meet your neighbors

don’t want those traits if it doesn’t match the cow,” Ryan said. “We don’t want cattle with bad feet that you have to trim feet every year. We want a cow first and the quality that comes with those EPDs. We don’t want quality on paper and not see the quality in the pasture. You have to spend a lot of time with your cattle to see which one looks the best.”

Ryan credited Holly’s dad, Keith Bremer of Centerton, Ark., for his “eye” for quality females.

The Shoffners are not planning to get into the bull business and utilize sexed semen to get more heifers on the ground.

“There are a lot of producers who raise quality bulls and have a lot more head than we do,” Ryan said. “The larger facility you have, the more space you have to keep bulls. We don’t have the space to do that. Our focus is raising bred replacement heifers for seedstock or commercial producers.” A total AI breeding program can be time-consuming, but when breeding for high-fertility females, the program works for the Shoffners.

Using sexed semen, Ryan explained, is also a marketing tool for their female-only operation because they offer females carrying females.

Another maternal trait the couple monitor is calf weaning weights.

“If a cow isn’t going to wean off a calf that can be bred in 14 months, she doesn’t have much room here,” Ryan said.

The next step in the breeding program is to look into embryo transfer. However, they plan only to flush females that have demonstrated the maternal traits they desire and are proven females.

Shoffner Cattle Company recently consigned bred heifers to the East Central Missouri Angus Association’s Spring Sale. Being a new consigner, Ryan and Holly said they wanted the quality to be its best and for the animals to look their best. When a long-time Angus breeder complimented them on their cattle, the couple said it was worth their efforts.

“The ultimate goal is to have a product, and I don’t think we’re far away, that will come with some name recognition,” Ryan said. “I want to have a product people will recognize as high-quality. If people know we have the quality they demand, I think that’s what the cow sales are all about.”

As for the future, the couple hopes to grow and expand.

Holly would like to increase their farm to about 200 acres and expand the cattle herd.

“If you have 10 head of a cow, you might as well have 50,” Ryan said. “At that point, we would still implement the tools and technology we have, but we might have to implement a clean-up bull with a herd that size. My dream has always been to have a large ranch and do that, but it’s hard to do that just starting out.”

“I remind him that we are starting from scratch and doing this on our own,” Holly said. “We get help and opinions, but this is truly ours.”

2, 4-D, Liberty, Roundup

SUDAN/MILLET

Lb./Acre

50 SAFE “T” GRAZE SUDAN 50# 0.72

Piper Cross=Low Prussic Acid

50 SAFE “T” GRAZE SUDAN

48.90

50 SOYBEANS 50# 53.30

Extend Flex 4812 Roundup, Liberty, Dicamba

80K CORN, Roundup Ready® Lewis RB108VT2 20K 196.50

80K CORN, Roundup Ready® Silage R1315VT2P 20K 234.84