Largest seedstock and commercial herds

trevorgreycattleco · Oct 3, 2010

http://www.northernag.net/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=2AI4SOL8_H8%3d&tabid=171

Stole this from another site thought it may be interesting for you folks.
This does not mention anything outside the U.S. I read the other day, the largest cattle ranch in the world is in Australia and covers 1.5% of the land mass there.
Express Ranches is the big dog for sure. 200,000 acres :

as far as seedstock goes

trevorgreycattleco · Oct 3, 2010

I have looked and looked at it, but I can't find one of these ranches that uses Shorthorn. Lots of crossbreeding going on tho.

JSchroeder · Oct 3, 2010

Camp Cooley Genetics - Franklin, TX - 1,004 total marketings

Based on 2009 numbers.

They held two "complete registered herd" dispersals in 2008 and claim they're doing another one this November because they went bankrupt.

BTW, 170 head is a pretty low threshold for largest seedstock operations. Just off the top of my head there are at least half a dozen seedstock operations that would be on that list but aren't because they either didn't reply or chose not to be included.

Doc · Oct 3, 2010

trevorgreycattleco said:
I have looked and looked at it, but I can't find one of these ranches that uses Shorthorn. Lots of crossbreeding going on tho.

If I'm not mistaken , Padlock uses Shorthorns.

justintime · Oct 3, 2010

Doc said:
trevorgreycattleco said:

I have looked and looked at it, but I can't find one of these ranches that uses Shorthorn. Lots of crossbreeding going on tho.

Click to expand...

If I'm not mistaken , Padlock uses Shorthorns.

Padlock used Shorthorn bulls up until a few years ago. I sold bulls to them for a few years, then I went into a better deal with Hoyt and Sons, Burns, Oregon. The only reason Padlock quit using Shorthorn bulls was they could not find bull suppliers who could provide them with enough bulls each year. They like to purchase bulls in larger groups from a very small number of seedstock producers, and they were having too much trouble finding bull producers with adequate numbers of bulls. This is the only reason they quit using Shorthorns in their program, as they loved what the Shorthorn added to their maternal base. I am not sure if Padlock still is finishing all their calves or not, but they were trying to produce calves with solid red color ( and some dark roans). They purchased all their Shorthorn bulls from Dover Ranch at Billings, MT for the past several years.

In the mid-late 80s Hoyt and Sons topped this list with over 10,000 purebred Shorthorn cows and 35,000 commercial cows with ranches in Oregon and California.

If you ever find yourself in Ranchester, Wyoming, plan a stop at Padlock Ranch. The town of Ranchester Wyoming, is completely owned by Padlock Ranch for their employess. The stores, school etc, are all provided for their workers.

thunderdownunder · Oct 3, 2010

trevorgreycattleco said:
http://www.northernag.net/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=2AI4SOL8_H8%3d&tabid=171

Stole this from another site thought it may be interesting for you folks.
This does not mention anything outside the U.S. I read the other day, the largest cattle ranch in the world is in Australia and covers 1.5% of the land mass there.
Express Ranches is the big dog for sure. 200,000 acres : as far as seedstock goes

The largest cattle property in the world is Anna Creek Station, which covers 6 million acres - or 24,000 square kilometres. It's bigger than Belgium and is owned by S. Kidman and Co.
Anna Creek is 8,000 sq. kilometres larger than its nearest rival in the Northern Territory, Alexandria Station. The largest American cattle station "ranch" is 3,000 sq. kilometers.

I actually worked on Anna Creek for awhile before injuring myself and having to 'retire' to an easier lifestyle. The station runs Shorthorn and Santa Gertrudis cross cattle, alternating bulls so that there is just enough Shorthorn to get the doing ability and meat quality, but enough Santa Gertrudis so they can handle the conditions.

Anna Creek borders Lake Eyre, one of our largest inland lakes (I think it's actually the largest but not sure). It has played host to the Great Outback Cattle Muster in recent years.

Anna Creek is a beautiful place. When I was there it was still in drought and we were destocking fairly heavily, however from what I've seen in recent photos it's a breathtaking picture now, thanks to some much needed rain.

Here's a couple of pics... I'll see what I can dig up when I get home.

trevorgreycattleco · Oct 3, 2010

That is just awesome TDU. Hard for me to wrap my little mind around that. AND HOLY MOLY MOTHER OF PEARL, they are using shorthorn?????????? Surely your kidding. But shorthorn genetics won't work in the real world. They must surely be plugging in some continental or angus in the near future to help those poor shorties.
You have made my day mate. Shorthorns(even a little bit) on the largest cattle operation in the world. How about that. <beer>

trevorgreycattleco · Oct 3, 2010

Tell me more TDU about this place if you don't mind. Where do they get their shorty bulls? Do they ever sell semen or anything? I got to think genetics from there would work in a ton of places. Maybe if the King Ranch got their NEW infusion of shorthorn genetics from Anna Creek they wouldn't have had little ity bity weaning weights and swore off shorties all together.
Trying to find out what bulls they used is like trying to find out who really shot JFK. It's a seceret. Can anybody answer that question? I am stumped.
Thanks again for the info TDU. Good stuff!

trevorgreycattleco · Oct 3, 2010

justintime said:
Doc said:

trevorgreycattleco said:

I have looked and looked at it, but I can't find one of these ranches that uses Shorthorn. Lots of crossbreeding going on tho.

Click to expand...

If I'm not mistaken , Padlock uses Shorthorns.

Click to expand...

Padlock used Shorthorn bulls up until a few years ago. I sold bulls to them for a few years, then I went into a better deal with Hoyt and Sons, Burns, Oregon. The only reason Padlock quit using Shorthorn bulls was they could not find bull suppliers who could provide them with enough bulls each year. They like to purchase bulls in larger groups from a very small number of seedstock producers, and they were having too much trouble finding bull producers with adequate numbers of bulls. This is the only reason they quit using Shorthorns in their program, as they loved what the Shorthorn added to their maternal base. I am not sure if Padlock still is finishing all their calves or not, but they were trying to produce calves with solid red color ( and some dark roans). They purchased all their Shorthorn bulls from Dover Ranch at Billings, MT for the past several years.

In the mid-late 80s Hoyt and Sons topped this list with over 10,000 purebred Shorthorn cows and 35,000 commercial cows with ranches in Oregon and California.

If you ever find yourself in Ranchester, Wyoming, plan a stop at Padlock Ranch. The town of Ranchester Wyoming, is completely owned by Padlock Ranch for their employess. The stores, school etc, are all provided for their workers.

What ever happened to Hoyt and Sons? Sounds like they had it going on in their day.

thunderdownunder · Oct 3, 2010

trevorgreycattleco said:
Tell me more TDU about this place if you don't mind. Where do they get their shorty bulls? Do they ever sell semen or anything? I got to think genetics from there would work in a ton of places. Maybe if the King Ranch got their NEW infusion of shorthorn genetics from Anna Creek they wouldn't have had little ity bity weaning weights and swore off shorties all together.
Trying to find out what bulls they used is like trying to find out who really shot JFK. It's a seceret. Can anybody answer that question? I am stumped.
Thanks again for the info TDU. Good stuff!

S Kidman and Co have for years bred their own Shorthorn, Santa, and Santa/Shorty cross bulls at a separate property. their stations don't breed their bulls (unless it's a 'mickey' that happens to miss mustering!). All the stations are breeding and fattening properties. There is one in WA which is trialing some new composite bulls S kidman and Co bred- Tuli/Murray grey cross. I've yet to hear how they got on with these/whether they actually survived and bred.

Generally the livestock manager these days will go to various seedstock producers and secure large drafts of bulls. The place I used to manage, we'd occacionally have station buyers come down and visit four or five different Shorthorn studs and fill a B-double/semi truck with bulls from everybody. This hasn't happened in recent years thanks to the drought but hopefully now will resume.

Kidman's also use Brahmans, Charbray etc on some of their other stations- they even tried blacks on one of the fattening places at one stage but I think they couldn't handle the heat... surprise. I just enjoy knowing that they do have a Shorthorn influence in some of the herds, and even when they've got Santa's- well, they're 5/8ths Shorthorn anyway ;D

Okotoks · Oct 4, 2010

trevorgreycattleco said:
Tell me more TDU about this place if you don't mind. Where do they get their shorty bulls? Do they ever sell semen or anything? I got to think genetics from there would work in a ton of places. Maybe if the King Ranch got their NEW infusion of shorthorn genetics from Anna Creek they wouldn't have had little ity bity weaning weights and swore off shorties all together.
Trying to find out what bulls they used is like trying to find out who really shot JFK. It's a seceret. Can anybody answer that question? I am stumped.
Thanks again for the info TDU. Good stuff!

I never heard anything about this, was this recently? Interesting if it didn't work, were the original shorthorn genetics Scotch?. Do they still have their old line Santa's?

blackcows · Oct 4, 2010

trevorgreycattleco said:
What ever happened to Hoyt and Sons? Sounds like they had it going on in their day.

http://www.mindconnection.com/hoyt/timeline.htm

aj · Oct 4, 2010

I was thinling they left a bad debt at the ASA that got wrote off also. Registrations and whatnot.

trevorgreycattleco · Oct 4, 2010

blackcows said:
trevorgreycattleco said:

What ever happened to Hoyt and Sons? Sounds like they had it going on in their day.

Click to expand...

http://www.mindconnection.com/hoyt/timeline.htm
[/quote

Ouch. Sounds like a Bernie Madeoff deal or something. Thats crazy. Thanks blackcows

thunderdownunder · Oct 4, 2010

So I found a few pics from Anna Creek. These were taken when we went for a fly over the station just before Christmas in 2004.

First pic is of the homestead and buildings.
Second is of the main cattle yards (top left of photo)- the boundary of the main holding paddock sort of runs diagonally in the middle of the pic.
Third pic is William Creek, our local town about 20kms from the homestead and on the Oodnadatta Track. Not sure of current population but when I was there it was 12.
Last pic is taken at William Creek races- I'm on the grey horse coming in third. There's actually another 5 horses a bit further behind me- the two up front are Thoroughbreds that run on the country tracks, my little mare was just a station horse used to mustering,not racing, so she did really well to com even that close!! (and flog the other stock horses ;D)

Added one more- the sunrise on my last morning at Anna Creek.

trevorgreycattleco · Oct 4, 2010

Okotoks said:
trevorgreycattleco said:

Tell me more TDU about this place if you don't mind. Where do they get their shorty bulls? Do they ever sell semen or anything? I got to think genetics from there would work in a ton of places. Maybe if the King Ranch got their NEW infusion of shorthorn genetics from Anna Creek they wouldn't have had little ity bity weaning weights and swore off shorties all together.
Trying to find out what bulls they used is like trying to find out who really shot JFK. It's a seceret. Can anybody answer that question? I am stumped.
Thanks again for the info TDU. Good stuff!

Click to expand...

I never heard anything about this, was this recently? Interesting if it didn't work, were the original shorthorn genetics Scotch?. Do they still have their old line Santa's?

okotoks, it's the great mystery what bulls they used. All I know is the bulls did not hold up at all. 250-350 lb weaning wieghts stuff like that. I called King ranch awhile back and NOBODY would tell me anything about where they got there bulls. There is a article in the 2009 July Shorthorn Country I believe about this venture. I was excited when I heard about this , then sad when I got wind of the results. But it still remains the mystery, what bulls did they try? I hope they were smart enough not to use the clubby deals but something tells me they did.

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