STALWART RANCHES

Stalwart Ranches

COMMERCIAL PRODUCER OF THE YEAR

by Brad Wright

The winner of the 2022 International Brangus Breeders Association Commercial Producer of the Year award is Stalwart Ranches. Stalwart Ranches is owned by Mike and Vanessa Manners. Mike grew up in England dreaming of one day owning his own Texas ranch. That dream became a reality in 1993 when he bought hIs fIrst ranch in Montgomery County, Texas. Shortly after purchasing the ranch, he met Bill Cawley who was very active in the Brangus breed. Mike hired Bill to be his ranch manager, and in 1994, Stalwart Ranches bought their first Brangus cows.

As the operation grew, more ranches were purchased in Montgomery, Houston, and Madison Counties. By 2011, the registered Brangus cowherd reached 1200 breeding age females and was one of the largest registered Brangus operations in the United States. However, 2011 was a tough year in Texas as a massive drought affected most of the state.

When water became scarce, the decision was made to disperse the cowherd. It would not be a final goodbye, but the land would not sustain the cowherd during that tough year. In the dispersal, Stalwart Ranch cows were bought by breeders all over the country and some of those cows went on to become donor cows in various embryo transfer programs. Out of the dispersal, Stalwart Ranches retained about 100 females that would be the base of the rebuild that they knew would happen. In 2012 and 2013, as conditions improved, rains came, and grasses improved, Stalwart began to buy cows and stock ranches.

This time around, Stalwart Ranches had more of a commercial focus. Many of the cows they purchased were targeted from past customers so that the cows were always influenced by Stalwart genetics. In 2015, Stalwart purchased the Attebury division right outside of Crockett, Texas. This has served as the headquarters division since that time. The herd has now grown to around 200 registered Brangus females and over 3400 commercial females. Stalwart works to be as vertically integrated as possible. The registered herd is the seedstock genetics used to produce bulls for the commercial operation. Some bulls are sold private treaty but the bulk of the bulls produced are used in the Stalwart commercial program. Outcross genetics are occasionally sourced from around the breed to enhance the genetics represented in the seedstock herd, but most of the genetic lines are tried and true Stalwart lines. For many years, Stalwart Ranches has marketed their calves through Superior Livestock. Even though eared cattle are typically docked in the marketplace, Stalwart Ranches and their history of quality genetics have topped Superior sales from Fort Worth to the Rocky Mountains to Winnemucca. Stalwart Brangus calves have continuously matched their Angus counterparts whenever offered. More recently, Stalwart Ranches has designed strategic partnerships to allow them to retain ownership in calves until harvest. This has allowed for better data collection and knowledge of how these calves are hanging on the rail.

Data collection is at the core of Stalwart Ranches’ program. They have taken their rich Brangus registered philosophy and applied it to their commercial herd. At Stalwart Ranches, every calf is tagged at birth and weighed at weaning. In addition to birth and weaning records, carcass ultrasound is also performed on yearling replacement animals and carcass data is collected on feeder animals whenever available. All of this data is stored and tracked for use in management decisions from year to year.

Stalwart Ranches is one of the founding contributors to the Igenity Enhanced program started at Neogen. Through the Igenity Enhanced program, Stalwart Ranches is able to combine their performance data with genomic data to generate data enhanced genomic values. This is a one-ofa-kind program available to commercial producers with performance data available in good contemporary groups. This program uses commercially available genomic testing to not only validate the pedigrees of the sires and dams, but also provides genomic values for various traits from calving ease to growth to carcass and maternal. These scores are then adjusted based on within herd performance data and real-world information from this unique environment and management practices.

In addition to the genomic values, the fact that every calf is tagged at birth allows for accurate assessment of cow productivity. The most important aspect of any cowherd is maternal efficiency. For any ranching operation to be profitable, females that fail to wean a calf every year must be culled from the herd. The use of diligent calving records with assistance from DNA technology has allowed Stalwart Ranches to accurately track the production history of every cow. This information is vital to making management decisions on which females to cull from the herd. Studies of population genetics prove that we can make more genetic progress by culling the bottom than selecting for the top. By properly assessing the cows that are not performing on a yearly basis, Stalwart Ranches is able to make great strides in genetic improvement by culling the bottom.

In addition to strict genetic assessment of the herd, Stalwart Ranches also excels in herd health and management. One of the ways that they have been able to top feeder calf sales across the country is to participate in age and source verification as well as GAP 4 certification. To fit with these programs, Stalwart Ranches has adopted electronic identification technology. Individual animal identification is the basis of meaningful performance data. GAP 4 cattle are

eligible for a variety of domestic and export markets. This certification combined with the known quality of Stalwart Ranches genetics opens the door for premiums rarely seen in Bos indicus genetics.

Stalwart Ranches is highly active in the IBBA, NCBA, BIF and Texas Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. These affiliations combined with a focus on quality genetics and a premium product help to establish the ranch as one of the premier programs in the United States. As the cow herd numbers grow, Stalwart Ranches is not only a supplier of feeder calves but also premium replacement heifers. The replacement heifers have a known pedigree, known genomic assessment of multiple traits and known performance of the steer siblings. With this information available, Stalwart heifers demand a premium any time they are offered to the public.

Even with the focus on DNA and performance data, Bill Cawley is one of the premier Brangus cattle judges in the United States. As expected, not only do these cattle have performance, but they have a phenotype that is pleasing to the eye and respected by all cattlemen. It is fully deserving and probably long overdue that Stalwart Ranches has been recognized as the IBBA Commercial Producer of the Year.