Selecting a Genetic Supplier
Don’t forget to do your homework. Here are some tips for what questions to ask.
January 3, 2025
Bull sale season is in full swing. With it, there are plenty of options and considerations for buyers when choosing new genetics, a seedstock partner and a program. A little homework may be in order before you give that nod on sale day.
Technology makes this “job” much easier. It’s brought forth the sharing of information in such a way that, at the click of a mouse or a scroll on a smartphone, commercial producers can learn more about a potential genetic supplier’s breeding program — and the people behind it — through its website and online sale book. In fact, many of these sale books are posted here.
The printed and/or online sale books’ welcome and information pages often answer initial questions from health and fertility to delivery and volume discounts. They cover breeding-season guarantees and bull warranties and most often describe how bulls have been developed. Some programs offer no or low-cost wintering of bulls, while others offer a feeder-calf buyback program or options to help with feeder-calf marketing.
A little detective work may be in order to narrow down a supplier of choice, however. Here are a few considerations breed professionals and seedstock breeders recommend commercial cattlemen explore and/or ask questions about before bidding.
Trust
“I think, Number 1, you need to trust the guy you’re doing business with. That relationship is the most important,” says Chuck Grove of Forest, Va. “Beyond that, they need to ask, ‘What do you expect this bull to do?’”
As a commercial producer, are you looking for a calving-ease bull? Are you selling feeder calves, emphasizing weaning weights, or are you retaining daughters?
Important to Spring Cove customers are the environment the bulls were raised in and whether the Butlers will help market calves out of bulls they buy.
Says Grove, “I think a commercial cattleman needs to ask a lot of questions, and the field representative has to ask a lot of questions, so you can develop that relationship and work together. Because we’re in this together.”
Grove worked for nearly 40 years as a regional manager for the American Angus Association. He has worked exclusively the last nine years in his own Angus business. In his region, he says, one bull does all the work in cow herds — breeds both heifers and cows and sires the feeder calves and replacements — so cattle producers need a “well-rounded or balanced bull.”
“Calving ease is still important,” he says, “although I will tell you, they’re also thinking they need just a little more birth. I think it’s critical that I can get calving ease, growth and carcass merit all in the same bull.”
Align goals
Across the Angus breed and industry, different programs have different breeding philosophies and production goals. Matt Macfarlane, owner of M3 Marketing of Loomis, Calif., encourages commercial producers to consider a seedstock supplier whose goals align with their own.
Macfarlane, who offers cattle marketing services, including sale management, points out, “For example, are you trying to add more maternal and longevity to your herd, or are you trying to make a really good end product?
“Ask them about their goals and what is their main objective in producing whatever they’re producing, and if it aligns with what you are trying to do. Also consider how long they’ve been in business.”
With that figured out, he says, “make sure that everything has a registration number. We have so many technological advances right now in the cattle industry that we can make leaps and bounds of genetic progress because of it. We don’t need to collect all of this data for nothing.”
Ask questions, communicate
Likewise, checking to make sure that bulls being offered for sale are, indeed, registered bulls and data is complete and accurate is No. 1 on the commercial producer must-ask list for seedstock supplier Gene Barrett, Grantville, Kan.
“To a lot of people, that registration paper is pretty important,” says Barrett who, with family Anna, Payden and Ella, operates Barrett Cattle, a registered Angus and custom artificial insemination (AI) business in northeast Kansas.
Rightly so. A registered Angus bull comes with the power of the Angus database and opportunities for AngusLinkSM value-added feeder-calf programs (www.angus.org/AngusLink).
Request the registration.
The purchase of a bull is an investment in genetics, Barrett points out, so asking about the price of bulls and how they are developed, will hold up and are warrantied are must-ask questions to explore.
Longevity is a key factor, he says, and it’s important that bulls last more than one season for customers. With this as a goal, six years ago they started developing their bulls on forage sources without creep in order to grow them at a slower pace.
“We see very, very few, if any, foot issues anymore,” he says. “Longevity, that all goes back to everything. I mean semen and feet, legs — I sure think that’s my responsibility to warranty.”
Along these lines, Barrett encourages customers to ask if the bulls have passed breeding soundness exams (sometimes referred to as a BSE). The Barretts sell 18-month-old bulls and semen-test twice before they’re sold, once at 14-15 months of age and the other two months before sale day in late March. He encourages customers to ask about the cow herd and how related matings to the bulls selling breed back and perform. Inquire about disposition and ease of handling. If it’s important, ask about it.
Barrett says the questions go both ways, and he places strong emphasis on getting to know the customers, as well as their operations. Today, Barrett Cattle’s goal is to make customer visits at least once a year, checking on the bulls and understanding what works best for their herds.
“They do appreciate it, and we enjoy visiting with them,” he says.
Another ask Barrett suggests is inquiring about a seedstock supplier’s accessibility. Can they answer questions and quickly resolve issues that may arise?
“No matter what you do, there’s going to be problems, because they’re animals,” Barrett says. But, “people do business with people they like. I was told that a long time ago.”
Partner up
Like the Barrett operation, commercial customers make up the “why” for Spring Cove Ranch owners Art and Stacy Butler and family, Bliss, Idaho. For 105 years, Angus cattle have been bred, raised and developed on this arid, high-desert ranch with an 8-inch rainfall, not unlike the Western rangeland conditions of many of their commercial customers’ herds.
It’s a good reason why Butler is commonly asked by commercial bull buyers: “Where are the bulls run? What kind of environment are they in? What’s your guarantee?”
Customers are paying attention to marbling, too, Butler says. “They want bulls to fit their environment and have good end-product value.”
To this extent, they are also interested in how much customer service is offered after the sale. He’s often asked: “If I buy your good bulls, are you going to help me market calves?”
The answer is that Butler is also a Western Video Market representative. He works to help Spring Cove customers find value through video sales and, with his knowledge of the Angus breed, the tools offered through AngusLink, too.
The decision to use an Angus bull opens the door to an abundance of seedstock breeders and genetic choices that offer something for everyone. However, there are more than one or two factors that go into deciding which operations to choose and bulls to purchase, all while keeping in mind that the cattle business is also a “people” business. People do business with people they like and trust.
Editor’s note: Kim Holt is a freelance writer from Caldwell, Idaho.
Featured in the 2025 Angus Beef Bulletin
Topics: Management , Genetics , Selection , Sire Evaluation
Publication: Angus Beef Bulletin
Issue: January 2025 ABB
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