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Seedstock Producer of the Year

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Jones Show Cattle

FOCUSES ON RAISING PUREBRED CATTLE FOR JUNIOR EXHIBITORS NATIONWIDE

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Story and Photos by Amy Beth Graves

It didn’t take long for Troy Jones to figure out that he was meant to have a career in raising cattle. The year was 1998 and he’d just graduated from high school. He’d started working on the excavation crew of his father’s business when he realized his heart wasn’t in it. He didn’t really like working with the general public and wanted to be his own boss. That’s when he realized that the perfect job was right before his eyes – raising cattle. He already had 50-60 cows, which were raised mainly for the showring, and it was the perfect way for him to stay in the family business. His father had three words of advice: quality over quantity. “Dad always had a motto: ‘Start with the best animals you can afford. Don’t just go out and buy animals to breed them up and try to make them great. You have to start with the best ones you can afford,’” Troy recalled his father advising him. Troy took to heart the words of advice from his father who for decades has run a successful excavation company, RD Jones Excavating, in Allen County. Over the years, Troy and his father, Randy, have worked hard to build up and improve their show cattle operation, Jones Show Cattle located in Harrod, just east of Lima. Their hard work resulted in the cattle operation being named the Ohio Cattlemen’s Seedstock Producer of the Year. The Jones raise and sell Angus, Simmental and Maine-Anjou bulls, show heifers and bred heifers. “It’s exciting to be recognized for something we do every day. It makes you feel good and that you’re doing the right thing,” Troy said as he showed off a showring attached to his office filled with photos and awards showcasing their successes over the years at the state and national levels. During the first weekend in November, it’s all hands on deck for the Jones family. That’s the day of their High Standards Female Sale where since 2005 they’ve offered some of their most elite show heifer prospects and bred heifers. Even though Troy describes the day as “mass chaos,” he notes that there’s a feeling of camaraderie among everyone even though they may be bidding against each other. “The sale barn is a place where people can get away from the chaos in the world and not listen to the news and they can be with a bigger family – the cattle community,” he said. This past year was one of the most successful years for Jones Show Cattle, and its sale brought in about 500 people from as far away as New York. By the end of the sale, the animals were headed out to farms in 24 different states. “These show heifers and bred heifers are ones we would keep in our own herd,” Troy said. “Our goal is to produce the best purebred cattle for junior livestock exhibitors so they can get a head start in starting their own herds.”

Walking along his property, Troy points out about a dozen individual pens with hutches that he uses to showcase some of his heifers and bulls. “We’ve added new pens and fencing. We’re doing whatever we can to make it easier to view the cattle and not have so many in a pen. There’s always something new and better to try to do,” he said. Jones Show Cattle also markets about a dozen bulls online every year as well as sends up to 40 to Griswold Cattle Co. in Oklahoma, which helps sell them. The cattle operation also has an extensive in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer program, using satellite herds in Illinois and South Dakota. “It’s an ever changing world and you’ve got to stay progressive,” Troy said. “You’ve got to flush your best cows every year and use the hottest bulls. We buy some donor cows now and then. We try to sell our best. If we don’t sell our best, we won’t get anyone here for the sale.” A family tradition of raising cattle started decades ago with Randy and his father. Troy grew up showing steers and Angus heifers and traces his work ethic to the life skills he gained taking care of the animals. At one point they were raising 200 show cattle along with managing a 500-head feedlot in an older facility. “We were stretched so thin and when a guy said he wanted to buy our feedlot, we didn’t hesitate,” Troy said. Today, Jones Show Cattle has about 200 momma cows and calves out about the same number starting in January each year. While they’ve concentrated on the Maine-Anjou and Simmental breeds for years, they’ve started adding Angus back into their herd. “We’ve gone back to our roots and are raising Angus to cross and make better livestock and bring some maternal back into (the herd),” Troy said. Running the cattle operation is a full-time job for Troy and his father helps monitor cameras during calving season and helps with financial decisions. Troy also relies on five employees who help manage breeding, sales and everyday activities. Troy and his wife, Sara, have three children: Delaney, 16; Olivia, 13, and Bryson, 9. The family travels around the country competing in national shows and has returned home with championship banners and trophies. “It’s a neat experience watching them win big shows that I never got to try,” Troy said. “There’s no better feeling than watching their hard work pay off. It’s so great that they’ve gotten to experience that.” Troy, who served two terms on the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association’s (OCA) board of directors, has also been a supporter of the American Maine-Anjou Association and the American Simmental Association. For the past six years, Jones Show Cattle has been a sponsor of OCA’s BEST program. “The BEST program is an awesome program and has gotten bigger than I ever thought it would. The novice leadership program is helping kids learn how to talk to someone and those basic life skills. That’s what raising cattle and having them compete in programs like this is all about – developing young kids and teaching them responsibility for a project or an animal’s life,” he said. “We’ve got to keep this cattle industry driving forward and we can’t do that without the youth. That’s our biggest driving factor – having good experiences with kids and families so they can have a future in this industry.”

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