ABP Featurette - Ellingson Angus

By Tim McCray Tim@ABPmag.com

Ellingson Angus started in 1995 with the marriage of Chad Ellingson and Julie Schaff. Prior to that, Chad had begun what would become a nearly 20-year career in the AI industry with Genex CRI. Angus is in their blood. To say they’re involved in the breed and the business is like saying Garth Brooks or Willie Nelson sing a little. In fact, I may nominate them for the next episode of “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.” Their list of accomplishments and accolades are probably too many to list in a page, but I admit that may be fun to do a bit later. Chad has “traded places” for a day with a chef at a local restaurant for a Certified Angus Beef promotion. He’s also been a judge not only at the local level, but the national level and in numerous stock shows. Julie’s been well embedded into the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association for a quarter of a century. Today, she serves as the organization’s chief lobbyist, spokesperson and administrator. Let me just wrap this up and say that, if there are two better faces for not only Angus but ranchers in general in the Upper Midwest, I haven’t met them. To top that off, they’re also two of the nicest, most down-to-earth people you’ll ever meet.

Chad Ellingson

The Ellingson Angus and Topp Herefords families have been friends for many years. They both have a strong commitment to their customers and supporting the genetics that their customers get from each of them, respectively. Their first business project together was marketing registered Angus and Hereford cattle to Kazakhstan. From there, Ellingson Angus joined Topp Herefords in a baldy heifer development program, which allowed the families to expand their seedstock offerings to commercial cattle producers. By adding Ellingson-sired, straight-Angus females bred to Topp Herefords bulls, producers could maximize the number of steers and heifers that qualify for the Topp Herefords marketing programs, while ensuring a source of proven, high-quality genetics for straight-Angus females. Today, the Ellingson Angus bred heifer program and the Topp Herefords baldy program work together seamlessly. Topp Herefords has a strong belief in having a consistent source of high-end Angus females. Ellingson Angus buys back firstcut, replacement-quality, Ellingson-sired, Angus females from its bull customers, breeds those females to Topp Herefords bulls, which, in turn, are offered to Topp Herefords customers seeking to maintain an Angus cowherd. By supplying top-quality Angus heifers to Topp Herefords bull customers, the crossbreeding system is simplified. Topp Herefords customers maximize the number of heifers and steers in their herd that qualify for TH marketing programs and ensure a source of proven, high-quality genetics for their straight-Angus females. “This system can only work with front-end cattle and also must be built by front-end people,” Ryan Topp says. “Quite simply, Ellingson Angus fits the bill on both fronts.”

As I mentioned in the Topp article (if you haven’t read that yet – spoiler alert), both of these programs are committed to customer service. So, both of them spend quite a bit of time visiting with their customers and finding out what their needs are. “We buy the top end of our bull customers’ Angus heifers and we cull them pretty aggressively, even after spring breeding time,” Chad Ellingson goes on to say. “We do another sort on the females prior to delivery as well, so we only ship the best of the best bred Angus females.” This creates a consistent, quality source of replacement heifers and a supply chain that many cattle ranchers have looked for, but not found until this Topp/Ellingson partnership was formed. “We believe in the cattle we are producing and stand behind them,” Chad Ellingson adds. The Ellingson Angus team is stringent in producing maternal genetics emphasizing foot quality, udder quality and doability. That’s important to their bull and registered female customers, as well as those purchasing the Angus genetics they provide that go on to make cows for Topp Herefords bull customers.

Both families strongly believe in the genetics they are producing, but, beyond that, both want to make sure that their customers are taken care of well beyond sale day.