Please look at the bull pages for Yankee Nitro and Yankee Enterprise as well as the cow pages for MRLN Sybil and Yankee Isabel for individual pictures of some heifers and bull calves born this year from each of these animals. These calves are high performance individuals with lots of capacity, muscling and cosmetics to please the most discriminating breeder. I hope to take additional pictures and post them soon. We will also be adding individual bull pages for three new polled bulls that we test bred to a representative group of cows this last spring.
DIRECT CONTACT: Contact us directly if you are interested in our genetics.
JUNE 21, 2009 NEWS.
It Rained. In our June 10 website news item, we wrote that we were pursuing all means to attempt to get it to rain, even to the point of draping rattlesnakes belly up over a fence. After thusly positioning 4 snakes during the last of May and the first of June, it rained more than an inch during the second week of June. You gotta believe.
North American Fullblood Show. We want to encourage all Fullblood breeders to participate in the First Ever Fullblood show. Entries will be limited to cattle registered as fullblood with the American Simmental Association and the Canadian Simmental Association.
The show will be held at the North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE) in Louisville, Kentucky, USA on November 18, 2009. Jim Williams from Boling, Texas will be the judge. There are presently 18 breeders who have committed to participate with probably another 10 or so who are likely to commit before the entry deadline of October 1, 2009. This great event will enable all Fullblood Fleckvieh and Fullblood Simmental breeders to promote their cattle on a level playing field.
Contact Larry Maxey at larrymaxey@hughes.net to obtain more information. Larry has done a grand job in organizing this event. He deserves the gratitude of all Fullblood breeders for his time and effort.
Fullblood Registry. The American Simmental Association has prepared and published a separate registry for fullblood cattle. This registry is separated from the other registries for the purebred, percentage, and simbrah cattle. While arguably the epd figures should be separately computed for each registry, because there is a substantial difference in the genetics of each category, the ASA does not presently do this. Instead the information on all animals is lumped together and the formula prepared by the ASA is uniformly applied to all animals. Thus, an animal with half Angus and half Simmental genetics is directly compared to a fullblood animal.
Even though fullblood cattle have been identified as fullbloods by the ASA and Canadian Simmental Association for decades, the separate fullblood registry was first published in March 2009 issue of SimTalk. Fullblood genetics can also be separated out on the ASA website. In the drop down menu on the home page labeled search, go to the epd section. On the bottom right of that screen, where it asks the user to identify the breed, select fullblood only. You can compare fullblood animals by using the selection tools offered on that screen.
The separate listing for fullbloods was not sought nor supported by any existing organization or part of an existing organization. Instead, the separate listing was achieved through the efforts of an ad hoc group of dedicated breeders, organized by Larry Maxey, with a view of benefiting all fullblood breeders, both large and small.
The ASA and the CSA are the only registries in the world to recognize and regulate the registration of fullbloods. The ASA is the only registry worldwide to recognize fullblood cattle with a separate registry. It is only through the vigilance of the associations and the individual breeders that North American breeders can continue to guarantee that our fullblood genetics are indeed pure and that the designation of an animal as a fullblood is meaningful.
At the present time, approximately 3% of the registrations with the ASA and approximately 33% of the registrations with the CSA are entitled to be designated as fullblood.
JUNE 10, 2009 NEWS Drape the snake over the fence.
Each year during May we inspect all bulls, cows and calves and give all appropriate shots and treatments. We brand all calves, dehorn those that aren’t polled, and castrate all bull calves that aren’t polled or didn’t meet our expectations.
The first part of June we remove all bulls from the breeding herds and, after another inspection of the calves, sort off the pairs that have polled heifers and polled bulls that we intend to keep. After our June inspection, we concluded that the 2009 calf crop is the best we have produced. In addition to being a large number of top quality polled calves, there are a significant number that have the cosmetics we have been attempting to produce for a long time period. During the first part of July, we will make more detailed inspections and undoubtedly do some further culling. While we’d rather have a lot of rain, hopefully the weather will cooperate so we’ll be able to take some pictures. Check for new pictures on this website the end of July.
The demand for polled Full Fleckvieh Fullblood cattle continues unabated. Polled cattle produce the highest prices at auction and from on farm sales. The number of breeders that are pursuing a polled program is increasing every day. Some breeders, who previously disparaged polled cattle because they were breeding horned genetics, have come to realize that there is an increasing demand for polled cattle and want to get in on this trend.
Because of the increasing quality of polled genetics, some even exceed the best horned genetics. The most notable example of outstanding polled genetics is Yankee Nitro. You can click here to go directly to his webpage where you wlll see the significant performance genetics that Nitro has and will produce. He weighed 2550 pounds in May 2009 during the middle of his breeding season. We have a number of outstanding heifers and bulls sired by Nitro that are presently available for sale.
This has been a tough year and will likely get worse because of unusual weather. It didn’t rain when it should have rained. Our lake is filled by rain runoff which provides water to irrigate during our always rainless summer and fall. At the end of the “rainy season” this year, the lake level was at about the point where it would normally be at the end of the irrigation season. Unless we get unusually summer rain, we won’t be growing grass after the end of June. Fortunately, the herd is made up of easy doing cattle but the condition of the cows still won’t be as great as it would be if there was the usual amount of feed.
An “old wives tale” promises that if you drape a dead rattlesnake belly up over the fence it will rain. We we draped 4 snakes in the last 3 weeks. We’ll let you know if it rained. If you know of other rain provoking acts or potions, please share them with us.
NEWS FLASH 12/13/08:
Here are some pictures of polled fullblood Fleckvieh calves taken in the pasture on 12/11/08. No fitting. No clipping. No washing. Raised on their dams and grass.
Group of 5 polled heifers sired by Nitro, Enterprise and Walberg
A polled heifer sired by Nitro
A polled bull calf sired by Nitro
We are showing you pictures of these animals to demonstrate that a solid color pattern can be achieved using only pure Fleckvieh genetics.
We also produced a number of polled cattle this year that aren’t solid colored. While they are predominately solid red on the body, a lot have eye pigmentation, goggles and some have masks. Also, as a result of our efforts to develop polled genetics that are outcross to our herd, some of the calves born in 2008 do not have any pigmentation on the head.
NEWS FLASH 9/13/08:
I just completed a data base search on YANKEE NITRO. WOW
Nitro is one of the top fullblood bulls of all time when compared to all of the fullblood horned and polled bulls in the records of the American Simmental Association as of this date. Nitro is polled and outshines all but a few horned bulls. Here are his rankings.
- TOP 16 WEANING WEIGHT
- TOP 19 YEARLING WEIGHT
- TOP 15 CARCASS WEIGHT
- TOP 60 RIB EYE
Nitro has great GeneStar test results:
Nitro has been tested to a homozygous non-dilutor.
Nitro is one of the very few fullblood bulls that produces both outstanding bulls and females.
We have a few, selected 2008 polled Full Fleckvieh fullblood bulls and heifers available for purchase at this time. If you are interested, please let me know.
07/01/08:
PRODUCTION SALE: We intended to have a production sale this fall. However, we decided to cancel it because the economy is not at all good and is not expected to improve in the near term. As a result, we believe that prices will be down as reflected in many of the sales so far this year. Because the expenses of having a sale are essentially fixed and have increased in the last couple of years, the anticipated net profit from a sale would be lower than it should be.
FOR SALE: We have updated the For Sale section of our website. We have updated the lists of Semen for Sale and Embryos for Sale. We will soon be adding photos and information on Bulls for Sale, and Females for Sale. You can go directly to each list by clicking on the name. The hold up on the completion of these two new presentations will be my seeming inability to get organized to take pictures that are good enough to use.
If there is something that you are particularly interested in, and you don’t see it in the For Sale section, please contact us.
WEATHER: The unusual wet and cold weather this spring was almost a disaster for for our hay crop. Normally we would have had all of our first cutting of hay in the barn by early June. However, the rain and cold weather prevented this from happen-ing. We finally completed haying by the last of June. Of course, the usual equipment malfunctions extended the normal completion time.
BREEDING PROGRAM: As most breeders know, we do not follow a “market driven” breeding program. Our philosophy is reflected in the paraphrasing of a well known phrase: "If you breed it, they will come." We emphasize the breeding and develop-ment of Polled Full Fleckvieh Fullblood genetics to improve the breed instead of producing something that fits popular trends and be readily salable but lacking in quality. We don’t transplant females just to produce embryos to sell or to multiply animals. Our donors are selected because or their production history, in addition to the other quality requirements. We use only Polled Full Fleckvieh Genetics as defined on our website, and are vigilant to make certain that non qualifying genetics are kept out. While this concept will not fit all breeding programs, we are available now and will be in the future to provide these genetics for others.
2008 CALF CROP: The 2008 calf crop turned out to be exceptional. We continue to follow strict culling practices. Calves that have horns, don’t have acceptable performance, acceptable conformation, or an acceptable color pattern are readily culled. Even after the first cut, we continue our culling review and will discard an animal doesn’t turn out as it should. Here is a brief summary of the calves.
Nitro: Yankee Nitro sired the greatest number of calves. They are vigorous at birth and appear to be the most promising of all of the sire groups. They are predominately dark red with lots of head pigmentation. They are moderate in frame with lots of muscle. We will continue to use Nitro.
Enterprise: Yankee Enterprise has the next greatest number of calves. These are on the whole a little lighter colored than the Nitro sired calves and look just as good. We will continue to use Enterprise.
Walberg: Yankee Walberg’s calves match the 2007 calves in performance, color and conformation. His production is very consistent. They are almost entirely solid colored with lots of head pigmentation. There are a couple of bull calves that appear as if they will surpass Walberg which is timely because Walberg is dead. Hopefully each will turn out and we will be able to use them next breeding season.
Neutron: Yankee Neutron continues to produce solid colored calves with lots of pigmentation on the head. The calves are good performance cattle. We will not use him again because he is horned.
Evan 440L: Bar 5 Evan 440L produces medium framed, well muscled cattle but the color pattern isn’t consistent. There are too many instances where the offspring are white and the white comes from him, not the dam. Even though the performance and conformation are acceptable, we will not use Evan again because he is horned.
Otto: Yankee Otto’s first calf crop was born this year. He was bred AI to a number of heifers who all calved unassisted demonstrating he is a calving ease bull. The performance is also promising. Dark red and goggles predominate. We will use him again and will probably use him to breed some donors.
Brandberg: While Brandberg is available to the world for AI breeding through Bavarian Fleckvieh Genetics, we bred him AI to a few horned females because he is an outcross to our herd. The resulting offspring are spotted overall and generally have a lighter color than we prefer. The advantage is that they appear to be real beef animals with lots of muscling. We only ended up with two polled heifers and two polled bulls that survived the culling process. We have some embryos sired by Brandberg in the tank that we will put in next spring if someone doesn’t purchase them before then.
Rojo: We were unable to use Virginia’s Rojo again. The USA/Canadian bor-der closure in December 2005 prevented us from shipping him here until December 2007. Unfortunately, he had splits in both rear hoofs and over the winter he developed infections that kept him from being used in the 2008 season. Hopefully he will be sound and we can use him in 2009 even though he is horned. Rojo, assuming he is healthy, will be the only horned bull we will use in the 2009 breeding season.
Hopefully our next news report will contain some pictures of the 2008 calf crop. Back to work!
10/1/07: Our customers make money with cattle purchased from us.
You also can profit by purchasing at our next production sale, November 1, 2008. The following two examples prove this conclusion.
- Kent Dollar of Dollar’s Diamond D purchased Yankee Nancy as a bred heifer for $5,000 in 2006. Kent then sold her first calf, a polled heifer, for $19,000 in 2007. Kent made almost 4 times his investment in less than a year and she still has years of money making production left.
- Yankee Nina was purchased in 2005 by Greg Kemp of Indian Creek Cattle Company for $20,000 as a young, open heifer. Greg sold her first polled heifer calf for $28,000 in 2007. Nina has years of production remaining.
Increase your profits by attending and purchasing at our next production sale to be held at YCR on November 1, 2008. Almost the entire sale offering will consist of the best Polled Fullblood Fleckvieh genetics available in the world.
It was a very productive spring. Mother nature was very kind, providing more than adequate rain for the storage of water in our lake for the irrigation of the upper ranch. There was also sufficient snow in the mountains to provide water to irrigate the lower ranch with water transported to us by the irrigation districts. Our part of the world is very dry during the growing season. Nothing will grow if you don’t have access to irrigation water.
The calf crop was disappointing, only because we had 80% bulls this year. It took longer this winter to get all of the calves on the ground so, to get our calving period back to a 70 day spread, and to reduce our cow herd because we had exceeded the capacity of the ranch to be self sufficient, we culled a number of the older cows and those that were late calving. Anything that wasn’t “good enough” was cause to be loaded on the truck going to town. Focusing on our younger females also gives an opportunity to utilize the advancements we have made in our breeding program.
The most notable calves this year were sired by Nitro and Enterprise. Nitro’s calves all came unassisted, even from first calf heifers. They are predominately solid colored with mostly a small star or blaze on the head. One is solid colored overall. A number are polled. The Enterprise calves were a little larger and we assisted three from first calf heifers. They are likewise solid colored on the body and consistently have at least goggles on the head. The calves from both appear to have the potential for good performance and the weaning weights are within our projections.
We continue to focus our efforts on breeding only Full Fleckvieh Fullblood cattle. We believe that maintaining our focus on one breed enables us to do a much better job than if we divided our time with developing another breed. We are putting all of our eggs in one basket and watching them hatch and grow.
11/1/06: WORLD CLASS GENETICS FOR A REAL WORLD PRICE
The 10/28/06 sale held here was very successful for the purchasers. Good deals abounded. The genetics purchased at this sale will make money for the purchasers and assist each in advancing their own programs.
Genetics sold into three countries: Australia, three provinces in Canada, and 16 states in the United States. The high selling lot was a flush purchased by Anchor D Ranch, Alberta, Canada. The high selling bred heifer was purchased by Bar-5, Ontario, Canada. The high selling open heifer was purchased by Little Creek Fleckvieh, Mississippi.
The average price paid was US$2,465.00. The goal of YCR to sell polled Fleckvieh genetics at a real world price was achieved.
9/6/06: Click Here for the October 27-28, 2006 Sale Catalog.
8/28/06: The first cutting of hay is in the barn and we are part way through the second cutting. It was much easier this time through with the use of our new John Deere 4995 Windrower with a 994 rotary platform. It is a luxury to operate, especially when compared to our old, many times rebuilt, swather.
So far this summer, we have had record hot weather. The weather was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit for a couple of weeks in July and August continued with much of the same. It hasn’t rained here since the first of June.
Our youngest daughter, Tara, her husband David and children now live on the ranch. They previously lived in Alaska where David has his law practice. The traveling for his lawyer work makes this a convenient location for him. Our oldest daughter, Laresa, husband Bill, and their children have lived here for about 3 years. Bill manages a transportation service. Our lives changed considerably with the addition of two families, 5 grandchildren, 8 horses, 4 dogs and 5 cats.
The calves born this year are turning out to be exceptional. For a preview, please go to the Our Programs section of this website and look at a few of the new polled calves, as well as at the individual cow pages for K&H Dutchess 28L and Yankee Barbara.
We are getting ready for the World’s First Polled Fleckvieh Fullblood sale. It will be held here on October 27 – 28, 2006. Allan Browarny was here on August 2 and 3 for photos. Polled genetics from 4 different countries are consigned. There have been a lot of inquires.
The catalog will be out after the first of September. If you want a catalog mailed to you, please let us know.
The myriad of details in getting this sale up and running are staggering. My list of things yet to do is over a page long.
The border closure between the USA and Canada has been opened northbound so Canadian breeders will be able to take advantage of the opportunity to purchase genetics bred south of their border. The prognosticators predict that the border southbound will be opened this coming winter.
Please attend this event to view and purchase some great cattle as well as to have a great time. There are a lot of interesting things to do and see in this area as outlined in a link on the first page of our website.
1/31/06
: We start calving on January 1 and hopefully end on the first of March. The bad weather that started in December continued unabated. It has either rained, sleeted or snowed almost constantly since then. We have lost calves where the cow calved too close to the creek and were swept away in the flood waters. The mud isn’t the best for calves either. Looking at it optimistically, we are about half way through. The results make it all worthwhile when you view the calves on the ground. There are in excess of a hundred twenty five calves on the ground now and a large number show lots of promise.
We are in the planning stages for a production sale on to be held here on
October 28, 2006
. To our knowledge, it will be the world’s first sale emphasizing polled full fleckvieh fullblood cattle. We plan on this being an annual event. Polled females will be bred horned and polled; horned females will be bred polled. We plan on consigning a number of solid colored females and perhaps an outstanding bull or two. There should be several polled bulls on offer. It is possible that there will be a number of guest consignors. We anticipate posting the sale catalog on our website no later than the first of September, assuming that I get the photos done in time.
With so many details to take care of in putting on a sale, I’m certain the remainder of the year will be particularly busy for us.
11/10/05
: We have had a successful season, in spite of the bad weather that afflicted us all spring and summer.
Our first two polled full fleckvieh fullblood females to sell were purchased by Greg Kemp of Indian Creek Cattle Company,
Huntsville
,
Alabama
. Greg took home Yankee Nina from the Quest VI and Yankee Fergy, from the FSFF Showcase sale in
Huntsville
,
Alabama
. Thank you Greg. We hope that the progeny from these two fine females will enhance your breeding program.
Our polled breeding program advanced several generations with the 2005 calf crop. While we will continue to use our older polled genetics, we plan on testing four 2005 polled bull calves on approximately 20 to 30 females in the 2006 breeding season. Go to the individual bull pages for Yankee Neutron and Yankee Enterprise to view two of our new additions.
5/1/05: This was going to be our first year as a Fleckvieh breeder to spend time on marketing to be highlighted by a production sale in November 2005. However, mother nature intervened with a drought. The local irrigation districts that provide the water to irrigate our hay fields only have 30% of the normal snow pack and stored water they need to operate for a full season. The lake that provides the irrigation water for the upper ranch is now at only 50% capacity. This means that we won’t have enough water to grow grass in the pastures or to put up enough hay for the winter. Because this will be a very short grass year, the performance of the cattle will suffer. Accordingly, we have rescheduled our production sale to November 11, 2006.
On a better note, who can avoid praising the yearly calf crop in the spring. The most promising calves are sired by Natural. To begin with, Natural produced “THE LITTER” from a mating with Lucy. There are a few that are totally red and some with a star or blaze on the head. To make it even better, some are polled. These will be very growthy animals. Both the sire and the dam are GeneSTAR Marbling * and Tenderness ** and have large rib eyes.
We once again AI’s a number of females to Fritz with a number of polled offspring resulting. Evan produced a number of polled calves from polled dams. Walberg has a number of polled calves from horned females sired by Rusty. Missouri’s first Fleckvieh calf crop is on the ground. There is more color variation in the Missouri calves than I had hoped for, but, for the most part, they are solid colored in the body and at least have double goggles. There are a few that are solid red with just a star or a blaze on the head.
Because of the quality offspring, we are continuing to use each of these 4 bulls for pasture breeding in furtherance of our Serial Breeding © program. Neutron is being used for the first time this breeding season.
There is an increasing amount of interest in the Fleckvieh breed in the west. We are proud to be able to contribute to the development of this great breed.
8/4/04: The 2004 calf crop looks to be one of the best ever. Each of the herdsires produced offspring that show lots of promise. I just put some of the calf pictures on the website. We are particularly impressed with some of the calves sired by Natural, Evan and Walberg. The Natural sired calves are a continuation of our Serial Breeding Program because they were produced from dams sired first by Tradition and then by Bandero. These calves show lots of potential for growth and are colored right. A high percentage of them are solid red with only a little white on the head. Walberg produced a number of polled heifers that, like his prior offspring, have lots of depth and capacity. We have a number of polled females sired by him in the herd.
Our pasture breeding season was successfully completed. Each of the herdsires stayed the course and remained in good condition to the end.
Summer is our busiest time of the year. It takes a lot of time and work to keep the fields and pastures irrigated, put up hay, and keep the herds rotated to fresh grass. We just finished converting one 50 acre field from flood irrigation by ditches to a piped system that doesn’t need a pump to deliver the water. We will soon start on a couple of fields that need to be reworked and planted in alfalfa. If we can get to it, there are a couple of dryland fields that we want to plant in oats and peas.
For quite some time, the cow pages on our website have been “under construction.” Even though they will not be completed, we are going live within a few days. It is still a work in progress. You will observe that the pictures of some sires and dams are missing. I have just about exhausted all of my sources and patience, attempting to find pictures that I know exist because I took them. There are also pictures of animals that are in the herd that have never been taken that I need to capture. The EVB charts and pedigrees of the cows have yet to be completed. This website is a high maintenance creature.
We truly appreciate receiving the compliments, comments, suggestions, and edits that viewers of our website have sent and we hope will continue to send.
4/10/04: The month of March was glorious with record breaking temperatures. One day was the warmest since 1911. Almost looks like we could start cutting hay in a couple of weeks. We need to start irrigation very soon.
Our calving season went well. This is the first calf crop sired by Natural at YCR. They show lots of promise with significant length and capacity. A number of them have almost solid colored heads. There were only 2 bulls and 8 females sired by him. This is also the first calf crop sired by Evan. Evan’s calves are distinguishable by depth of body and lots of butts and guts. I’ll get pictures on the website before summer is gone.
For the 2004 breeding season, we are walking Natural, Bandero, Missouri, Walberg, and Evan 440L. We used Fritz extensively for AI breeding.
Our embryo transfer work was very successful with 25 fresh embryos transferred on April 9.
Our cow pages for the website are not yet completed. I am the holdup with lots of pictures remaining to be taken this summer. We’ll go live this fall, completed or not.
Roy Schwake was here the last of March. Roy picked 4 full sisters from the heart of our breeding program to go to Dollar’s Diamond D Quest Sale in Arkansas, in September, 2004. They are all Full Fleckvieh Fullbloods, sired by Bandero from Tradition sired dams. They are all bred to Natural for early 2005 calves. All are the right kind, in addition to being solid red with substantial facial pigmentation. The 2005 calves sired by Natural should be fantastic, should have solid red bodies, and almost solid red heads.
3/11/04: Had I known how much time and effort it would take to develop a website, this project would never have gotten started. But, as it started to come together, with the able assistance of website designer, Jake Akin, jakeakin@mind.net (who knows what he is doing), it became an engaging activity.
As you may have noticed, this site went live before it was completed. We decided to put up what we had at the present, and will add more later.You will also have noticed I am not a good photographer. It also takes a huge amount of time to get the subject organized and then do an acceptable job in capturing the image. We will continue to strive to provide photographs so that this site will be more informative. This is a work in progress.
Thank you for taking the time to look us over. If we can help you with anything, please let us know.
We welcome your suggestions, corrections, and criticisms. Please go to the contact us section, or email us at the address below and share your thoughts.
