OCA Commercial Cattleman of the Year

Partnerships keep Shugert Farms running and growing

For Bob Shugert, a new land purchase is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Map in hand, he likes to ride through a new piece of property, figuring out the lay of the land and how to divide it up. He’s got a lot of puzzle pieces to put in place – which spot is best for building working facilities, which areas are prime for adding springs, which sections need brush hogged to remove invasive plants and where to place the fences so the cattle flow into the corral with minimal effort. “I love taking a bare piece of ground that has nothing on it and figuring out how to make it work with you and not against you. I really enjoy going into a new piece of land and seeing it develop from start to finish. You get bored doing the same old thing and you’ve got to find something new,” said Bob who runs a large cattle operation in eastern Ohio and Nebraska that is the 2021 recipient of the Ohio Cattleman’s Commercial Cattleman of the Year award. Bob is a man of motion, stopping rarely except for the occasional meal and always looking for the next opportunity to expand. He’s been doing this ever since he graduated from college and returned to the family farm in Guernsey County, determined to be 10 | Ohio Cattleman | Winter Issue 2021 Story & Photos by Amy Beth Graves

his own boss and start his own cattle operation. Today, the size of Shugert Farms is impressive – about 3,000 cows spread out over thousands of acres in eastern Ohio counties and Nebraska. The cattle are mostly Leachman Stabilizer and primarily a Simmental-Angus cross. Bob’s partners in the cattle operation are Steve and Stephanie Harris, his brother Dwight and Jake and Janice Wolfinger who run the Nebraska side of the business. Running such a large cattle operation can be challenging but Bob wouldn’t have it any other way. “My parents were both self-employed farmers and never had off-thethe farm jobs and I never had interest in anything else,” he said. Bob knew from the get-to that he only wanted to work for one person – himself. While at Ohio State University pursuing an animal science degree, he skipped all internship and job opportunities and headed straight back to the 800-acre family farm after getting his degree. He started buying or renting nearby land and purchasing cattle and in just six to seven years, he was running about 200 head of cows. “I had about 200 cows on seven different places and was trying to do artificial insemination on all those cows and it was really, really labor intensive. It was time consuming to get to those basically small farms that had maybe 30 cows on them and try to get all that done,” he said. “I was looking for something to run a lot more cows.” Bob found those large tracts of property in Belmont and Harrison counties and started purchasing stripmined land from coal companies about 24 years ago. Today Shugert Farms owns about 1,200 acres each in Belmont and Harrison counties. “Basically you can’t go anywhere in Belmont and Harrison counties without crossing our ground because we own so much property,” he said. Installing or repairing fences and improving the land for pastures has been a never-ending chore. Bob calculates he’s put in more than 250 miles of high tensile fence over the years, fencing out streams and woodlands and dividing the land up into 100acre pasture fields so the cows can be rotated about once a week. He’s had biosolids added to the land to improve the grass and ultimately the cows’ fertility in order to get more production from them. Driving along a swatch of property in Belmont County, Bob points out a patch of the Autumn ol-

“We’ve never been afraid to try something new and that’s because when everybody is in it for the same common goal, it’s easier.”

ive, a nonnative shrub planted by coal companies to remediate stripmined land. Battling the invasive, non-native plant is another one of his never-ending chores as he works to return the land to a more natural and productive state. “At the time of the year when other people are doing hay, we spend a lot of time brushhogging and maintaining those fences. It’s a lot of work,” he said.

From internship to partnership

Steve Harris’s first introduction to Shugert Farms was via one of his Ohio State University professors who was doing research with Bob and told him about the cattle operation. Intrigued, Steve asked about an internship and was hooked. Steve, who grew up near Pittsburgh, joined the business in 1999 after he graduated from Ohio State with an ag education degree. His wife, Stephanie, has a business degree from Franklin University and focuses on the record-keeping part of the cattle operation. Each partner is in charge of a group of cattle with the help of an employee or two, and Stephanie works to ensure all the data they collect is in a central location. “Each individual person collects that data and turns it in to Stephanie. Our No. 1 goal is to keep track of which calves are genetically out of which bull because a lot of those older calves that are most valuable are AI sire replacement females or AI sire bulls that we may end up using,” Bob said. “We also keep track of the birth dates to have some idea of what the rate of gain is, which sire groups are performing the best, especially when we get to the other end when they’re finished out in Nebraska.” A couple of years ago, Shugert Farms made a change from selling its feeder calves to keeping everything in-house. “This is something we started recently. We used to market the feeder calves but when you become big, your time and resources become a factor,” Steve said. “Now we’re retaining all of our ownership from birth to slaughter.” In October, Shugert Farms hires a trucking company to move more than 2,000 calves from Ohio to Nebraska where Jake sorts and groups them by weight and size. Some are wintered on corn stalks and then pastured in the spring before going to the feedlot while others go directly to the feedlot. Most of the replacement heifers stay in Nebraska and a few are sent to Ohio. “We have enough land in Nebraska now – about 10,000 acres -- that we’re probably going to keep a few extra cows there,” Bob said. “We do artificial insemination on a little over 1,000 cows each year and from those AI matings, we keep about 70-80 bull calves each year to use in our herd so we’re raising our now natural service sires. We’re trying to reap the benefits of all the genetic work that we’ve done to improve our cattle by getting the benefit of that when they go to slaughter.” When looking toward the future, Bob’s plans are to continue growing and finding ways to make use of existing resources. A few years ago, the farm stopped raising hay and all the equipment was sold. “We’re always working toward stockpiling feed and winter grazing to try to limit the amount of hay and expenses,” Steve said. “We’re maximizing the resources we have like grass and not feeding hay. You have to really see what you have and how it lasts through the year. The long-term goal is to keep the cows and genetics moving in a more profitable direction.” A solid working relationship is key to making the operation run smoothly both close in person and long distance. “Our ability to work together and rely on each other is important,” Steve said. “We’ve never been afraid to try something new and that’s because when everybody is in it for the same common goal, it’s easier.” Another goal is to make the farm sustainable for the next generation. Bob has three children and Steve and Stephanie have two and they’re hopeful one of their children will join someday. Perched high up on a hilly road, Bob looks out over his land at the cattle grazing and takes it all in. “I never envisioned the size we’d be at today,” he said. “We appreciate being recognized for what we’ve spent our whole life working toward. I enjoy being my own boss and knew a long time ago that I really like working with cattle and this is all I want to do.”