18th Annual Midwest Beef Cattle Consultants Open House and Sale

Midwest Beef Cattle Consultants (MBCC), West Lafayette, Indiana, held their 18th annual open house bull and female sale at the M5 Ag Services Farm near Carthage, Indiana, on Saturday, March 13. It was a standing room only crowd with 57 registered buyers and over 120 people in attendance. The MBCC team sold 33 bulls averaging $4,500 and 15 females averaging $1,593. All bulls sold with genetically enhanced EPDs.

The high selling bull, MBCC Weightlifter 14H, came from MBCC and sold for $7,400 to repeat buyer Chet Thompson, Washington, Indiana. This homozygous black, polled Balancer® son of WCR 59 and out of the “218” foundation cow family has EPDs of CED 18, YW 122 and 0.59 marbling which puts him in the top 3, 15 and 10 percentiles for those EPDs, respectively. Thompson now boasts four Balancer bulls, from three different MBCC team members, working in his commercial herd.

The second high selling bull brought $5800 and went to repeat buyer Tony Eppley and Grant VonDielingen of VF Farms, Seymour, Indiana. The Balancer bull MBCC Hugo 10H from DJ Weimer, DVM, is a paternal halfbrother to the top selling lot and out of a Ditka sired female that also goes back to the “218” cow. Hugo 10H has EPDs of CED 20, YW 122 and 0.57 marbling with percentile ranks of 1, 15 and 10 percent, respectively. VF Farms also owns a custom locker plant and the 10H calves will fit their needs nicely.

The next high selling bull brought $5,700. This nice Balancer bull, MBCC Useful 8H, also owned by Weimer, is another WCR 59 son and out of MBCC Evie 1B ET. This calving ease “cow maker” boasts EPDs of CED 20, CEM 13 and marbling of 0.50 to rank in the top 1, 1 and 20 percentiles for the breed. Jim Lankford of Martinsville, Indiana, will use this bull on all of his outstanding commercial replacement heifers this spring.

Three bulls sold at $5,600. BRCC Rod’s 04H WCR 59 from Blue Ridge Farms had the highest FPI of any bull in the sale at 101.67 (top 1%). He was also outstanding in many other EPDs including CED 16 (top 15%), YW 122 (top 15%) and marbling 0.83 (top 1%). First time buyer Jon Kelly, St. Croix, Indiana, came to the sale on the advice of a longtime MBCC customer, and we think he made an excellent selection. Our two SimAngus bulls both by J Bar J Nightride 225Z and both from cooperator herd Lubben White Oak Farms, Monticello, Iowa, had plenty of interest. MBCC LWO Marbling 72H went to first time buyer Buddy King of Pyatt, Arkansas. MBCC LWO Baldy 76H was purchased by first time buyer Lane Edwards of Eckerty, Indiana. Both new buyers made purchases on the advice of their herd health veterinarians.

RIED Medal of Valor 118H owned by Brian Riedie was one of nine bulls sired by MBCC No Risk 8F in the sale. “No Risk 8F” sold in our 2019 sale to Marvin Mauer at Greensburg, Indiana, with semen interest retained by MBCC. This Balancer AI sire has EPDs of CED 17 (15%), WW 88 (4%), YW 141 (4%), marb 0.74 (3%) and FPI 101.49 (1% and #4 Balancer AI sire in the entire breed). He is stamping his calves with calving ease, growth and muscle. “118H” sold at $5,500 to volume buyer K&M Farms of Fair Oaks, Indiana who also took home another Riedie 8F son along with two bred cows.

In the female sale, Riedie had the top two selling lots with his daughters of BRCC Brooks Arnold 79E. Both two-year-olds had heifer calves at side. RIED 50G/ RIED 50J sold for $2,800 to Alyson Peoples of Lizton, Indiana and RIED 48G/RIED 48J sold for $2,750 to Ben Poehlein, DVM, Shelburn, Indiana. These females will make excellent additions to their herds.

Open registered and commercial heifer calves from Riedie, Blue Ridge and host M5 Ag Services sold between $1,200 – $1,700 to mostly repeat buyers. F