Steve has been around cattle in one capacity or another since the age of ten. His Epiphany moment came in 1999 while recovering from a ranching injury.
The resulting refocusing of his energies into learning about soil, plant, animal and human health since that time have led him to: some very old books; like minded thinkers and mentors; on farm experiments with soil fertility; and to numerous speakers, farm visits and conferences over the past twenty-three years.
From the Weston A. Price philosophy for human health to Carey Reams, Maynard Murray, Jerry Brunetti, Dr. Richard Olree, Gearld Fry, Will Winter and the teachings of numerous authors of yesteryear; Steve has extrapolated those learned principles of nature onto his own ranch-land and animals and to help others make similar improvements on their ranches and with their families health.
Steve owns Tailor Made Cattle. You can reach him at...
steve@tailormadecattle.com
208-315-4726
www.tailormadecattle.com
"Fertility is the key driver to profitability"
For the past 60-70 years cattle producers have been chasing the feedlot dollar, not realizing that the feedlot and marketers were making all of the money with that system.
Ranchers have been choosing bulls that create steers that perform well in the feedlot. “Perform well” has morphed into larger, taller, and big boned animals that did not get too much backfat (because we were told fat was bad) and could gain the most weight on a daily basis.
Sisters of those taller, larger, and leaner steers are not the most fertile animals. Now we are having to keep twice as many replacement heifers (thus selling fewer calves every year).
Sex hormones shut off long bone growth. Shorter animals are more fertile. Butterfat is vital to a low maintenance animal, and she is more fertile. Small bones are ONE of the indicators of butterfat.
All of the things “they” said we needed in the bulls to produce feedlot steers gave us heifers that are less fertile.
On the ranch, 40% of profitability is fertility (having a calf every year), 30% is maintenance cost, 20% is growth and 10% carcass traits.
We have been duped into putting money in their pockets for more than half a century.
