Fescue Fungus Resistant Angus Cattle

26/09/2026

Proverbial travels
I know that times are a’changing. Why, we used to hear a lot about the proverbial “you’ve come to the fork in the road”. There were also a lot of jokes about forks in the road back then. I haven’t heard one in years. I don’t think that the highway department likes forks anymore.
Then years ago, an invited and noted leader or conference speaker who was glassy eyed and thinking into the future with inspirational thoughts used to say proverbial things like “we’re now at the crossroads of life and we have to decide our future”. I never knew just what one of those proverbial crossroads of life looked like compared to the ones around here: Ebenezer Crossroads, Saylors Crossroads, McCoys Crossroads… There is even a Crossroads Community (no family name attached) up in Oconee County.
But this a’changing deal is on us again. It seems that the schools are teaching the new math or something and folks no longer know to stop at crossroads and look left, right, left. That new math apparently does not teach them that someone might be coming from the other direction. When there is a wreck, the paramedic has to turn on the lights and siren, stomp the accelerator and drive to the scene like a bat out of Belton and then the ambulance, fire truck and law enforcement folks have to follow ASAP.
I honestly think that the paramedics must be NASCAR drivers on the weekends. Look out Spot and Fluffy if you are trying to cross the road and the paramedic is going to a wreck over at the “Beer and Deer”. That’s what we call the store over towards Iva at the crossroads because the crossroads never had a name and the store used to have deer cooler and sells…. We already know that the possums have a poor track on road crossings and the chicken is still crossing for unknown reasons. Maybe the proverbial chicken crossed the road to avoid the paramedic, ambulance, fire truck and the high sheriff. Whatever. Those possums just can’t win.
But I have great news! A cure has been found for only a bit over a million dollars each: Traffic circles! I just wonder if we will ever have proverbial traffic circles. I don’t get to many speaking events anymore to hear the futurist, gifted, noted, glassy eyed keynote guest speaker key me in on the years ahead. If I did get invited and I did go and if they served green peas that resemble hard chinaberries with dry slices of chicken breast covered in gravy of an unknown origin, store bought rolls and cake and we washed it all down with weak iced tea… would the speaker who is both futuristic and proverbial say “our future is before us and we are coming to the traffic circle of our lifetime. Which way will YOU (pointing to the crowd) go?” Man, that would be a deep thought!

We’ve even replaced the banquets and invited speakers with zoom meeting and webinars. You can sit at home in your PJs, drink herbal tea out of a mason jar, yell to tell the kids to shut up (speaker has to get folks to mute themselves and then continue) and there are no chinaberries and dry chicken to prepare. At least we can save some on gas money.
Back to the travel discussion, I have to tell you that I think that traffic circles work because people are confused and confounded by them. Is Bubba gonna try to get around it on two wheels (Hey ya’ll…watch DIS!), can I get me, my truck and trailer around it with jarring the teeth out of the cattle in the trailer by tilting on the sloped curbs a time or two, will I get dizzy if I miss my turn and have to go around again…? There is a lot to consider on this modern proverbial and everyday traffic circle stuff. If I had taken some of that new math, maybe it would be easier. Whatever happened to those good ol’ days and the good ol’ math?
In the meanwhile, just keep eat your tater chips and drinking your coke as you drive down the road and don’t worry if anyone is coming in the other direction at any sort of road junctions. You might get to skip the proverbial fork, proverbial crossroads or proverbial traffic circle and get straight to your final resting place and join the many possums. That would be the proverbial dead end.

02/09/2026

We are modernizing out here on SC Hwy 413. We have a new rest area. We thought about naming it after the governor but Henry’s John or whatever sounds sort of corny. And there are so many politicians who deserve to have a potty named after them: why make the rest of them feel bad! So the name is fitting: Kudzu View Rest Area.
Stop by for a “visit” on your way to or from Iva, SC, view the kudzu, get a few ticks or chiggers and take home memories that will last for at least a few days of itching.
We’ll leave the light on for you until it gets dark.

29/08/2026

True Leadership

If you really, really want to kill your market do one or more of the following:
Sell a bad product,
Overprice your product, or
Limit the availability of your product.

So, what is the story today?
American beef is now better from the years of chasing EPDs,
Beef prices are high, and
Beef supplies are at a relative low production level.

What are the alternatives?
Bring in beef,
Make the current cattle gain more before slaughter, or
Lose market to other proteins.

The missing link: true leadership in the beef industry. Have any leaders, quasi governmental beef groups, breed associations, state associations or ANYONE said in the past few years, “Retain your good cows and retain enough replacement heifers to maintain the supply of USA produced beef”? Not that I know about. Folks in the industry have sold the goose that laid the golden egg for record prices and now see imported meat to be a necessity to maintain beef’s place in the marketplace.

Complain about whatever and it is real: increased costs, problems in weather or whatever but now there is a void.

Where is the problem? The lure of instant money at the expense of loss of future sales. But the big deal: true leadership is a scarce commodity.

16/08/2026

“If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” —Woodrow Wilson

11/06/2026

Breeds of livestock are sometimes toted as an "easy care" breed.

It doesn't just happen and it doesn't just sustain itself. True "easy care" is based on constant surveillance, selection and culling.

01/06/2026

A PM with questions about the previous post.

Good post. As a St. Croix & Katahdin producer, I've seen the same thing. Too often, animals are expected to perform on whatever forage is available, and when they don't, the breed gets blamed instead of the management.

A few questions come to mind:

Have you found forage testing to be a better predictor of animal performance than soil testing alone?

Answer: Forage testing tells us more about available minerals, antagonistic minerals and food value in the forages which are available to the animals. Soil testing only tells us what is available to the plants if they are a species that extracts minerals X, Y or Z. Looking purely at animal nutrition, forage testing wins, hands down.

What liver mineral deficiencies are you finding most often in grazing livestock?

Answer: It is specific to your pastures, feeding regimes, forages, means and types of fertilization of pastures and specific soil types. Oddly, copper was found in liver biopsies to be below a healthy limit. Cobalt was at the bottom of the recommended range (thus the cobalt lick block picture). Iron and manganese were also low. Before any testing, the need of more copper was assumed by a Vet doing laparoscopic AI work on some ewes. He was correct. I will always be grateful for his input. That started the ball rolling. This is not just a forage issue but supplemented loose minerals and forage issue. In some cases, the water quality can impact it, too.
The standard and universal wool sheep discussion is that copper kills sheep, avoid copper, copper is the big bad wolf… A low copper diet, in hair sheep (St. Croix experience, only for me) has negative impacts in ewe fertility and flock immune response. Too little is as bad as too much. Same for cobalt, iodine and others. Some breeds are more in need of copper than others or have more ability to handle higher copper levels in the overall diet.

For livestock producers, what precision-management practices have given you the biggest return on investment?

Answer: Female function and quality growth of lambs. These are tied directly to proper nutrition plus selection of breeding stock.
But the two biggest labor-saving things that have been for us: 1- fully functional ewes that pasture lamb and raise their lambs without any assistance and 2-parasite resistance to avoid routine handling and treating of sheep.

I appreciate your point about finding the middle ground between starving animals for profit and chasing maximum production at any cost. Sustainable profit usually lives somewhere in between.

Answer: Purely a business decision while providing proper care of the flock.

Send a message to learn more

01/06/2026

Precision agriculture
An interesting topic for all of us…if we want to learn and apply what we know and learn. But that’s the catch – you have to know. And you have to learn. Comparatively and to be more blunt: mere opinions are like rear ends – everybody has got one. Opinions don’t pay the bills.
A friend has been sharing with me their efforts of planting corn for profit and not for bragging rights. He is not a new kid on the block and has learned the bumpers of farming. The lower bumper is between being broke and making a profit. The upper bumper is between maximum yields and lower income. The middle is a place to be.
Not going broke or making a profit is surely a base thought for most ag enterprises except for the hobby or back to nature folks. They have their rights to do as they please, but they are not examples for young folks looking to go into any ag adventure. Anything that drains the bank account is either short lived or has an additional income stream to pay for the farming. A problem is that some begin and do the farm deal with IRS. Then the profit is necessary or else they live in fear of being audited. But their opinions cannot make the profit.
For real farmers, the upper bumper is likely more important. Egos, peer pressure, advertising, yield contests and foolish dreams can make us think that “more” or “best” is important. I just read an article by a guy who quoted “good is the enemy of great” or something like that. That might be good for a horse race but in farming you are battling enough elements of the environment or outside influences so that “shooting for the stars” every year will give you extreme losses in the average to bad years. Average, or slightly better, is better than broke.
My friend was explaining their aim id for their farming operation to remain profitable, but they are not seeking bragging rights. They are applying what they know. They start with a soils map. Their combines have “on the go” yield monitors with GPS positioning. The output is an accurate yield map across each field. Due to variation in soils, moisture and such the yields can vary 25% or more from spot to spot. They take that data, put it in the fertilizer truck and spread variable rate fertilizer so that the amount of fertilizer applied matches the past yields. They take the same data, put it in the corn planter and plant variable rates of seeds depending on the expected yield. They learn, know, they apply, they profit and they survive.
All of that is not new to commodity producers. But it is radical to many livestock producers. I see and hear of the “put the animals out in the ___ (woods, brush, weeds, whatever is there) and that’s all that they are going to get”. I hear folks who put out the same amount of fertilizer per acre year after year on all of their pastures regardless of the soils and yield ability of forages. These types often go cheap on minerals, if they provide them. Supplementation, even necessary supplementation, is viewed as a weakness or an evil. A livestock producer told me that the reason that many start up flocks of the St. Croix hair sheep are short lived is because of such mindsets. Give them what you have (or else) and the animals do poorly and these folks quit, as failures, after a few years and blame the sheep.
In the past couple of years, I have tried to be more precise. I ignore the “don’t feed ‘em” crowd, “just give ‘em grass and weeds” crowd and the minimalist mindset. Why? Because no farm, soil, environment or management is perfect. Expect little from uneducated and minimal efforts regardless of the breed, species or type of farm.
The opposite is true in the Angus cattle world. Big can’t be big enough. More can’t be the best until it is the “mostest”! EPDs and indices have to be maxed out and ever increasing. Don’t worry about profit, just buy the inputs to have bragging rights. A quick ending here: they HAVE to get top dollar of go broke.
What have I learned? Soil testing is good and necessary, but forage testing is better. Sampling liver biopsies tell the whole story. Find knowledgeable producers and suppliers and support individuals. Avoid the folks who try to just make money on sales and egos. Never forget the functional female. Avoid folks who starve their animals for a profit; they are short term producers and are short sighted. Avoid folks who shoot for the moon and never hit it; they will disappear in a dispersal in about 7 years of less.
Precision: know, learn, profit.

13/05/2026

Reputation
You can’t buy it even if many try. You can’t inherit it even if many want to ride coattails. You can use your work, your words, a catch phrase, a picture or whatever is your style to advertise or solidify your reputation. The one sure thing that you can do is lose your reputation in a split second when you do the wrong thing.
I think a few examples would help.
Scout camp: It’s about time for kids to get out of school and some might go to scout camp. The camps are set up to train, teach skills, expose boys and girls to new experiences, develop leadership, and round out the individual camper’s development. Those types of camps and programs have a good reputation. It was a repeated thing for me with some great training and good times. The only thing that comes to mind as a negative was that the whole week smelled like insect repellent! Even today, every time I smell insect repellent I think “scout camp”. An odor embedded in my memory. A mental reputation.
Rodney Dangerfield: You know – “I don’t get no respect!” If he tried to play a serious role, no one would believe him. Funny thing is that he was very successful as the downtrodden and second-class citizen. That works great for a comedic entertainer. It is a terrible reputation for an animal breeder or a breed of livestock.
Yourself: What do folks think about you and your reputation? Are you a servant or self-serving? Do you set out to be a part of a team, devise or the cherry on top? Are you dependable? Are you honest or a crook? Facebook has made this a worldwide advertisement of you. From what folks see and read, do they like you, ignore you or fear you? Here is a good question: Do your family members think as much of you as the folks do on Facebook 1000 miles away? Maybe the best question – do your dogs like you? Personal reputation.
Your livestock’s reputation: Animals are part of the life for me. What are we doing with them? If you sell livestock as real livestock, it is a different ballgame than having a cute pet or some walking lawnmowers. What reputation do you want for your herd or flock or for the breeds that you raise? There are national checkoff programs, species specific, to educate consumers and to promote the most positive image (reputation) of the products derived from your livestock. From your promotions, do people want to know more about your program and your stock? Are your promotions positive or negative?
People remember. Odors (insect repellant to fresh baked lemon flavored pound cake), pictures (iconic images to some that are meant for fun but are a sorry and hurtful representative of your breed or flock), words (supportive or bitter) and attitudes (the big me or the equal you) are all things that folks mentally catalog. And the old adage would apply to any of these – “A picture (a memory, an opinion of what is being presented) is worth 1000 words”. All of these become reputation.
I see horrible pictures of livestock in many sources. Bulls as fat and pudgy as market steers, cows that look like a cartoon character or a blimp and thin muscled sheep or even bottle babies offered as breeders. Then I hear the same folks raising the same breeds of livestock complaining that the animal prices are not enough to pay their bills or that people find their livestock to be useless. Guess what: flush your reputation down the drain. Reality has caught up with the advertising. The “trick” is to improve your herd or flock rather than to moan about the low prices. Build your reputation.

As a serious breeder, these are all repulsive to me and the reputation of the presenter become garbage to me. Some important things if you want a better reputation: 1- Don’t post stupid pictures. 2 - Don’t post questionable pictures. 3 - Don’t display your worst or your weakest.
The most repulsive thing, and the most damaging to the reputation of the animal or the breed is for the posters to present weak and useless animals, as something to burn into the memory of interested folks. The big turnoff! It is a sure way to stop and destroy the reputation of a breed. It is a negative reputation of the “1000 words”.

Reputation is a serious thing to consider. It is the public you. It is your livestock’s public image. Every time we post a picture, tell of the animals or have people ride by the farm or come for a visit is our reputation as livestock people and our animals. What is yours?

11/03/2026

“They do not want straight sided sheep…” Lynn Fahrmeier

They do care; they do not want to buy crap lambs, like some people think…” David Fisher

(David Fisher) “…didn’t want to just be a “price taker”

Source: 2026 ALB convention panel discussion

These are sheep producers and sheep industry leaders. It is hard to avoid what they are saying. They are sheep businessmen and businesswomen. They are interested in the reputation of the sheep products produced in the USA. They discussed imports, various markets, sales strategies, sheep improvement, competition from imported lamb…

St. Croix sheep breeders: It is hard to avoid what they are saying. Let’s flesh this out a bit for our breed.
• Are your sheep something that you are proud to sell as associated with your name?
• Do you just have sheep to eat lamb or want to raise a few? Do you get adequate meat from each of your lambs to make it worth the effort and the cost?
• Do you just dump sheep on the market and hope that they sell OK?
• Do you sell as many registered sheep as possible, regardless of quality, to try to break even or just try to not lose too much money?
• Do you have happy repeat customers, especially the commercial customers?
• Are your sheep valuable because of you own them, because of the famous pedigrees or are they really good functioning sheep that yield acceptable carcasses?

The St. Croix Breed started in the 20th century and efforts were made to preserve the new breed by getting as many new flocks established as possible. Folks were concerned to cull too many because the numbers were few. I understand that mindset. There was the constantly repeated quote showing the good trait of the breed ; “parasite resistance”. I call this type of startup a group or a breed of unimproved sheep. I tend to think that is the correct thing to say.

We are now in the 21st century. What progress has the St. Croix breed made beyond the early years?

#1 -Are we still able to truthfully say “parasite resistant”? Where is the proof? In the 80’s and 90’s during the time of breed expansion, it was often said that lambs required deworming one time. It was accepted. It created some St. Croix sheep that were not really resistant. If you test your sheep you will find out that the allowances in the past made the breed a bit weaker overall. Again, the phrase “unimproved breed”.

#2 – Do you have a clue as to the average carcass yield of your lambs? The average lamb in the USA is assumed to produce 50% of the live weight in the carcass. Debone that carcass and the amount of lamb meat is less. Do you palpate the loins and thighs of your lambs to have any idea of muscle thickness? Do you use scales to check periodic gains in total weight?

That 2nd quote at the start was speaking of ethnic buyers. They have bought and slaughtered sheep before. They are not stupid. They can tell more about your lambs than you can if you have not made any efforts to improve your sheep.

#3 – Price differential: March 4, 2026 Mt. Hope Auction, Mt. Hope, OH – The report was on Facebook today.

Lambs:
Prime 40-59 pounds $4.80 -5.27 (per pound)
Choice 40-59 pounds $4.40 – 4.77
_____* 40-59 pounds $3.90 – 4.37
*non-descript because they were not so good. These were “price take sheep”.
Reference from above: (David Fisher) “…didn’t want to just be a “price taker”

$0.90/pound difference from bottom to top. That is a difference of $36 to $53.10 per lamb. If you have twins from a ewe, that is a difference of $72 to over $106 per ewe. That is not chicken feed.

The St. Croix breed needs to modernize into an improved breed, a breed of predictable sheep and a meat sheep breed that actually produces meat and not just in a small % of the flocks in the USA. Without improvement, breed wide, you are merely a price taker: “They do not want straight sided sheep…” Lynn Fahrmeier

If you are doing nothing to improve your flock, you are not fooling buyers and consumers. You are fooling yourself.

07/03/2026

If you are looking in multiple sale catalogs to find the one outstanding animal,

If you are looking at a calf crop to find the one suitable bull or heifer,

If you think that one day a closed herd will produce one great animal to restore the reputation of the herd,
or
If you seek out the goodie of a herd by finding one bull or cow with all EPDs that will knock your socks off,

You are wasting your time chasing outliers that will always either breed freaks of their genetic base or will breed back to the center of the herds EPDs to be a lackluster trial.