional life priorities knowing the cattle in their pasture will perform and handle themselves.  We develop and prepare our animals for follow-on customers in three way: our management, health protocols, and the genetics we select.

 

MANAGEMENT:

At MC Cattle, we believe cattle should work for you, and themselves, and not require excessive labor and attention from cattlemen and cattlewomen.  Our program focuses on managing and developing animals in a systems-approach style that prepares and conditions animals for easy-handling, health, and long-term performance.  We provide minimal supplementation of animals, expecting and conditioning them to perform on west-central Missouri pasture conditions.  We calve in March-April, reducing winter input costs by synchronizing calving and lactation demands for when natural cool season grass pastures break winter dormancy.  We utilize rotational grazing management to improve pasture stands, growth, and diversity, and by rotating animals frequently, we condition animals to follow and handle easily.  We target weaning for 7 months post-expected calving date, which permits five months of cow recovery before their next calf.  These same well-conditioned mothers enter the next spring breeding season in good body condition for quick and timely breedback.  We develop our herd for the kind of animals we desire and believe would be benefits to any herd seeking replacements: easy keeping, easy handling, and productive.

Easy-handling Momma’s waiting for the gate to move onto fresh pasture.

HEALTH:

With calves, we follow a two-round vaccination protocol in accordance with or vet.  We first work calves in late-spring/early summer when beginning time-synch AI protocols on cows.  This permits us to use modified live vaccines on all calves before any female is exposed for breeding.  We perform a second round of vaccinations at weaning, as well as implant all steers and heifers that do not meet our standards for retention.

Retention females are vaccinated for reproductive diseases as yearlings when beginning the 14-Day CIDR-PG AI time-synch protocol.

GENETICS:

As our name states, the focus of our genetic selection is “Maternal Centric.”  Our genetic focus is on longevity, repeated maternal performance, and cattle traits not always captured in EPDs.  This does not mean we forsake terminal traits for industry profits beyond the cow-calf sector, but we believe good mothers are the baseline for all beef industry profits.  We utilize AI and natural service bulls (purchased and home-developed) with documented maternal performance.  All purchased bulls are from females that hold tight, dependable calving intervals (at present, all purchased bulls are from dams averaging under 368 day calving intervals with six or more calves on record).  Having witnessed differences between purebred and composite animals first-hand, we believe in utilizing heterosis and hybrid vigor.  With natural service, we utilize homozygous black, homozygous polled composite bulls made of balanced British and Continental breeds.  These bulls produce fast-growing calves that hold moderate terminal frames, with low to moderate energy demands–key for long-term performance in a low-input, pasture-centric management system.

Through artificial insemination (AI), we additional sires to increase the herd’s genetic diversity and integrate sires proven to make quality females.  We utilize highly proven sires, and integrate some less proven sires (but from documented maternal lineages) on some heifers and select females to enable us the ability to retain unique out-cross genetics from within our own herd.