Our registered Gelbvieh and Balancer operation has been our main ranching focus for over 35 years. Today, it includes 400 cows maintained on the ranch plus an additional planned matings produced in cooperator herds which gives up over 600 progeny to select from and to sell approximately 120 bulls and 80 females in our annual production sale the last Saturday of February. 20 to 25 private treaty bulls are also marketed annually. They are generally comprised of bulls born after March 15 or bulls that, for a variety of reasons, had to be removed from the bull sale and are now ready for service.
We demand that cattle have both eye appeal and strong EPD tabulations. The majority of the bulls and females sold have top 30% birthweight and calving ease EPD's combined with well above average growth and carcass genetic indicators. All bulls selling have genomic enhanced EPD's to help buyers increase the accuracy of genetic selections and are sire verified. The large and meaningful contemporary groups are maintained, and within herd rations are also an important culling criteria. Ultrasound data is collected on all the bulls, and carcass EPD's are always a consideration in every mating. Ultrasound date is not collected on females, as our females are never fed any grain throughout their lifetime. They are developed on ammoniated wheat straw, sorghum silage, alfalfa hay, and distillers.
Before any EPDs, pedigree, individual ratios, or ultrasound data are considered in the selection of seedstock we retain or purchase, the principles of sound stockmanship are applied first. We insist on sound feet and legs, natural fleshing ability, acceptable teats and udders, sensible frame size, and good disposition. Then, we do our best to make them as phenotypically appealing as possible while applying our astringent demands for low- birth, high-growth, and top carcass EPDs.
We have been privileged to have bred as well as have owned several bulls that have been the Gelbvieh and Balancer breed’s elite AI sires for many years. We utilize our own top genetics and are constantly searching the industry for elite herdsire prospects. Once superior sires have been identified, we utilize an aggressive AI and ET program to build large sire groups for buyers as well as to strengthen the genetic base in our cow herd.
We verify our bred-in carcass strengths in the American Gelbvieh Foundation Scale and Rail Contest which is highly structured and highly competitive. In 2019 our resident herd sire, EGL Game Changer D136, became the first sire to sire the Grand Champion Carcass Value Steer and the Grand Champion Pen of Carcass Value Steers in the Balancer Division. In the 2021 Scale and Rail Contest, Post Rock resident herd sire, VLK C503 Young Gun, became the second sire in breed history to sire both the Grand Champion Balancer Carcass Value Steer and also the Grand Champion Pen of Balancer Steers. The 2022 Scale and Rail Contest proved to be a banner year for the Post Rock program. In the purebred division, our purebred resident herd sire, RNBG 32F9 (Roy), sired the Grand Champion Average Daily Gain Purebred and the Grand Champion Pen of Carcass Value Purebred Steers and they were ranked as the 3rd, 4th, and 5th overall purebred steers. His sons graded 100% choice with an average 4.4 ADG, 446 marbling score, 16.24 average rib eye area, and only 0.58 inches of backfat with an average yield grade of 2.0. In the Balancer division our resident herd sire, Probity 254D28, sired the Grand Champion Pen of Balancer Steers, and also sired the third place over all carcass value steer. His sons in the contest graded 100% choice, with a 4.35 ADG, 488 marbling score, 2.9 yield grade, 15.44 rib eye area and 0.79 bf. All together our 15 steers we entered hung 7 banners in a nearly 100 head contest.
We also farm winter wheat, soybeans, milo, and corn in addition to putting alfalfa hay and native prairie grass, and we also double crop a good bit of male sterile cane and wheat stubble for hay. All except the soybeans are used as crop residue for grazing in the fall and winter months or as forage feed for our cattle. We also feed many tons of ammoniated wheat straw annually because it is cheap and readily available. We never feed any grains or concentrates to any females but do use wet distillers to balance rations and meet the protein requirements in the winter months.
Our cow herd utilizes warm season native grass from May 1 until November 15, at which time they are moved to milo and corn stalks until hopefully January 15, depending on weather and snowfall. This is a very similar environment to most of the commercial cow herds in our area.
