YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SOURCE OF QUALITY ANGUS
BULLS
What
is Pipe Dream Farm? Pretty much what
the name implies. The realization of
Jim Tate's pipe dream of someday having his own small place and herd of good Angus
cattle.
Having worked as herdsman and cattle
manager for Summitcrest Farm in Ohio, Walnut Hill Farm in Rockville and Alpine
Farms in Natural Bridge over a period of ten years, I knew cattle and knew what
I wanted to raise. In 1986 we found
our home in Beaverdam and Marie and I began to build my Pipe Dream.
Our cattle are not our business. Marie and I both work full time jobs. We are building a herd from Scratch. We started in 1986 with three heifers from
the Lynn Brae herd in Troutville Virginia.
The cattle are my vice. I don't
have the time, money or inclination for wine women and song, but I have been
accused of neglecting other things for the cows.
Several years ago we formed a working
alliance with our good friend and neighbor, Jack Ellis, when he began the conversion
from polled Herefords to Registered Angus with a draft of 10 heifers from
Walnut Hill. We have now reached our
original goal of having fifty registered females in the consolidated herd. We actually have about 40 fall calving cows
and around 20 Spring calving cows.
Our goals are few and simple.
We want to build a herd of high
quality predictable performance cattle.
We want to be the source that our
neighbors turn to when they need good quality, reasonably priced breeding
bulls.
We want the cattle to at least pay
their own way and hopefully bring in a dollar or two.
To achieve these goals we have to do
most things like you do and a few things a little different.
Our cattle have to survive and perform
in the same environment that yours do.
The cows are on mixed grass pasture (mostly Fescue). They are wintered on hay made from the
pastures during spring surplus. During
the Fall breeding season they get about a pound per head per day of range cubes
mostly to make it easier to gather them every day for heat detection and artificial
breeding. They have available a well-balanced
and medicated free choice mineral and water.
No silos, no cattle barns, no fancy equipment. They have to be hardy enough to perform in the same environment
that we want to produce bulls for. They
have to perform economically as well.
We do try to breed every female by
artificial insemination each year. We
try to synchronize and artificially inseminate 30 to 40 cows each fall. We put a clean up bull in for a total of a
sixty day breeding season. We breed
artificially each year to three or four of the best, balanced trait bulls in
the Angus breed. We use our own young
bulls as cleanup. Our young bulls have
performed very satisfactorily in comparison to the AI sires we use. We have retained daughters from several of
our own bulls and they have made very fine cows.
We expect a cow to breed, carry the
calf to term, have the calf easily, mother it, breed back on time, and wean a
stout calf on what groceries we provide.
The majority of our cows do this regularly. We will sometimes allow for one error as we know our standards
are high. More than one error usually
results in a Big Mac Attack.
We are not a mass production market. From our fifty cows we will keep from four to six bull calves per
year and six to ten heifers. These will
be the bulls developed for sale and the heifers developed for
replacements. Over the last couple of
years we have sold a few heifers and cows as commercial cows.
The calves not kept have usually been
marketed through a variety of means including, feeder calf sales, direct sales
to stockers, order buyer marketing and the Virginia Retained Ownership
Program. The preliminary indications
are that we like the ROP results and will probably continue to send a few each
year. The cattle seemed to perform well,
and sold well considering the market, and we like the idea of getting back
carcass data that will show how our cattle do in the feed yard and on the
rail. I believe the future premium
market will belong to those producers who can demonstrate a history of
producing solid functional cattle, which can hit the industry targets at a
profit.
The bull calves are grown out on a
ration to allow them to express their growth potential and get them to a size
to be ready for service in the spring without being fat and overly
expensive. We usually send one or two
to the state BCIA test at Culpeper. We
had the high gaining bull in the 2000 Senior Bull Test. We feel that our bulls perform and compete
well enough to keep sending a few. The
state test gives us some idea of how our calves stack up against some of the
top breeders of the region.
The heifers are grown out on about 5
lbs per head per day of a 16 % commercial sweet feed along with the forages
that are available. We target getting
them over 800 lbs by Thanksgiving to have them big enough to breed at 14 to 15
months of age and calve as two year olds.
Once bred they are turned in with the cow herd.
Our
goal is to breed toward a herd of optimal performance cattle. Most folks in this part of the world do not
have specialty herds. Most folks need
cattle, which can perform well in all aspects of the cattle business. We spend a good bit of time in trying to
identify bulls, which will excel in all of the economically important traits
without making too many sacrifices in any trait.
We know that calving ease is important
to most folks and it is a consideration in all the bulls we use. But shape of the calf is just as important
as birth weight in determining calving ease.
We will usually reach out for a bull that can add some yearling
weight. We like to use a bull that can
add to carcass quality, since the carcass is what we all ultimately sell. I have my own little power score system that
I use to help me determine which bulls can do the most for us from a balanced
EPD approach.
In addition to all the data we expect
the bull to look like - and sire - animals that you and I would be proud to
own. We expect a good disposition in
the cattle we own as well. Up headed,
tail waiving, full galloping, fence jumping, foot swinging, rip snorting, dirt
pawing, day ruining idiots are something I just won't have. My daddy used to say, "It doesn't cost
a bit more to feed a good one than it does a sorry one." I enjoy walking among our cattle and
visiting with them. Quite a few of them
like to have their back scratched. I
have fought my share of idiots in my day and I don't have cattle for the
excitement.
We try to breed our herd to some of
the best bulls in the nation through artificial insemination. Then we select the top end of the calves,
which perform well in our environment.
In summary, premium genetics in an honest performance program, in a
central Virginia real world environment.
We have begun to expand the influence of the top cows in our herd
through embryo transfer. Our goal is
more heifers sired by some of the nations top proven bulls, out of our top
proven Pathfinder recognized cows.
We
invite you to call or come by and visit with us about our cattle. We want to be - -
Your Neighborhood Source of Quality Angus Bulls.
phone 804-449-6788 contact us e-mail pdf-angus@worldnet.att.net