A good breeder plays a crucial role in shaping the cattle industry’s future. The calves they produce can significantly influence the genetic potential of your herd. This genetic foundation is why choosing a reputable breeder is essential; the quality of their stock will directly impact your herd’s performance and success.
When considering new cattle for your operation, your decisions must be grounded in sound business judgment rather than emotions. The animals you choose to bring into your herd—whether replacements you raise or purchase—will determine your herd’s direction in the future. It’s essential to approach this process thoughtfully to ensure you’re setting yourself up for long-term success.
With so many sellers in the market, especially with social media making it easier to find them, not every option will be the right fit for you. It’s your job to sift through the noise and find a breeder who aligns with your goals. To help you make the best choice, consider these four key factors when evaluating potential breeders.
Selecting a Breeder
Before you start shopping for cattle, it’s crucial to clearly define your goals. Are you looking for specific breeds to enhance your herd’s genetic potential, or do you want crossbred cattle for commercial purposes? Having a clear vision will guide your search and ensure you don’t get sidetracked by options that don’t align with your needs.
Once you have a clear idea of your goals, the next step is to research potential breeders. Visiting their operations is crucial; seeing the cattle in person can give you insights into their quality and how they’re managed. Additionally, checking their reputation—by speaking to previous customers or looking up reviews—will help you determine if they are trustworthy and produce animals that meet your standards.
What is the breeder selling?
With this, you may think, “Well, dud cattle!“. In the general term, you will be correct. But for the sake of this post, that is not what I am talking about. What I am talking about here is the segment of the industry that the seller is serving. Are they catering to the purebred, show ring, or simply commercial? Each of these segments has different goals, and they do not always align with the others.
These different goals are where knowing what your goals for your operation are will come into play. Are you just looking for some crossbred cows, or do you want to go the purebred route? You may want to inject some genetics from a particular breed into your herd. Before you start looking, plan out what your plan is for, say, the next five years. Doing this will prevent you from getting as lost in the weeds as you are while you are shopping.
Know the value
Before you start looking around at new cows or bulls to buy, it’s essential to figure out your budget. Knowing how much you can spend is crucial to avoid getting fixated on something you can’t afford. A good rule of thumb is that a good bull is worth the value of 5 calves that the bull sires. So, if calves have a value of $1,015 per head, then the bull should cost at most $5.075.
Whether you are considering a bull or cows, it is always a good idea to look at their EPDs. EPDs, or Expected Progeny Differences, are a set of values that predict the performance of an animal’s future offspring compared to the breed average. These values are a powerful tool in selecting cattle, as they provide insights into the genetic potential of the animal. You will only find one with high marks in some areas, so you will need to decide which are essential to you and go from them. If you have either 1st calf heifers or smaller cows, then calving difficulty and birth weight might be an excellent place to start.
Visit with the potential breeder.
Before you purchase any animals, it’s a good idea to visit the potential breeder’s operation. Just as you wouldn’t buy a new truck without visiting the car lot, you shouldn’t buy cattle without seeing their environment. This visit will give you a good idea of the quality of their animals and how they are likely to perform. A good rule of thumb is to only purchase animals that are within a 200-mile radius, as this ensures they are acclimated to your ranch’s environment.
One thing that you can look at is how they select which animals they keep and which animals they will get rid of or sell. This selection process will tell you the business mind of the person that you will be buying from. If they have a strict selection process, then you will know that the cattle they have will be of good quality. On the other hand, buying from them may not be the best idea if they cannot bring themselves to let certain animals go.
Check out the pasture.
Suppose you are buying cattle for pasture or commercial operation. In that case, seeing them moving around the seller’s pastures is a good idea. Seeing them move will reveal if there are any structural problems with the cattle. You want animals that can move around the pasture and service the cows in the case of bulls. Observe them as closely as possible to notice any lameness of feet problems. Nothing could be worse for you than spending much money on a new cow to find out they have soft feet or something.
You can also learn more about the breeder by checking their references. Do they have many repeat customers? Any repeat customers can give you a good idea of the reputation of the person you will be dealing with. One way to find a potential breeder is by visiting a breed association’s website, where you can find a list of registered breeders. You can also visit the Cattle Exchange website, which is a platform where breeders and buyers can connect and trade cattle.
Look at their pedigrees and awards.
The animal’s bloodline is a good indicator of their future performance. How well the dam and sire do will tell you how the calf and their future calves will do. This information is relatively easy to find out because ranchers generally like to brag about how well their cattle do.
Awards and stuff can be nice, but there should be more criteria unless you are burying show cattle. For commercial operations, you want to see how they do out in the field and the weather. This information is where knowing what exactly you want will come into play.
Another thing to be careful about is focusing too much on feed trials. Many breeders put their bull calves on intensive feed trials that are designed to show how many pounds of gain they can produce per day. These tests can display some impressive numbers, but his offspring are not guaranteed to gain the same way.
Do they stand by their products?
This question is where the breeder’s reputation will come into play. Reputation is just as important as anything when it comes to buying cattle. Even though this industry is very much “our word is our bond,” that does not mean there aren’t people with less than upstanding character.
The critical thing here is that you should take your time with purchases you are ready for. Buying cattle is a relatively expensive investment, so getting the best return possible is ideal. Intuition can be a good thing, so you might hold off on spending the money if something does not feel right. If you are not fully confident in your ability to pick cattle, consider bringing someone you trust to help you.
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