IN THE MAINE RING WITH
Deagl,
Cal, Co. It’s shopping on another level. Catalogs and flyers stream into mailboxes across the country offering excited purchasers a look at carefully chosen genetics showcased in fresh straw and surrounded by weathered planks. The bulk of the offerings are 2019 yearlings unless it’s Deagle Cattle Company, where Rick and Marilynn Deagle and family are proud to put forward carefully chosen bulls from their 2018 collection. Rick was happy to share his answers to our collection of questions.
Raising bulls for the commercial cale operations - what sparked your interest in this? We started raising Maine-Anjou over 20 years ago,
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breeding our small herd of cows to Maine-Anjou bulls. We
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were looking for a breed that had the carcass merits, the feeding efficiency, thickness, hair and docility and found Maine-Anjou were the perfect fit. We have grown to over 650 Maine-cross cows and have used Maine bulls all these years. We continue to be convinced they are an excellent breed because of these traits and they work well with any commercial breeder. But in saying that, the biggest obstacle we faced when trying to buy bulls for ourselves was that there was no sale of two-year old bulls. We bought bulls from other breeders that sold yearlings privately off their farm and if you weren’t the first one there to pick the bull you wanted, you didn’t have a chance
