September 22 The Profit Picture

Pictured above: back row (left to right) includes Adam, Ryan, Tony, Tye and Russ. Natasha and Annette are in the front row.

BY TOM STRAHM

Russ and Annette Bloom own and operate a diversified family operation near Scotia, Nebraska. They have several enterprises including a cow-calf operation, raising hay and row crops consisting of corn and soybeans. In addition, Russ is a Fontanelle seed dealer, and Annette keeps everybody going in the right direction. Russ says, “Beside every good man, there is a great woman.”

Annette was raised here on her family’s operation, while Russ grew up working on farms and ranches in the area. Russ and Annette have a total of six children and enjoy their 12 grandchildren. Both Russ and Annette consider their family to be very patriotic as their four grown sons have all served in various branches of the armed forces.

Adam was in the U.S. Army and served one tour in Afghanistan; he was awarded the Purple Heart. Ryan was in the U.S. Army Reserve, and Tony has spent four years in the U.S. Army and 16 years in the Alabama National Guard. He served two tours in Iraq, and is currently deployed to Kuwait.

Their youngest son Tye was in the U.S. Marine Corps and served one tour in Afghanistan. He was also awarded the Purple Heart. The sons are all married with their own families, but they all manage to find time to come home to help during busy times.

Daughter Natasha bought her first cows as an FFA project and she’s continued to grow her herd from there. She’s married to Morgan Miller, and they ranch in western Nebraska as a fifth-generation ranching family.

Q: HOW DID YOU GET STARTED, AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN USING GELBVIEH AND BALANCER ® GENETICS?

A: We moved back here in 1998 to help Annette’s parents. She is the thirdgeneration living on her family’s place. We worked with her parents, and then we bought into the operation in 2004 and have continued to grow from there.

We have been using Gelbvieh and Balancer® bulls for over 20 years. Years ago, I was reading an article about how the Gelbvieh breed was established which really piqued my interest. I have a strong German heritage, and that’s part of the reason I was drawn to the Gelbvieh breed. Eventually, we started buying Balancer bulls, and that has been working really well for us.

Q: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE STRENGTHS AND ADVANTAGES OF THE BREED?

A: We really like keeping our replacement females back to put in the herd. The cows don’t get so big, and they are more moderate framed so that helps save on feed. They mother their calves very well, and milk well, raising a big calf. I like a 1,250-pound cow raising a 650-pound calf!

Docility is great and having a good disposition is very important to us with family and kids around. The fertility is exceptional! They breed up good in a shorter breeding season, and have excellent conception rates. The cows have a lot of longevity, and it’s not unusual for us to have cows in the herd that are 13 or 14 years old.

Q: WHAT’S THE FOCUS OF YOUR PROGRAM, AND WHAT TRAITS ARE IMPORTANT TO YOU?

A: Our primary objective is to breed a better cow. We want to raise high quality replacement females. Performance and carcass traits are important because we sell steer calves, but we have really begun to focus more on the females over the last few years. We really look at the maternal traits including fertility, docility, longevity, and milking ability.

In January, we select our replacements for breeding based on phenotype and herd records. We sell anything we’re not keeping for replacements. At the time, we also collect tissue samples for DNA testing on any heifers we have selected for replacements. Genomics are another tool to help us select heifers that have higher genetic potential for fertility and longevity. We are trying to select for long term reproductive success. We don’t want to keep heifers that might have low scores for traits that are important to us.

We’ll also use the results from DNA testing to determine how the heifers are bred. Some will be bred to more maternal bulls, or some might be bred to more terminal bulls, depending on genetic strengths and weaknesses.

Q: HOW DO YOU MANAGE AND MARKET YOUR CALVES?

A: We really believe in good nutrition and a good mineral program for our herd. It really helps improve performance in our calves, and increases conception rates in our cows. We vaccinate the calves at branding time, and go to summer grass. Our cows are scattered out in the summer, so we have been bringing the all the cows home, and then we’ll give preconditioning shots to the calves about two weeks before weaning. The steers will be weaned 45-60 days, and we’ll sell them at Huss Livestock in Kearney, Nebraska, usually between Christmas and the New Year.

We keep all the heifers until we have selected our replacements in January. We use ultrasound to pregnancy check our bred heifers in August. We might breed 60 heifers and then keep 50% for us, and sell the remaining bred heifers.

Q: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE GOALS FOR YOUR FAMILY AND OPERATION GOING FORWARD?

A: Of course, we want to keep improving our cow herd and improving our farming practices, Annette says, but it’s more about having a strong faith, keeping good family values, and a strong work ethic. You can’t have a family farm without the family.

Note: Russ Bloom was part of the February 2022 episode of The American Rancher.

“This is our son Jamie’s 2006 graduation photo. He was living in a nursing home at the time this family picture was taken. We lost him in 2017 due to complications of his disability. That photo represents the way we remember him.”