A cow should convert feed to pounds with minimal management. Calving time should be about protecting babies' ears and watching with anticipation the renewal of the herd, not long births in the middle of the night ending with assistance or worse... a trip to the veterinarian. It shouldn't be about helping the newborn get its first suck. That's a mama cow's job and it's called maternal instinct. We sell herd bulls here and that is our business, but we cull harder for maternal strengths in our own cow herd than many would say is reasonable. We do it because when we visit the herds of our commercial customers we see some truly great cattle. Consistently moderate framed, easy fleshing, highly maternal mama cows that these ranchers have bred through generations of honest appraisal and selection. Although it is unlikely that using one sire without those traits can ruin a herd, why take the risk of having to cull an entire sire group of females after their first calf? Getting those replacements to production age is one of the costliest investments a ranching outfit can make and so now more than ever it has become necessary to know that the fundamentals in the genetics should never be compromised.
We welcome you to join us anytime for a coffee and to evaluate the cattle for yourselves, and hope to see you in February for our annual production sale.
Sincerely,
Mick & Deb Trefiak
