Bull Buying Thoughts from your Angus Regional Managers

With the holidays upon us, 2025 will be arriving before we know it. Keeping that idea in mind, our team wanted to switch things up to give you a sneak peek at our January 2025 edition of the Angus Beef Bulletin. 

On this episode, Lynsey McAnally checked in with your Angus regional managers Casey Jentz (Region 4), Will Harsh (Region 7), Quanah Gardiner (Region 12) and Shawn Gray (Region 13) - on the road - to discuss key thoughts to keep in mind when it comes to bull buying and the questions you might ask your seedstock provider to ensure the best possible fit for your own operation.

Find more information to make Angus work for you in the Angus Beef Bulletin and ABB EXTRA. Make sure you're subscribed! Sign up here to the print Angus Beef Bulletin and the digital Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. Have questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you! Contact our team at abbeditorial@angus.org.

Transcript

Lynsey McAnally (00:02):
Angus at Work, a podcast for the profit-minded cattleman. Brought to you by the Angus Beef Bulletin, we have news and information on health, nutrition, marketing, genetics and management. So let's get to work, shall we?

Lynsey McAnally (00:25):
Hello and welcome back to Angus at Work. With the holidays upon us, 2025 will be arriving before we know it. Keeping that idea in mind, our team wanted to switch things up to give you a sneak peek at our January 2025 edition of the Angus Beef Bulletin.

I'm Lynsey McAnally, and on today's episode we checked in with your Angus regional managers Casey Jentz, Will Harsh, Quanah Gardiner and Shawn Gray - on the road - to discuss key thoughts to keep in mind when it comes to bull buying and the questions you might ask your seedstock provider to ensure the best possible fit for your own operation. So, let's dive in!

When it comes to bull buying, there are unlimited questions that might be asked. Here's Casey Jentz, who covers Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, over why it's important to ask questions about previous performance of a breeder's genetics and what kind of guarantees are offered on your potential investment.

Casey Jentz (01:27):
Yeah, I mean, I would probably tell them the best thing they can do is get in the vehicle and try to go there and see the cattle for themselves. And then as far as questions to ask, it might be how have those genetics performed for them? Give them some past history of the certain lines of cattle that they may be interested in and how those have performed not only for them, but for their customers. Ask some questions on what kind of services that your seedstock provider is going to provide them. Do they have some other programs that they would be eligible for? Kind of the next step of where are we going, what we're going to do, and see if it's a good fit for their seedstock provider to help them along the way and see if they can't give 'em a little more direction. And I would tell you, I think that's pretty valuable for a lot of the people. I think your seedstock providers do a really good job with that and just making sure they've checked all the boxes on the cattle that you're looking for, making sure that they're providing the utmost information so that they can have some guarantees behind the cattle that most would provide.

Lynsey McAnally (02:46):
Who are the two groups of people who are willing to answer any questions a commercial producer looking to better understand any seedstock program? Your regional managers and the seedstock provider themselves. Here's Will Harsh, regional manager for Colorado and Nebraska, on why commercial cattlemen should feel comfortable asking questions and the importance of seedstock providers reporting data.

Will Harsh (03:08):
Get in touch with your regional manager in the area, whether you know them or not. I can't tell you how many more calls I've gotten from commercial cattlemen since I've moved up to this territory as compared to what I used to have in the Southeast because they understand. They say, "I don't know what this program is, I maybe don't know what this trait means. Help me better understand so I can make a better buying selection in the future." It's really comforting in my mind, knowing that these guys are out there. They realize that this is such a large investment. They need to get comfortable either reaching out to us because we're never going to judge them. Angus regional Managers, before we started our job, we didn't know what half this stuff meant ourselves. We had to learn as we went. It's really important to feel comfortable doing that.

They can take comfort knowing that we're not going to sit there and ever try to make them feel dumb for asking a question that maybe they're just not familiar with. Those producers out there that collect as much data as they possibly can and provide the most accurate thing in terms of their cow herd, whether it's their breeding records, whether it's them being involved in inventory reporting or Maternal+. It's just one of those other various programs out there, not even just AngusLink in our commercial programs, but those who are actually invested into driving the most data into the national cattle evaluation and knowing the most about their cow herd that's going to be able to provide these commercial cattlemen with the utmost accuracy in the product that they're buying. That just goes back, it's not only that customer service piece, but what kind of data do they select? What are they submitting? Are they just turning in weaning weights and maybe a calving score and a birth weight, or are they taking it the extra mile to turn in hair shedding? That goes to what Shawn was saying about environment you live in. It goes into what kind of breeding records are they turning in? Are they turning in feet scores? Are they turning in teat and udder scores? Are they turning in all these necessary things to try to provide the most accurate information and data that they possibly can about their herd?

Lynsey McAnally (05:18):
For Quanah Gardiner, regional manager for Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, knowing what a producer has to offer from a program and genetics standpoint is one of the foremost details a potential buyer can focus on. Whether you're looking to produce high-quality feeder cattle or standout replacements, knowing your seedstock provider's focus for their own operation can be incredibly helpful.

Quanah Gardiner (05:40):
How are calves by your bulls going to be differentiated in the marketplace? I mean, are these cattle reputable from a feeder-packer perspective? Are these calves going to sire calves that have upper percentile marbling, ribeye and carcass merit? Are they going to be big growth? Is it, "Hey, I'm trying to sell females. Is your sire line known to be very cow powered and maternal?" Are people going to know that when I buy these bulls they are by sires out of X, Y, A Angus? Are they going to be, "Oh wow, those are going to be good cows. I'm going to buy those replacements." I mean, know what you're getting out of the seedstock guy.

Lynsey McAnally (06:14):
Knowing your options ahead of time can come in handy when purchasing bulls and planning for breeding season says regional manager Shawn Gray, who works with cattlemen from Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Whether that's writing down operational goals ahead of a sale, researching which bulls best fit that objective or planning for downtime between bringing your new sire home and turnout, that forward thinking can make all the difference.

Shawn Gray (06:38):
Don't wait until the day before the sale or the day of the sale to try to make your selections. Do your homework ahead of time. Do some research. Don't just show up at a bull sale and go, 'Alright, what do I need to buy.' Reduce it to writing. Write down, what are my goals? What am I looking for? All the data is online, the catalogs are online. If you didn't get one in the mail, you can go online and look through and see what sales are in your area. And then let them get acclimated to your program before you have to use them. If your feeding program's a little different, let them get acclimated to that because you don't want them having the requirements of a lot of travel, exercise, breeding cows and then the rumen trying to acclimate all at the same time. So give yourself enough time, if at all possible, to buy your bulls, get them home, let them learn the routine even from a handling aspect. Let them learn how everything goes at your place before you have to turn them out on cows.

Lynsey McAnally (07:42):
That was just a small excerpt of the information available in the upcoming January edition of the Angus Beef Bulletin focused on making the most of your investment in Angus herd sires. From health to nutrition to bull management, the January issue will be chock full of articles you don't want to miss out on! And from our family to yours, happy Thanksgiving.

Lynsey McAnally (08:07):
Listeners, for more information on making Angus work for you check out the Angus Beef Bulletin and the Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. You can subscribe to both publications in the show notes. If you have questions or comments, let us know at abbeditorial@angus.org. And we would appreciate it if you would leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode with any other profit-minded cattleman. Thanks for listening, this has been Angus at Work!