Females, the foundation of any herd
Starting off on the right foot is important
As you most likely realized by now your females are the foundation of your herd. We feel they should be beautiful, calm, sound, correctly marked and POLLED. Yes, we focus on POLLED mini Herefords. Our complete herd is DNA tested for both parentage verification and horn/poll status with the American Hereford Association. All of our calves are processed the same way with guarantees of fertility, bet you don't see that much. Yes, all of our calves are fertile and represented to be exactly what they are and by the parents stated on their papers. We don't sell our mini Herefords without papers or with pending registration. We take care of our end of that process so that you can know exactly what you are getting. Not only do mini Hereford heifers/cows need registration papers to show but you will be weighed, measured and possibly DNA sampled.
We are bringing in females to the herd that have traits we like and think the mini breed needs to stay healthy into the future. This is done by careful selection of both cattle and pedigrees. In the horse world the saying goes, "You can't ride a pedigree," meaning they could be really fancy bred but that won't make them good. We believe that you should only own cattle that you like to look at, you can't just go off the pedigrees.
Seeing the animals at the perfect moment in the ring, on full feed with amazing hair does not give you an indication of the realistic quality of the animal over time. I encourage people to see how those fancy show cattle look once they have to live like cattle, often they fall apart. If you are developing a breeding herd know that chasing trends in the show ring will lead to frustrations. Just because a heifer wins does not mean she'll produce a calf every year or ever. We track production traits on all our females and anything we consider adding to our herd.
Having a quality, sound, reproductive and maternal herd of cows will be the most important part of your program. We still own a large percentage of the original cow lines with which we started. We lucked out with some great females to start our herd and it's hard to find cows that can pass "the bar" and join them. Once every few years we let one of these amazing cows go to a new home and help another breeder start their herd.
Our oldest cow Luna with her 2016 steer, she is HOMOZYGOUS POLLED. Luna is from our original female line, still raising our largest calves year after year and loving life. At 10 years old she still runs and kicks up her heels when it's time for cubes.
Our girls Ladye and Abigail in their new home in Oklahoma with the Bakers. This is exactly how we started, with two females. Congrats to the new owners, we are excited to say they will be returning for exposure to Shorty in 2017.
CeeCee and Holly at the Louisiana State Fair 2015, Reserve Division Champion and POLLED. CeeCee will be pasture exposed to Shorty for a 2018 POLLED calf.
CeeCee and Elizabeth back from the Oklahoma State Fair, their first show of 2014. Elizabeth now lives with Paul Ressler in North Texas.
CeeCee halter breaking 2014.
Elizabeth halter breaking 2014, notice how that hair is smooth and straight? You don't want curly hair on your show cattle or in your herd.
"Sassy" arriving to the OK farm for her two week stay in the isolation paddock. Sassy is a twin from the Miller Ranch herd and her sire is DA Nash ET, a very successful show bull and an even better sire. Sassy will be exposed to "Shorty" for a 2018 calf.
Irene is hiding in the back of this picture, she is out of the winning show bull WW prince William and has a sibling that has done well on the show circuit. She will be exposed to Shorty for a 2019 calf.
Corky will be AI'd to Kiel for a POLLED calf in 2018. Corky is dripping in purple with names such as: SHF Disco Thunder, KAP King Henry, KAP Kid Quip, KAP Silver Sampson. We will be flushing her in the future, stay posted!
This is an exciting, flashy and polled 2017 mini heifer we recently acquired from a local breeder, Mauldin Herefords. We will post better pictures once "Diamond" is weaned. We also purchased another heifer out of the same herd and by the outstanding show bull WW Prince William. We are looking forward to using our polled bull to fold these new bloodlines into our herd.
MAU Classic Diamond
Here is an updated picture on our newest polled heifer, Diamond. If they look this good in the pasture the sky is the limit! May 15, 2017
Diamond can be found on our show picture page.
The most unique female the breed has ever seen...comments from the 2018 NWSS judge when he placed her first in her class.
CeeCee with her late 2016 bull calf Cecil. CeeCee is bred back to Shorty for a 2018 polled calf.
We donate hay to the Endangered Ark Foundation, it's really awesome to say to people that our hay feeds elephants!
This is what it's all about! Our bull Shorty with our 7 year old grandson getting loved on.
Spot inspecting creep feed bags for crumbs. Spot is a future recip cow purchased from the OYE futurity sale. Her purchase helped a young showman pay his show expenses.
Spot would rather skipout on the feed bunk and get a good curry comb scratch. This is the way we like our recip cows, gentle and calm. She will be bred in the fall of 2017 to Shorty for a classic baldy calf.
That's the spot! Cows and kids, can it get any better?
MAU Classic Diamond at her final show. Division winner on both her trips to Houston.
CBD Little Red Corvette a POLLED 2018 Turtle x Miss Kitty calf. Houston was her first show where she took a first and reserve division champion.
MAU Classic Diamond Houston 2019 class winner and Division Champion.
CBD Little Red Corvette at her first show, Houston 2019.
