Cattle Ranch Of The Week: Grund Beef Genetics
10/23/2009 09:31AM
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Grund Beef Genetics is different than your typical bull supplier because they supply practical, predictable and proven genetics. Over 80% of their cattle are sired by breed leading Angus, Red Angus, and Gelbvieh A.I. sires. Grund Beef Genetics believes that high value, high accuracy EPD's are the only roadmap for genetic improvement.
Grund Beef Genetics started as a commercial cow/calf operation over 60 years ago. The operation has always been located in the western Kansas town of Sharon Springs. The Grund family has always been a leader in searching for cattle that add profits to the bottom line. In the 70's the Grunds were progressive in crossbreeding their cowherd to add more pounds of beef and more profits. As a commercial cow/calf operation in 1980 the Grunds
started searching for a breed of cattle to add to a Angus x Charolais cowherd. The goal was to find a breed of cattle that maintained performance while adding maternal and fertility traits. The Gelbvieh breed was selected as a perfect match to use on their crossbred Angus x Charolais cows. Research from the USDA - Meat Animal Research Center showed that the Gelbvieh breed was superior in fertility, milk, and performance. The 1980 data is still relevant today. Gelbvieh cattle still rank #1 of all beef breeds in weaning more pounds per cow exposed.
In 1986 the Grund family moved into the purebred Gelbvieh business. Their adventure started small as some of the first females were purchased for 4-H show heifers. The Grund kids successfully showed Gelbvieh show heifers while a portion of the Grund commercial herd was bred up to purebred Gelbvieh cattle. The American Junior Gelbvieh Association paid big benefits for the Grund children. The Grund kids eventually earned leadership roles in the AJGA and earned livestock judging scholarships to attend college. Their operation has stayed a true family operation that involves family and their spouses.
In the 90's the Grund operation continued to have a commercial cow/calf operation while having a purebred Gelbvieh cowherd. Their commercial operation has always seen the benefits of Angus and Gelbvieh genetics. In the mid 90's the Grund operation noticed that its commercial Angus x Gelbvieh cows maintained their longevity and weaned heavier calves than purebred cattle. The operation started mating Angus and Gelbvieh genetics to produce bulls that would offer the best of two great breeds. The Gelbvieh strengths of maternal traits, fertility and performance matched with the Angus traits of calving ease, fleshing ability, and carcass traits.
Today their operation runs 400 head of cows. Around 200 head of the cattle are commercial while 200 head of cattle are seedstock for female and bull sales. Their operation breeds over 90% their cows to A.I. sires with a emphasis on calving ease, moderate frame, with above average performance and carcass traits. Their operation never loses sight of the #1 profit trait FERTILITY. If your cows don't breed you don't make money.
In the late ‘90s, their operation started to highly concentrate on producing Balancer genetics for the commercial cattleman. A Balancer is a Gelbvieh x Angus animal with documented EPD's, birth weights, weaning weights, and etc. The Balancer cattle have become popular in the beef industry due to their profitable traits. Their operation has been quite different than other operation in terms of producing Balancer genetics. Here's the difference: Many Gelbvieh breeders purchased a set of average Angus cows and mated these cows to their herdsire. Grund Beef Genetics has taken the TOP GELBVIEH cows and mated these cows to highly proven Angus and Red Angus sires that are backed by solid proven EPD's that were based on 1,000's of progeny. Grund feels their Balancer genetics are more predictable and proven than most in the industry. In 1999 they started to add purebred Angus genetics to their operation. Many customers still buy purebred Gelbvieh and Angus bulls to use in their commercial program for hybrid vigor. Grund Beef Genetics can now supply bull customers with Gelbvieh, Angus and Balancer genetics. Customer service is top rate.
For more information visit www.grundbeefgenetics.com.