Town Creek Farm Since 1993
SPRING 2013
Vo l u m e 1 , I s s u e 1 • P u b l i s h e d b y To w n C r e e k Fa r m , We s t Po i n t, M i s s i s s i p p i • B r a n g u s a n d U l t r a b l a c k
Town Creek Farm Carries on Legacy of Joe Reznicek
The Grit welcomes your inquiries and feedback. The Grit is published by Town Creek Farm, West Point, Mississippi.
Town Creek Farm Milton Sundbeck, Owner 662.295.3115 Milton@TownCreekFarm.com Ron Flake, Manager 662.509.2233 Ron@TownCreekFarm.com Joy Reznicek, Marketing 205.399.0221 Joy@TownCreekFarm.com Post Office Box 1217 West Point, Mississippi 39773 www.TownCreekFarm.com
Since 1993
This Ultrablack bull sells October 19, 2013.
FOR NEARLY A DECADE, TOWN CREEK FARM PRODUCED powerful Brangus and Ultrablack commercial bulls for Cow Creek Ranch. That all changed in 2010 with the passing of Joe Reznicek. The tough-to-fill void rocked not only the Cow Creek Ranch community, but also touched cattlemen across the globe. After his demise, most conversation centered round the iconic Cow Creek Ranch cowherd, but little was mentioned of a group of registered Brangus breeders who had quietly assisted Joe Reznicek in producing his annual bull offering. They were a part of the Cow Creek community called joint venture bull producers. All had invested in Cow Creek Ranch females and followed genetic protocols set forth by Reznicek to produce his power-packed bull offering. Following Joe’s passing, the question became what to do going forward with respect to marketing their bulls. Sun Sets to Rise Again For Milton Sundbeck’s Town Creek Farm of West Point, Mississippi, the untimely turn of events postured him to either grow his Cow Creek based cowherd or become a commercial producer. “When Cow Creek got out of the business, I had to make a decision about what to do going forward. They left a huge, gaping hole. There were not a lot of alternatives,” says Sundbeck. “I had the land, cowherd and resources to move forward. It just made sense for me to build my program and sell bulls. It wasn’t a hard choice. I was either going to be in to win it or not play. I love the industry.” Late in 2010, land across the road from Sundbeck’s home place became available. He grabbed it. Acquiring land made it logistically possible to have enough property to take on the project. “I wanted to develop the bulls on our place
with our hay resources,” says Sundbeck. Sundbeck’s answer came. Town Creek Farm would carry on the legacy of Joe Reznicek and his genetic program by hosting an annual bull sale and commercial heifer sale, much like the traditional Cow Creek Ranch sale held for the past 20 years plus. “I primarily wanted to do this to continue the Reznicek program. That’s the exact truth of the matter,” says Sundbeck. Together Again The legacy of Joe Reznicek and his genetics are at the heart of the future of Town Creek Farm. On October 19, 2013, Town Creek Farm will hold a Bull Sale and Commercial Heifer Sale. The bull sale offering includes powerful Brangus and Ultrablack bulls from Town Creek Farm as well as from former Cow Creek Ranch joint venture producers now called Town Creek Farm Bull Production Partners. “These are very serious, like-minded cattlemen loyal to Reznicek’s genetics who want to see the program move forward,” says Sundbeck. Like Reznicek’s joint venture bull producers, commercial cattlemen who’d been selling commercial bred heifers in Cow Creek Ranch’s sale maintained their loyality to the program as well. These influential cattlemen are offering their reputation heifers in Town Creek Farm’s sale on October 19, 2013. Joining Sundbeck as both Town Creek Farm ranch manager and a Town Creek Bull Production Partner is Ron Flake of Ecru, Mississippi. Flake is a former 20-year Cow Creek Ranch joint venture bull producer. The influence of Reznicek and his genetics continues to shape futures of others. Joe Reznicek is likely sitting on the sidelines cheering them on.
When do pounds trump fertility and efficiency? Or do they ever?
Brazilians tour Town Creek Farm – Milton Sundbeck, Town Creek Farm owner, left, and Ron Flake, Town Creek Farm manager, right, welcomed Moacyr Teixeira and Fernando Waihrich of JMT Agropecuária of Brazil to Town Creek Farm.
JMT Agropecuária of Brazil exhibited the 2013 National Grand Champion Bull at the Brazilian National Show. “Netto” 9011Y6 is sired by CCR Pathfinder 4891S and out of CCR Lady 9011R.
Brazilians Dominate National Brangus Show with Reznicek Genetics SIX COW CREEK RANCH MATED EMBRYO CALVES were the talk of the recent 2013 Brazilian Brangus National Show at Londrina, Paraná State, as they dominated both the haltered and pen shows with unimaginable success. e embryos, mated by the late Joe Reznicek, were conceived and developed by JMT Agropecuária of Brazil. e calves earned the following honors:
Embryo 1 – Yearling bull entered in the National Brangus Halter Show. Result: Champion Junior Bull and Grand Champion Bull of the Show. Embryo 2 – Yearling heifer entered in the National Brangus Halter Show. Result: Champion Junior Heifer and Third Best Female of the Show. Embryo 3 – Yearling heifer entered in the National Brangus Halter Show. Result: Reserve Champion Junior Heifer of the Show. Embryos 4, 5, & 6 – Three yearling bulls entered in the National Range Bull Trio Show. Result: Grand Champion Trio and Grand Champion Individual Bull. e show results are an extraordinary tribute to the genetics Reznicek developed over the past 25 years and to Town Creek Farm for carrying forward his philosophy.
IF THERE EVER WERE A CONUNDRUM IN THE BEEF CATTLE BUSINESS, it exists today; record prices per pound for calves of all weight classes coupled with record annual maintenance costs per cows. at said, at what point do pounds trump efficiency, fertility and longevity? Or do they ever? A lesson I learned in my college animal breeding class was that antagonisms exist between growth and calving ease and between growth and reproductive performance. Not long after I completed the course, the lesson hit home. My dad was calving out a group of first calf Hereford heifers. ey’d been bred to a calving ease bull with acceptable enough numbers to use on heifers. Or, so we thought. e A.I. sire had high growth numbers and, yes, we wanted those pounds. In reality though, as we learned during calving, it’s often difficult to have calving ease and high growth in the same package. My dad and brother spent the better part of a month pulling calves and hauling off dead heifers and dead calves. If you’ve lived that nightmare, you never want to live it again. So where is the tipping point of “too much of a good thing?” Lessons I’ve learned on battlefields of this business are, one, conception rates can never be too high. When a cow is open, the income side of your ledger goes down. Period. No matter if you bought that cow or raised her, an open female costs you money. She’ll never wean a 500-pound calf, a 600-pound calf or a 700-pound calf. No calf equals no revenue. My good friend Burke Teichert recently wrote in Beef magazine, “It didn’t take too much arithmetic to figure out that “weaned calf crop percentage” was my most important metric followed by “death loss percentage” and “pregnancy rate.” I’ve even decided it was more important to have more calves than to have bigger calves.” Turf battle number two is cow maintenance and feed costs are always too high. As cattlemen, or businessmen if you will, we are always looking for ways to cut costs. Upkeep costs tend to be hidden in bottom lines. In reality, cow maintenance includes every expense in your operation except post weaning costs. Big cows equal higher input costs. irdly, if your cow biotype doesn’t fit your environment and climate, she’s not giving 100 percent. Far from. Conception rates, hours foraging, breathing rates, milk production, body condition, etc. all affect performance levels of your females. For me, battlefields have settled this score. I am witness to differences in reproductive efficiencies and forage vigor between breeds or biotypes everyday on the ranch. Here in the Southeast, Brangus and Ultrablack cows fit our ecosystem as well as any cows I’ve seen. During periods when intake is limited, i.e. drought or winter, or periods of oppressive heat and humidity, these more efficient cows will maintain their weight and/or condition because of lower maintenance requirements and will convert forages into more pounds of weaned calf. –Joy Reznicek
The greenest grass is found on the path least traveled.
Early Consignments Posted for Town Creek Farm Commercial Bred Heifer Sale
Since 1993
Town Creek Farm and Cow Creek Ranch Sired Heifers Eligible for Sale FIVE CATTLEMEN WITH REPUTATION CATTLE PROGRAMS HAVE COMMITTED 250 HEIFERS to the Town Creek Farm 2013 Commercial Bred Heifer Sale, Saturday, October 19, 2013. All five cattlemen were long-time consignors to the Cow Creek Ranch commercial bred heifer sale held for 18 years. Early commitment with Town Creek Farm and Cow Creek Ranch genetics are from Williamson Cattle Company, Okeechobee, Florida and Greensboro, Alabama; John McKnight, Searcy, Arkansas; Paul and Chad Gray, Holcomb, Mississippi; Megehee Cattle Company, Macon, Mississippi; and Doug McLaughlin, Tylertown, Mississippi. For more information on consigning Town Creek Farm or Cow Creek Ranch sired heifers to the October 19, 2013 sale, please contact Joy Reznicek at 205.399.0221 or Ron Flake at 662.509.2233.
Town Creek Farm Brangus Ultrablack Bull Sale & Commercial Bred Heifer Sale West Point, Mississippi
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2013 • 12 NOON 150 Town Creek Farm Brangus & Ultrablack Bulls
Trich Happens. Even to Those Who Do Everything Right.
Practical, functional bulls developed on a high roughage forage-based ration in 40 to 50 acre traps. Sound footed, problem-free bulls guaranteed fertile and reproductively sound. Largely Cow Creek Ranch based genetics.
“ONE SET OF COWS COST ME $100,000 IN LOST REVENUE and costs this year,” says Marty Wooldridge, Oil City, Louisiana, after a pasture of cattle tested positive for trich. Even after culling and vaccinating, trich is still present in his herd and his nightmare continues. “Of four bulls that were trich free 120 days ago, one just tested trich positive.” Cha-ching. Marty, who was accustomed to a 90 to 95 percent calf crop delivered to market, knew something was terribly wrong when 77 cows came up open. The news of trich was received with disbelief. “It couldn’t be me. It shouldn’t be me. I was doing everything right; buying virgin bulls, raising my own replacements and had a closed cow herd,” Marty says. “It didn’t make sense.” Trich, short for trichomoniasis, is caused by the protozoa, Tritrichomona foetus, and causes cows to abort and become temporarily infertile. The venereal disease is transmitted through breeding by infected bulls to cows and infected cows to bulls. While Marty has not been able to factually pinpoint the origin of the virus, a Charolais bull cross his fence and several of his neighbors buy sale barn cows. “Just because you buy sale barn cows pregnant in their second trimester, doesn’t mean they are trich free,” says Marty. “I don’t believe anyone is safe from trich. I’m not suggesting you trich test your bulls every year, but do periodic testing. Don’t wait for the loss of a calf crop to start testing and remember, auction barn cattle are totally subject to trich.“ Marty has implemented a bi-annual trich vaccination program for his cows at a cost of $8 per year. He continues his established best management practices of raising his own replacements and buying virgin bulls. He’s added another protocol to his list, buying virgin, trich tested bulls.
250 Commercial Brangus Bred Heifers
Reprieve in Fertilizer Prices Could be in Future ABUNDANCE OF NATURAL GAS IN THE U.S. WILL HELP STABILIZE or reverse the trend of higher nitrogen prices. Natural gas production in the U.S. is rising with the advent of new drilling technologies of shale gas. Ammonia is manufactured from natural gas. ”Currently, ammonia is shipped into the U.S. from Trinidad and then piped to U.S. customers. Freight adds cost to fertilizer,” says Milton Sundbeck, Town Creek Farm. United States is poised to take advantage of newly sourced natural gas supplies by building new anhydrous ammonia plants, which will benefit agriculture both in terms of timely deliveries and cost. “Having natural gas available back in our country will give us 50 to 100 years of supply and will make us cost competitive,” says Sundbeck. “We are seeing the chemical industry, which was moving to mid-East, come back to the U.S. This will create an enormous amount of jobs and help our country take off.” The expansion is fueled by natural gas, the fundamental building block for many chemicals.
Multi-generation genetically-tracked heifers sired by Cow Creek Ranch bulls and bred back to Cow Creek Ranch and Town Creek Farm bulls.
Bulls Sell Trich Tested • Johnes Tested • BVDpi Tested
These bulls sell.
These commercial bred heifers from Williamson Cattle Co. sell.
For a sale catalog, please call or email Town Creek Farm.
Town Creek Farm Milton Sundbeck, Owner 662.295.3115 • Milton@TownCreekFarm.com Ron Flake, Manager 662.509.2233 • Ron@TownCreekFarm.com Joy Reznicek, Marketing 205.399.0221 • Joy@TownCreekFarm.com Post Office Box 1217, West Point, Mississippi 39773 www.TownCreekFarm.com
Producing More with Less. A World Prospective. By Federico Maisonnave, Paraguay Twenty-first century cattle businesses will be obliged to make major changes and adapt to pressures in the medium term. We must begin to work towards the livestock of the future; efficient livestock. Ranching is a business. If you don't treat it as one, you will not survive. I have childhood memories of my family vacations visiting large farms in Uruguay, one of the world’s last bastions of natural pastures. I recall images of extensive native pastures, often planted with clover and ryegrass (the best of cases), with lots of steers grazing, many more than three years of age and, in some cases, much older. There were different types, purebreds, crosses, etc. We're talking about 25 years ago. Today, Uruguay is considered one of the world’s meccas of livestock with 3,500,000 inhabitants (human), 12,000,000 cattle and nearly 10,000,000 sheep. Cattle came to this region in the mid-16th century and have remained in the area in numbers. The land has excellent livestock raising capability. Twenty-five years of livestock production in any nation is nothing. Technological changes that occurred during this time are dizzying; probably more intense and deeper than in the past 450 years. No one could have imagined the changes; only a few great livestock observers and visionaries and surely some industrialists of animal protein, such as chicken and pork. The world's population and protein consumption has nearly doubled in that time. I’ve spent the past 15 years traveling and studying beef producing countries such as Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Colombia, USA, Australia and New Zealand and analyzing beef segments from seedstock to exporters. I realize now that 90 percent of the beef industry is sleeping. Producing food is not easy and will become increasingly more difficult. To survive in this growing industry you must invest time, money, more and more every passing season, education, analyzation, work, more and more, to obtain a return sufficient enough to feed one or more families whose living comes solely from production agriculture. As a beef technician and beef producer, I'm always looking for ways to improve our returns. Twenty years ago it was much easier. In South America, we could live well by selling steers at three to four years old and having bulls service our replacement heifers at 36 months to get first calves at 48 months. Today, I think this is madness! Without careful management and genetic technology, we will not go anywhere. Over the past 10 years, prices of oil and commodities, like soybeans and corn, were no longer dominated by the USA and prices have become erratic. They’ve risen to a point that even among very intensive and efficient cattle operations, numbers are in the red and U.S. and Europe cowherds continue to decline. Add international 'food bank' pressures for demand of good quality, well located agricultural land around the world and you can appreciate the pressure is very strong on livestock industries in many countries. Dynamics are forcing cattle producers to move to cheaper land further away from markets, packing plants and ports. If we add increasing cost of labor, prices of inputs, particularly fuel and feed, freight, machinery, etc., the future outlook looks ugly to achieve sustainable business models to produce red meat. The world’s largest volume of red meat is produced from grass. Ruminants, such as cattle, are amongst the most efficient 'machines' in the world to turn fiber into protein. Grass-raised beef is accused of being a major emitter of greenhouse gases. However, as a major supplier of economically raised protein that can feed the growing markets of the world, efficient livestock production off grass must be a priority. Latest research in South America, where nearly 400 million cattle are grazed, suggests that the best economic performance of modern livestock is
obtained by companies that make efficient use of pastures. They use latest technologies, management systems and utilization of pastures in combination with strategical concentrate and forage supplements to produce animals that are ready for slaughter at less 24 months of age and weigh ~500 kilograms (1100 pounds) live weight. Today, we find ourselves in a production situation in which we are running out of space, especially of quality land. Climbing input costs and land prices are challenging margins of businesses. International grain prices are up, yet meat prices are not up proportionately. As producers, we are always going to be price takers. In recent years, there has been a concentration of the packing industry, worldwide, and at least 60 percent of the industry is managed by less than five multinationals. They will drive pricing and marketing to their taste and manner. It seems cattlemen are going down a one-way street. Medium term future seems very committed. Future changes will occur faster and be much more intense than in the past 10 years. Poor trade terms mean the real value of beef is dropping. To survive, each producer must carefully review his costs of producing 1 kilogram of beef off his land. If costs to produce a kilogram of beef are higher than half the current carcass price (c/kg), long term viability is in question. As I see it, there is only one way out and that is adapting the mind set of Joe Reznicek and what he was working toward for 25 years. Cow Creek Ranch genetics adapted to the most temperate and tropical livestock grazing environments in the world (we have proven it). These genetics were developed with an overreaching emphasis on producing moderate size animals with high levels of adaptation to grass production together with superior fertility (we have proven it). They perform with superior efficiencies of feed conversion on pasture as well as in feedlots (also proven it). If that is not enough, Cow Creek Ranch was one of the few U.S. genetic programs that survived for 25 year sustaining a family that lived only off the proceeds from its livestock. Efficient genetics are the solution for livestock of the future. For 25 years, producing more value with fewer inputs was Cow Creek Ranch’s goal. There is much more of this road to travel and, now, Town Creek Farm is taking the lead and they have not changed this objective. It would be very risky to do so now. The only way to survive breeding cattle in the not too distant future will be producing and using animals that come from programs that are focused on forage efficiency. Genetic improvement is additive, cumulative and permanent and not subject to the terms of trade issues that push input costs higher. Our future lies with adapted, fertile and moderate genetics that deliver high, value-added and consistent products. It will become unacceptable to have a cow that weans less than 40 percent of her own weight, heifers that are not pregnant before 15 months of age, or steers that take more than one winter to finish for market, thereby eating what the next generation should be eating. More inputs and better husbandry or more working hours won't change things. The next technological leap to improving profitability of beef cattle is selecting and multiplying the most efficient animals within herds; animals that produce more from less. There is still time to change. Start working with efficient animals on massive scales and by paying attention to programs from which your bulls, replacement heifers and semen come. This takes zero extra dollars and will make a huge impact in the economics of your cattle operation. Think about it.
“Impresionante” is Spanish for Awesome
Batman
TOWN CREEK FARMS’ DECISION TO PURCHASE CCR Integrity 355S4 (355S4) in the Cow Creek Ranch Dispersal will be remembered as one of the most important in the history of Town Creek Farm. 355S4 is siring top herd bull prospects both here in the U.S. and as well as worldwide. Batman, pictured, is sired by CCR Integrity 355S4 and was bred in Argentina. He was purchased by a group of Paraguayan cattlemen. “Batman is at the collecting stud. If you want to talk about easy fleshing bulls, this is the dude. He is getting no more than two kilos (4.4 pounds) of concentrate a day and hay free choice. He has the perfect haircoat for hot environments. Batman will be the base for our fertile, adapted mama cow herd,” says prominent South American herd consultant, Federico Maisonnave of Paraguay. Batman is impresionante (awesome).”