News
2010 Cattlemen's Classic Results
The Nebraska Hereford Association sponsored successful sales at the 2010 Cattlemen's Classic. The judge for both shows was Mark Fredrickson, Starbuck, Minn., and the sale auctioneer was Jim Birdwell of Fletcher, Okla.
Horned Hereford Results
Twenty-one bulls and five females participated in this year’s Hereford sale.
Taking home Champion Horned Hereford Bull honors was Lot 1, TVF Mr Universe 0801, consigned by Timber View Farms of Streator, IL. This bull is a 01/14/2008 son of YYJP Mr All-American 401 and he sold to Wilson Hereford Ranch of Bladen, NE for $2,100.
Reserve Champion Horned Hereford Bull went to Lot 23, WBCC Gridiron 3163 W08 ET, consigned by White Cattle Company of Buffalo, WY. This bull is a 03/25/2009 son of UPS TCC Nitro 1ET and sold to Mike Anderson of Gothenburg, NE for $3,000.
Taking home Champion Horned Hereford Bull honors was Lot 1, TVF Mr Universe 0801, consigned by Timber View Farms of Streator, IL. This bull is a 01/14/2008 son of YYJP Mr All-American 401 and he sold to Wilson Hereford Ranch of Bladen, NE for $2,100.
High Selling Horned Hereford Bull was Lot 15, HH RJ Dakota 909 consigned by Hula Herefords of Creston, NE. This bull is a 02/11/2009 son of HH Rascall 602 and he sold to Mike Waterbury of Erickson, NE for $3,400.
Champion Horned Hereford Heifer was Lot 30, WBCC Nexus 3163 W15 ET, consigned by White Cattle Company of Buffalo, WY. This heifer is a 04/20/2009 daughter of UPS TCC Nitro 1ET and she sold to Willy Black of Chariton, IA for $2,250, making her the High Selling Horned Hereford Heifer.
The Reserve Champion Horned Hereford Heifer was Lot 28, 7MI 6081 Miss Rafale 906, consigned by 7 Mill Iron Ranch of Sidney, NE. This heifer is a 03/24/2009 daughter of BB 1065 Domino 6081 and she sold to Eldon Snoke of Humboldt, NE for $2,000.
The 2010 sale saw 21 bulls average $2,076. 5 heifers sold for an average of $1,900 in 2010. Overall, in 2010, there were 26 cattle that grossed $53,100 and averaged $2,042.
Polled Hereford Results
Nineteen bulls and nine females participated in this year’s Polled Hereford sale.
Taking home Champion Polled Hereford Bull honors was Lot 3, VCR S&S 525R Franchise 829U, consigned by Valley Creek Ranch and S&S Polled Herefords of Fairbury, NE. This bull is a 03/07/2008, son of VCR DPH Auditor 525R and sold to DaKitch Hereford Farms of for $4,900, also making him the High-Selling Polled Hereford Bull.
Reserve Champion Polled Hereford Bull went to Lot 23, KJEG Manhattan 926W, consigned by Gabel Farms & Jensen Bros of Wiggins, CO. This bull is a 04/02/2009, son of KJ 068J Manhattan 262S and he sold to Heath Oberg of Farnam, NE for $2,400.
The Reserve Champion Polled Hereford Heifer was Lot 32, VCR 12R Raquel 930W, consigned by Valley Creek Ranch of Fairbury, NE. This heifer is a 02/21/2009, daughter of S&S Outback 12R and she sold to Amber Illingworth of Fairfield, NE, for $3,050.
The 2010 sale saw 19 bulls average $2,424. 9 heifers sold for an average of $3,183 in 2010. Overall, in 2010, there were 28 cattle that grossed $74,700 and averaged $2,669.
Recipients of the NCC Scholarships were Shaylea Hinojosa for the Hereford sale and Mattie McMahon for the Polled Hereford sale.
2009 Annual Meeting
The Nebraska Hereford Association held its annual meeting and awards banquet on December 5, 2009 at Kearney, NE. The seats were full for the meeting with much lively discussion. The only major change in operation is that the member directory will be printed earlier in the spring. New directors were elected. They are pictured below.
Four awards were presented at the evening banquet with a good crowd present. The recipients are pictured below. Retiring Hereford Women board members Karla Persona and Kay Morgan were honored for there years of service. The Hereford Women held there annual meeting at North Platte in conjunction with the Cornhusker Sale.
Keep in mind the Nebraska Cattlemen’s Classic sale in February. Hereford day will have a strong line up of quality bulls and heifers in the two sales.
— Joe Brockman, NHA Secretary
Nebraska Royalty |
2010 Nebraska Poll-ette Directors |
2010 Nebraska Hereford Association Directors |
2009 Commercial Producer Award
2009 Commercial Producer Award |
The Nebraska Hereford Association is pleased to recognize Olsen Ranches, Harrisburg, Nebraska, with the 2009 Commercial Producer Award.
Olsen Ranches, operated by Art Olsen and his son Douglas Olsen, has been the primary reference sire test herd for the American Hereford Association since 1997. In those twelve years over 100 sires have been evaluated for genetic merit in the Olsen’s commercial Hereford and Red Baldy cow herd. This program is administered by the American Hereford Association. Semen from eight to ten young sires per year, which have been nominated to this program by their owners is shipped to the Olsens. Olsen cows are randomly inseminated to these young sires and two reference sires which provide a year-to-year linkage of the test program data.
Test calves are carefully evaluated for calving ease, birth weight, weaning weight and post-weaning growth by the Olsens. Originally these calves were finished at a nearby custom feedlot, but for the past four years have been fed through harvest at the Olsen Ranch feedlot. Steer calves are shipped to a commercial packing plant for harvest and carcass evaluation. Several CHB-certified plants have been used, but most recently the steers have gone to National Beef at Liberal, Kansas.
The heifer end of the test calves are retained as herd replacements and also contribute valuable information on maternal traits to the sire evaluation program.
The Olsens are continually striving to improve the efficiency of their operation and increase the value of the information provided to the AHA and participating breeders. They are currently installing a GrowSafe system which will permit collection of individual feed consumption data for the calculation of efficiency of feed conversion by sire group. This joint venture with the AHA was approved at the last Board of Directors meeting.
The Hereford breed is indebted to the Olsen Family for providing this valuable information allowing rapid, accurate and complete assessment of the genetic merit of these important young sires. This is an important tool for the genetic improvement of the Hereford breed.
2009 Heritage Breeder
2009 Heritage Breeder |
The following is from an article that was put together in honor of the 100th herd anniversary in 1999. They had quite a celebration in North Platte for that anniversary.
The history of this herd is an extension of a Hereford bloodline started by Elmer E Youngs in 1899. Elmer was a Lexington, NE farm leader, a cattle feeder, and a Hereford breeder. His Hereford herd furnished foundation stock for many herds and produced a champion carload of bulls at Denver. His feedlot was one of the larger ones in Nebraska at the time. He served as president of the Lexington Shipping Association that shipped out one half million dollars of hogs in 1911. Mr. Youngs was a man of vision and accomplishments.
The Estermanns bought Youngs bred replacement heifers when he retired in 1938. Ninety percent of their cow families run back to Elmer Youngs’ herd and some run back to the very beginning. They have run a larger herd than Mr. Youngs and have been above one hundred cows fro the last fifty years. They emphasized efficient producing cattle. The Evan herd bull line has been there forty-two years and eight to nine generations. They have had the pleasure of seeing cattle I many states and countries with many good Herefords seen in Canada, Sweden and the US. This had taken the herd from well before the Model T, past travel to the moon, up to the computer and bio-technologies of today. A world that has gotten much smaller and Estermann cattle scattered from Canada to Mexico. They now celebrate 110 years in the Hereford business, proof that the right Hereford cattle can last for generations.
Joe Estermann has 71 years and son Dan has 30 years in the Hereford business. The 2009 Heritage Breeder, Estermann Herefords.
2009 Breeder of the Year
2009 Breeder of the Year |
The Lapp Ranch registered Hereford herd was started in 1948 by Harold Lapp. The ranch, located in southwest Nebraska is now operated by Keith, his wife Lana, along with o son Heath and his wife Michelle and daughter Tracy and her husband Tim Tyan and their families. Keith and Lana’s youngest daughter Marcy is a school teacher in the Lincoln Public Schools.
The cow herd is a very low input operation but with enough performance to be competitive and profitable for their customers. Emphasis is placed on low birth weight, easy fleshing, moderate frame cattle with extra muscle and of course the signature trait which is pigment.
Along with the Hereford operation, a herd of Longhorn cows is maintained. They started out leasing roping cattle to clubs and a few individuals. That has now grown into a full time job with cattle going out by the semi loads to over 15 states. The Lapps produce ropings here in Nebraska as well as Colorado and South Dakota and furnish timed event cattle for a number of rodeos.
All cattle are worked on horseback which goes hand in hand with the horse operation on the ranch. Around 50 horses are marketed each year with the younger members of the family starting the colts and making good ranch and team roping horses for use at home and to market to others.
After all is said and done, the Herefords are the entity that is most dear to Keith. They have been a very big part of his life and continue to be so.
Keith has been very supportive of the Nebraska Hereford Association, currently serving on the Board of Directors and being the volume steer buyer at the Cornhusker Classic Sale in North Platte for many years.
The Lapp Ranch is definitely a family operation as it takes everyone working to make it all happen.
The 2009 Breeder of the Year—Keith Lapp, Lapp Ranch.
2009 Young Promoter Award
2009 Young Promoter Award |
"Mom this is the best vacation of my whole life." A quote from a nine year old boy who was having the time of his life at the National Junior Expo at Wyoming Hereford Ranch. The time of his life pretty well sums up the experiences of this years Young Promoter Award honoree. His Mom should have known something was up when at the age of three he would beg every day to get dressed up like a cowboy.
From walking away with champion pee wee showmanship at his first Junior Hereford field day, to winning champion or reserve champion showmanship ten times at the county fair, or becoming a board member and then president of the Nebraska Junior Hereford Association, it was all about promoting Hereford cattle.
While his contemporaries were being dragged along at the end of the halter of a black steer, at the age of eight he was casually making his way toward the tank with a Hereford steer or heifer walking beside him. ”Wild Hereford Boy" was a not very flattering nickname he endured in his home county, but in his heart he knew they were just jealous of what he had. He never apologized for or felt at all inferior because he raised and showed Herefords. He would tell anyone who would listen about Herefords, but get pretty impatient at their prejudice against them. One year the family had nine head of Herefords in the stalls, the ONLY Herefords in the barn.
The Person Hereford herd had some pretty humble beginnings--ten cows bought from the Ridder and Messersmith Ranch. There was no long, rich ranching history behind him. Austin was always ready to go out and check the cows, see if there were any new calves born over night, to help with sorting, weighing or tagging or just sit out in the pasture watching the calves. Slowly the herd was changed and improved. It was joked that one year he was the volume buyer at the Cornhusker Classic sale in North Platte. When he was old enough to do farm work he decided pretty quickly that sitting on a tractor going back and forth was not very enjoyable, he would rather be back with the cows and calves. As time went on and he became more and more knowledgeable about Hereford genetics, EPD's and sires that would improve the breed, he had a hand in the decisions that would influence the make up of the family herd. Through it all he has never expressed a desire to show or raise any breed but Hereford.
He has worked for the Ridder Hereford Ranch and Morgan Ranch in the yards at the National Western, gaining valuable experience in feeding, showing, and marketing good Hereford cattle. He has attended every Nebraska Junior Hereford Show since 1990, and been to ten national Junior Hereford Shows. Spending his growing up and adult years in the Hereford industry has given him valuable experience and many lasting friendships. For example, when he attended the State FFA convention one year his schoolmates asked him how he knew all those kids, he answered, "Well, they're Hereford people." He has always been a "good talker" and has told a few stories in his life, and isn't that what makes a good promoter?
After high school and a year of college he was hired as herdsman at Flying H Genetics where he learned a considerable amount about the ins and outs of running a seed stock operation. He always had his mind on Herefords, even when he worked daily with Gelbvieh cattle. This July he made a move to the Nebraska Sandhills and now calls Upstream Ranch his home. Walking down the slight hill to work every morning and learning the operation of one of the premier Hereford ranches in the nation is a life experience that few can top.
Austin always has his hand in the family cattle operation, trying to talk his Dad into trying something new or filling Mom and Dad in on a good bull that someone is selling semen on, or how much somebody paid for a heifer at a sale. Someday he'll have his own herd, probably far enough west that you don't see much corn. He'll probably be on the board of the Nebraska Hereford Association, standing around at the annual meeting talking to all his old Hereford friends, still loving and promoting the best breed of cattle on the face of the earth, and having the best time of his life doing it!