About Us
For generations the good Lord and His land has provided for our family here in Southwest Missouri and cattle have always been a part of our operations. In the recent past, we have had our conception rates drop and our growth rates go stagnant. This got us looking for answers.
Looking for answers...
Efficiencies gained through genetics...
Like many cattlemen,we have had to diversify to stay viable. For us, that has meant poultry, fescue seed and sheep. I share this because of our experience with poultry. My parents, who were born in the 1920's, used to talk of starting chicks in early April hoping to have the first fryers for the 4th of July. We started producing commercial broilers in 1993 growing a 4 lb. bird in 42-44 days with a 1.90-2.00 lb. feed conversion. Now, they can produce a 4 lb. bird in less than 30 days with less than a 1.50 lb. feed conversion. These efficiencies have been gained mostly from genetics. When my sons found Irish Blacks online and we read how Mr. Boney had developed them using Dr. Lush's principles, I was intrigued, since Dr. Lush's principles are the foundation for modern poultry genetics.
Proud to own...
After much research, we selected Diamond H Livestock out of St. Ignatius, Montana, as our source of full blood Irish Black and Red stock. Wade and Lisa Hendrickson had started their Irish Black herd from Mr. Boney, himself, working with him personally, later purchasing his whole herd, when in his later years management became too burdensome for him.
We are extremely impressed with the quality of stock that we found at Diamond H, the current owners of the Irish Black and Irish Red Trade Mark, and are proud to own 100% of our Irish Black herd from them.
Acclimating stock...
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Acclimating stock from the northern Rocky Mountains of Montana to the Ozark mountains of Southwest Missouri has been a challenge. Besides the obvious environmental difference of the two regions, our forage has been the biggest challenge. We are blessed and cursed with tall red fescue here in Southwest Missouri. While it is a blessing to have two growing seasons coming from this high yielding, perennial forage, it is a curse to have your most common forage source cause your cattle to run elevated temperatures and restricted blood flow to their extremities. The beauty of us going through this process is that our customers won't have to and customers out of our fescue growing region will enjoy an easy transition.