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We in the cattle breeding business are entering an exciting phase. We have the tools with sire summaries, epds, AI, Ultra sound, etc to dramatically change our cattle herds. We at Larson Angus and Charolais are conscious of the need to produce what the consumer wants but we are not going to chase carcass traits to the extent that we sacrifice the production traits that are vital to any commercial cattle person. We are striving to produce bulls that will sire moderate birth weight cattle that grow. Those bulls have to also sire heifers that will grow into wide deep bodied cows that can go out in a north Iowa corn field in the middle of the winter and work. We are firmly convinced that the cow of the future will be a cow that does not require a lot of extra management. No one I know has the time or patience to put up with a poor uddered bad tempered, poor milking, slow breeding cow. We put a lot of emphasis on the dams of any potential AI or natural service sire. They must have good production records, calve on time, and have good functional type traits especially a good udder. We keep the top half of each heifer crop and cull the bottom end of the cows each year. The calves are not creep fed as we want to know that if we get a good calf it is not because the calf lived in the creep feeder. The cow herd is managed the way most commercial cattle people run their cows. They run on corn stalks in the fall and winter and are fed hay only when the weather prevents them from grazing the stalks or when they get within 60 days of calving. We feed corn only at breeding time when we give a little bit to coax them into breeding pens. A combination of intensive grazing, heavy AI, and culling for disposition has left us with a herd of cattle that are easy to work with. We are proud and consider ourselves fortunate to have a pretty good repeat customer trade and we credit this partly to the fact that we stand behind our cattle and do our best to take care of any problems. Quite frankly if the cattle we sell to our customers do not help the person that buys them, we don't deserve any repeat business from the man. |
The bulls above are a representative sample of the bulls we will have for sale at our third annual silent auction Saturday March 22 . These bulls have been on a diet designed to have them grow around 3 lbs per day. We have found that not pushing a growing bull is good for both the bull and the man buying him as the bulls seem to last longer and work better for their new owners. |
Larson Angus and Charolais The Home of Working Cattle |
We can talk all day about epds, show ring winnings, and other cattle topics but when the dust settles the real important things in life start with family. The lady in the picture is my wife Marcia , the girl I married over 38 years ago and who after all these years is still the love of my life. She and I were blessed with three children that we raised on this farm. We are now being blessed with the first grand children which Marcia is proudly holding in the picture. Those two little girls have sure changed some of our priorities. Over the years, Marcia and I have gotten to know some special people because of our cattle business. It has always been our goal to provide a product that will enhance the life of the familes that buy our cattle. |