Hereford Tour

[BIZIN]

Well guys I am planning a hereford tour for this summer or next. These are the places I am planning on going to, anyone I missed who is worth seeing along this route? especially in western Iowa, Eastern Nebraska and SE South Dakota and Southern North Dakota. This is the order of places I was going. Any places not worth going to on the list? Heading to Churchill, Holdens, Coopers, Feddes, and Colyer for sure in July, thats why this trip might be next summer.

Mrnak Herefords, Bowman, ND
Stuber Herefords, Bowman, ND
Baker Herefords, Rapid City, SD
Stangle Herefords, Marsland, NE
Van Newkirk Herefords, OshKosh, NE
Monahan Cattle Co., Hyannis, NE
Hoffman Herefords, Thedford, NE
Upstream Ranch, Taylor, NE
Ridder Herefords, Callaway, NE
Jamison Herefords, Quinter, KS
Deewall Herefords, Coldwater, KS
Lonker Herefords, Medicine Lodge, KS
Barber Ranch, Channing, TX
Harrison Cattle Co, Arapaho, OK
Jim Lents Herefords, Indiahoma, OK
Dufur Herefords, Caddo, OK
Gustafson Herefords, Junction City, OK
Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS
Jensen Bros, Courtland, KS
Gregory Cattle Co. Johnson, NE
Elm Creek Ranch, Ree Heights, SD
Rausch Herefords, Hoven, SD
Hoffman Herefords, Leola, SD
Topp Herefords, Grace City, ND

 

[Alan]

I would like to see Sandhill Farms, Kevin Schultz, Haviland, KS. One of the best if not the best polled breeders out there. I have had lots of luck using his lines, Rib Eye, Progress, M326 have made some very nice cows for me.

Edit to add, superior is televising his next sale on April 3rd. I haven't looked but he probably has some video on his website.

 

[gizmom]

Wow we aren't Hereford breeders but that sounds like a great trip, even if I don't know them. We went on a tour back in 08 and visited several farms, the one thing I can tell you is give yourself enough time to really look and see the unique aspects of each different operation. We spent a 9 hour day with Lewis at Sinclair and could have spent another day on just that one operation. The Van Dykes were wonderful and that was another place that we could have stayed another day, wealth of cattle knowledge to be found with that family. Quality instead of quantity.

gizmom

 

[BIZIN]

Thanks, was also going to go from Rapid City to Buffalo, WY to White Cattle Co., then up to Sheridan, WY to NJW Polled herefords, down to Torrington, WY to Ochsner's, but might put that into a different trip through Wyoming and Colorado.

 

[Black and Good]

Might consider Roth Hereford Farms Winsor, MO. Their In West central MO. B&G

 

[Alan]

Okay, I stand corrected, NJW is another one of the best, good call on their visit.

 

[jedstivers]

I met the Dewalls last month. They have a beautiful place and great cattle. I brought a bull back from them.
One that's not on your list but I know nothing about them is Langford Herefords. They are in Oklahoma.

 

[BIZIN]

Thanks, I just looked at Langford's website, looks like they got a bunch of Allen Henderson cows down there. Bunch of their herd sires are out of LPG dams, thats Hendersons from Alberta. My dad and breeder I just bought 47 cows off of said they have some of the best in the business but dispersed all mature cows to the states and started back up again with bred heifers and heifer calves. Definately putting that on the list.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Wow what a trip! Sure sounds like fun.

 

[jedstivers]

Well if you end up in East Arkansas let me know.

 

[Aaron]

Thanks, I just looked at Langford's website, looks like they got a bunch of Allen Henderson cows down there. Bunch of their herd sires are out of LPG dams, thats Hendersons from Alberta. My dad and breeder I just bought 47 cows off of said they have some of the best in the business but dispersed all mature cows to the states and started back up again with bred heifers and heifer calves. Definately putting that on the list.

Are Henderson's actually going to start up again, or are they just splitting the income out? That is what they told me last year when I was phoning around for bulls last spring. They figured 2-3 years (from last year) they would be out of it - sell the cows first. Said everyone wanted to slow down.

 

[BIZIN]

Aaron, they had bulls at Calgary. Peter Ulrich made it sound like they kept the bred heifers and heifer calves. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought they were staying in it. Same with Anderson's, sold mature cows to Hirsche, kept bred heifers, bulls, and heifer calves.

 

[SPH]

That's quite the list and some pretty good Hereford programs for sure. If you are looking for one in western Iowa it may be a little out of your way (about an hour and a half from Omaha) but Wiese & Sons in Manning, IA is a century farm in Iowa run by 4 generations and started breeding Herefords in 1912. I believe they were breeding around 400 females last summer when we stopped in for a visit to see how the bull they bought from us was doing. Very nice program, they have some King Ten breeding along with their own line breeding.

Sandhill would be a good one too as someone mentioned. Maybe Linton Polled Herefords in Miller, NE too. I'll look through my Iowa directory and see if I can recommend any others on the western side of the state, there's a page with a map of breeders that I can try to associate who lives over in that area.

 

[TexasBred]

Kokernot 06 ranch, Alpine and Ft. Davis, Texas...good West Texas herefords

W4 Ranch, Morgan, Texas.


Both have websites you can check out.

 

[Herefords.US]

Sounds like you have a great trip planned!

Of all those possibilities, the one place to definitely keep on your list is Deewall's. Great folks and looking at their cattle along with the heritage and philosophy behind their breeding program puts a great perspective on anything else that you will see on your trip.

Conversely, I hope you get a better response from Dufur Herefords than my friend and I did. When my friend called them about looking at their cattle on a trip that we made last summer, the response that he got was: "We wouldn't be interested in doing anything like that."

 

[jedstivers]

Sounds like you have a great trip planned!

Of all those possibilities, the one place to definitely keep on your list is Deewall's. Great folks and looking at their cattle along with the heritage and philosophy behind their breeding program puts a great perspective on anything else that you will see on your trip.

Conversely, I hope you get a better response from Dufur Herefords than my friend and I did. When my friend called them about looking at their cattle on a trip that we made last summer, the response that he got was: "We wouldn't be interested in doing anything like that."

The Dewalls are really nice people and their culls are better than a lot of herds top of the line.
Also they are in the middle of some of the best cattle country in the world I guess. I came in from east then south to go home. It was a real good trip just seeing the country.

 

[mattn]

You should stop by Tegtmeier Herefords in Burchard Ne, while you are up that way. Russ is one of the best.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Since you are coming through Montana might stop at Northern Genetics the Diemert place west of Chester on HWY 200. I believe he got Peter's old U2 bull.

 

[SPH]

I went through the Iowa directory and unfortunately there just aren't a lot of breeders along the western border of the state. If you want to hit western Iowa more you probably will have to drive about an hour into the state to start finding some of the bigger breeders but if you really want to visit on I would highly recommend making the trip to Wiese & Sons as they probably are the largest breeder in the state of Iowa and possibly been around longer than about any of them too if I had to guess.

I would agree with the post above about Tegtmeiers, they have a nice program too. Of your list I think you'll really like what you see at Rausch's. We use a lot of their breeding and being they have been the top breeder of Dam of Distinctions in the Hereford breed for a long time now it's hard to argue with the results they are getting. If you wanted to buy a bull off their production sale this year it probably would have took $8000-9000 to get one out of the top half of the offering

 

[BIZIN]

Thanks everyone for the tips. Now with Rausch's, is there something going on there that they have so many dams of dinstinction a year compared to the breeders in 2-10th place? Almost all other breeders in the top of that list dont add up to one ranch. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Thats what I am wondering.