Judd Ranch Gelbvieh Females Judd Ranch pastures are filled with moderate-sized, highly productive, easy-fleshing Gelbvieh females that excel in the maternal traits and have excellent teat/udder quality. Run on native grass pastures, our females are not pampered and are what we in the Kansas Flint Hills call “real beef cows.” Through the years, we have sorted through thousands of cows – and sires – to have the nucleus of genetics that give us fertility, milk, udder quality and growth in combination. The result is highly productive Gelbvieh cow families backed with six to eight generations of objective performance. Many of these matrons are Dam of Merit or Dam of Distinction females (To learn more about the breed-recognized females, click on Dam of Merit Program. Our females are extremely fertile and as problem-free as possible. They must make it through summers that vary from mild to harsh with little to no rain and through winters where the temperatures often drop below zero, the cold can go right through you and the snow can be deep. Each female must cycle, breed, calve on time and wean off a big strapping calf year after year or she goes to town to become ground beef. We have a tight 45-day calving season. Our spring and fall AI programs go for just two cycles. About 80% of the cowherd is settled AI, with the remaining 20% bred naturally to some of the breed’s leading AI sires. Breeding decisions at Judd Ranch are not based on color, polled/horned factor, fads or whims – they are the result of a long-term plan to produce the best genetics possible, aiming for that “complete package”. (For a look at our bull battery, click on the “Herdsires and AI Sires” button.) Our cowherd is divided into a spring-calving herd and a fall-calving herd. This spreads our workload and allows us to offer a nice group of older 18-month-old bulls to our valued bull customers. Our on-farm ET program, which involves 10-15 donors, lets us propagate our elite genetics faster and wider. As a result, you have access to more genetically superior animals via the bull sale, female sale or private treaty embryo offering. Judd Ranch uses Kansas State University’s Cow/Calf Program to record and keep 10 performance factors on each female: birth date, birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight, birth dates of calves, calving interval, calving scores, body condition scores, hip height and pelvic measurement. KSU specialists gather the unbiased data, and this data influences breeding and management decisions and is used to group cows by body score and gestation stage and to create a heifer development program. Named Outstanding Seedstock Producer in Kansas in 1998, Judd Ranch continues to decrease birth weights while increasing weaning weights. Over a seven-year period, Judd Ranch calves have decreased birth weight averages by 7 pounds while weight averages have reached 700-plus pounds for bulls and 625-plus pounds for heifers. And those weights are without creep. Stop by and see our cowherd. When you see the cows and look at their performance information and their calves, you’ll understand why “COW POWER” aptly applies to our annual October female sale – and cowherd. For further information, please email us by clicking on the “Contact us” button or call toll-free 1-800-743-0026 and talk to our herd consultant Roger Gatz of Cattlemen’s Connection. Judd Ranch Offers "The Complete Package" Calving Ease, Fertility, Growth & Carcass! Judd Ranch 22nd Annual Cow Power Female Sale Saturday, October 13, 2012 12:00 Noon