Herd
m *■ Kinsley Construction Company,
ivianager for i 5 yea rs.
(Continued from Page A 1) South Branch Farms began in
the late ’6os, when Kinsley first
began purchasing land in the
Seven Valleys area. The farm in-
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 9, 2002-A29
eludes 1,200 owned and 200 rent
ed acres. Livingston is joined by
full-time herdsman Mike Wel
gosh, herdsman.
The majority of the acreage is
in grass. “Traditionally we have
grown our own grain crops, but
his year we rented out the grain
ground to deal exclu
sively with grass,” said
Livingston.
With the small
amount of grain neces
sary to feed the cattle,
Livingston figures it
may be more cost effec
tive to purchase, rather
than to grow their own
grain.
The farm is in the
process of trimming
back the herd to 200
brood cows to extend the
grazing season a little
more into winter,
according to Livingston.
The Breeding Program
“We very much have
a balanced breeding pro
gram,” he said. “I would
prefer that the cattle are
average or slightly above
average in every trait
versus something that
might be at the top of
the herd in one or two
traits but has other areas
they might be weak in.
“The first hurdle they
have to jump is having
no health problems,” he
said. The cattle must be
“functional and sound
in their makeup, and be
easy keeping cattle.”
Livingston's words to
live by in breeding sea
son are that “you have
whatever problems you
put up with.
“If you’re willing to
keep open cows around,
you’re going to have in
fertility; if you keep sour
dispositions around,
you’ll end up with cows
with an attitude; if you
start to pull calves,
you’re going to have
calving problems,” he
said.
“If you have zero tol
erance for these things,
you’ll find that it doesn’t
take too many
generations before these
problems virtually dis
appear. If a bad animal
crops up, it will be one
or two head versus a
widespread problem.”
Livingston estimates
that he pulled six calves
in the last year, with a
calf crop from 200 cows.
Most of the cows are 3-5
years old.
Extensive record
keeping is the cor
nerstone for making
breeding and culling de
cisions at the farm.
“Most of the cattle here
probably have 30-40 dif
ferent traits that we
have them scored for in
their lifetime,” he said.
Record-keeping in
cludes a calving score
(one is unassisted, five is
an abnormal presenta
tion), and notes on a
cow’s mothering ability.
Weaning weights are
followed by yearling
weights, at which time
the calves are ultra
sounded for carcass
traits such as intramus
cular fat and ribeye
area. Records are used
by the Angus Associa
tion to calculated Ex
pected Progeny Differ
ences (EPDs).
The fall breeding sea
son is kept to a tight 45
days because “the win
dow where we have real
ly good dependable
weather is smaller in the
fall. We don’t start until
it really cools off, and
we’re done by the first of
(Turn to Page A 39)