Special Guest -- Twig Marston - Gelbvieh Association In Nebraska

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Stop # 1 From: Lawrence, Nebraska; 3 miles south on Rd. 2600, 1 mile west and ½ mile south. Lemke Cattle (Randy and Leslie Lemke) Here at Lemke Cattle, our main focus is the commercial man; our cattle are bred and fed with the commercial man in mind. We are planning on bringing some bull calves to the tour. The purebred calves will be out of Beretta, Maxum and Governor. The Balancer calves will be sired by Iron Nuts, Focus, New Design 878 and Matrix. We began selling bulls in the early 90’s. We’ve always been interested in and greatly enjoy the art of breeding and improving them throughout the generations. We have maintained pedigrees, performance and production records, and have over 30 years of A.I. genetics in our herd, simplifying the transition to managing registered cattle. Currently, we have about 150 cows, 50 of which are registered. The commercial cows are used as recipients in our embryo transfer program. The entire registered Gelbvieh herd has been bred up from a Red Angus base and is 95% A.I. sired. Our annual bull sale is held at the Ranch on the last Saturday in January. We plan on expanding our embryo transfer program to increase the number of quality bulls offered and to add females to the sale. Giving our customers more marketing options for their calves is very important to us. We do not emphasize any single traits, but a blend of all traits to create more balanced functional cattle, using EPD’s, DNA testing, and performance records to evaluate that balance. However, in some cases we will emphasize specific traits in bulls; for example we would emphasize birth weight, gestation length, and calving ease traits in heifer bulls. We are excited to show you a preview of our 2008 bull calves, bred heifers, and commercial cow/calf pairs that are a result of our breeding program, in addition to a few herd sires. Display Cattle: MLM Gelbvieh (Marlin Meyer) From: Superior, Nebraska; Junction of Hwys 14 and 136 (5 miles north of Superior), 6 miles west on Hwy 136 and 1¼ miles north We bought our first Gelbvieh bulls in 1982 from the Wilson’s in Mankato. We really liked the calves from our commercial cows, so we started artificially inseminating to Gelbvieh and selling ½ blood bulls now referred to as Balancer’s. Together with our partners, Great River Ranch of Chester, Illinois and Cassel Cattle Co. of Kearney, Nebraska, our operation has about 150 cows. We also farm dry land corn, milo and wheat along with custom feeding hogs. At our Private Treaty Kickoff Sale held on the first Monday of March each year, we sell approximately 40 bulls. The open heifers are sold private treaty and the steers are usually sold through a sale barn. Display Cattle: Goldrush Genetics (Mike Hynek) From: Guide Rock, Nebraska We started raising Gelbvieh in 1981, and are one of the oldest continuous breeders in the U.S. I started while working as an ag teacher near Norfolk, NE with 8 registered cows. This year I bred around 200 females by A.I. and E.T. We’ve been using homozygous polled for 20 years by A.I., and now all the herd sires are homozygous black and polled. Several herd sires are A.I. studs; Goldrush Visa has been #2 in the breed for registrations for the last 2 years. This breed and the people have been huge part of my life, and after making one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever faced, I’ve decided to pursue other interests at this point in my life and have decided to disperse my entire herd on November 1, 2008. Stop by on the tour and see some of the top carcass cattle in the breed. Stop # 2 Coffee and Rolls 9:30am to 11:30am Lunch 12:00pm to 3:00pm Speaker: Wayne Vandervort Title: Executive Director of the American Gelbvieh Association Topic: AGA update on carcass traits and cow size Speaker: Rick Pfortmiller, Igenity Topic: How to use DNA to select breeding stock From: Travel west from the Bruning and 81 intersection to the corner of 6000 and Z, which will be approximately 2 miles. Turn south and travel ¼ of a mile. Voss Farms will be the first house on the west side of Road 6000 (2365 Road 6000, Bruning, Nebraska 68322). Voss Farms (Neil Voss) Leroy, Neal, and Cory have been raising Gelbvieh cattle for the last 15 years. The business started when Neal and Cory became involved in showing Gelbvieh cattle for the 4-H program which resulted in growing a cattle operation to 75 head. Leroy farms, Neal is employed by Aurora Cooperative and is the Feed Mill Manager, and Cory is a sophomore at South Central Community College in Beatrice majoring in Agriculture Business. Voss Farms works to produce easy keeping cattle with mild dispositions while incorporating calving ease and quality milk production. Due to Voss Farms being a young and growing cattle operation, the cattle produced on the farm are current with the trends of the market. Voss Farms is incorporating Red Angus and Gelbvieh cows and bulls into the herd in order to increase hybrid vigor. They strive to produce fast growing calves that remain on feed for short periods of time but yield quality carcasses. Voss Farms began selling seedstock in 2005 and attends the Cattlemen’s Classic in Kearney, NE every February as well as privately marketing their cattle. Voss Farms brings both purebred Gelbvieh and Balancer quality heifers and bull calves to the Summer Gelbvieh Tour. They market quality breeding stock with easy calving bulls and heifers with bloodlines of Cherokee Canyon, Exclusive, Freedom, BOKG Swat Man, and RTC Lawless. All stock showcased on tour will be available for purchase at the Cattlemen’s Classic and/or by private treaty. Display Cattle: Kleinschmidt Farms (Randy Kleinschmidt) We have been involved in the Gelbvieh business for 25 years. We started with registered Angus females and used a breeding program of almost all A.I. sired calves. We currently have about 40 to 50 females. We have an annual production sale held the 2nd Saturday of February on the farm. At our sale, we offer about 15 bulls and 10 females. We also occasionally consign to the Cattlemen’s Classic and other state and national sales. The past few years we have concentrated on producing Balancers. As stated above, we are still almost 100% A.I. We have always put an emphasis on balanced traits; fertility and temperament is just a couple of the qualities where we feel our cattle excel. In the past 3 or 4 years, we have made an effort to produce more of a moderate type, easier keeping female, yet produce bulls and steers that perform. We have always believed the cattle we produce reflect our goals of balanced traits and that they are easy to work with, raise a big calf, breed back, and have the eye-appeal we feel is important. Our goal is customer satisfaction: when our customers wanted black cattle, we had them, when
they wanted polled, we produced them, and when they wanted Balancer cattle, and we made them available. Our motto is: If you’re not happy with what you purchased from us, then we aren’t either. We plan on having a group of bull calves and heifer calves on display. The majority will be Balancers. A.I. sires are BC Lookout, Lutton, 2T22, and GKG Harley, a Balancer bull we raised and then sold to the Martin’s in Kansas. We are really excited about his calves; he seems to create them in his likeness. Display Cattle: Tegtmeier Gelbvieh (Rod and Judy Tegtmeier) Tegtmeier Gelbvieh manages 70 Purebred Gelbvieh and Balancer cows. The first Gelbviehs were purchased in 1983; we found that the Gelbvieh females were top notch and the MARC data confirmed our belief. Cattle are sold by private treaty and occasionally to a consignment sale. We strive to producer wide-topped, easy keeping cattle that are easy to calve out but still grow. We Igenity test all sale bulls, herd bulls, and replacement heifers. Our herd carries as much or more muscling and expression as any herd I’ve seen, and we’ve tried to make it into a functional, attractive package. We plan to display 2 of our yearling herd bulls and possibly some 2008 born bull calves. I would like commercial cattlemen to see that these Balancer bulls that have tested well for tenderness, marbling, percent choice, and other carcass quality traits, can still have width of hip and muscling to make a good cross with Angus and Angus-cross cows. Display Cattle: Bruning Farms (Fred and Penny Bruning) From: Bruning, Nebraska Our herd consists of registered Angus cattle and crossbred cows. We are currently utilizing A.I. and herd bulls to get top notch Balancer calves that are split into spring and fall calving programs. The operation consists of Fred Bruning, who works at the family bank Bruning State Bank, and Chris Bolte. Chris is our herdsman and has been with us for 6 years. Although we are new to producing Balancer cattle we are not new to the seed stock business. We have been in the registered Angus business since 1975, and my father Frank has had registered Herefords since the 1950’s. The goal of our operation is to provide a genetic package that will help the commercial man make his herd produce the biggest calves for the lowest dollar. We do this by first, having an easy calving cowherd that helps the producer sleep at night. Second, we produce high growth cattle for the pounds at weaning; third, the easy fleshing ability that our cows maintain help them breed back for the next year. We offer around 20-30 Angus and Balancer bulls in Flying H’s annual bull sale and also keep home around 10-15 bulls that we sell privately to our commercial cattlemen customers. Bred heifers and some cow/calf pairs are sold each year privately off the ranch. Our feedlot cattle are fed for the U.S. premium grid, allowing us to receive individual carcass data. However, what makes us unique is our ability to produce a small to moderate framed easy fleshing kind of Balancer. We will showcase a Purebred Gelbvieh bull purchased from Dick Helms and a Balancer bull purchased from Randy Kleinschmidt and the first seed stock Balancer calves from Angus cows as pairs. Stop # 3 Refreshments and dinner 3:30pm to 6:00pm Speaker: Twig Marston Topic: Ideas to maximize Profit at the cow-calf level From: Hebron, Nebraska, 4 miles east on Hwy 136 to Road 6600, south 7 miles to Road D, east 1.75 miles to Rippe Gelbvieh. From: Hubbell, Nebraska, 2 miles north on Road 6600 then 1.75 miles east to Rippe Gelbvieh Rippe Gelbvieh (Duane Brenda and Dustin Rippe) In 1994, a small 4-H project between a father and son began, which has evolved into nearly a 200 cow seed stock business built around traits for the commercial cattlemen. We pride ourselves on a “staying out of the ditch” and “middle of the road” mentality when it comes to genetic selection. However, it is our data collection and analysis within our own herd, in addition to EPD’s, that make our program unique as compared to other seed stock operations. An example of this attention to detail is that we have made carcass testing a point of emphasis in our program. We gather and analyze carcass data within our own herd through ultrasound, DNA, and actual kill data. Another point of emphasis is the cow; she needs to be moderate in size and efficient for our environment. Every cow is weighed each year and given an udder score at calving. We believe you cannot improve what you do not measure. This information is then made available to commercial cattlemen at their request. Our annual bull sale is held the second Saturday of March. We plan on selling around 35-45 bulls this next year. The females that we don’t keep are sold privately to commercial cattlemen. We retain ownership on the steers and remaining heifers and they are marketed on a grid. Rough And Ready and Buddy Boy will be on display during the tour. In addition, we plan on showcasing approximately 80 bulls and heifers that are a result of A.I. and E.T., which will be the result of 20 top AI sires. This tour will be an ideal time for commercial cattlemen to come pick out their next herd sire or for registered seed stock producers to witness how certain sires are working out at Rippe Gelbvieh. Display Cattle: Bauer Gelbvieh (Brian, Sandy, Kyle and Blake Bauer) Bauer Gelbvieh started as a 4-H project in 1981 that has grown much larger than anticipated. Currently, it stands at 105 Gelbvieh and Balancer cows. The MARC data and what I was seeing in other herds led me to the Gelbvieh breed. Our farming operation is highly diversified, with cows sharing my attention with natural pork producing sows, ewes, and crops. The cows really need to take care of themselves without pampering. We are a cooperator herd for Flying H Genetics and their confidence in our program is appreciated. Our bulls sell on their sale the first Saturday of March, and have been well received over the years, with several bulls finding their way to seed stock operations. In 2007, the Balancer bulls averaged over $3,800, with purebreds averaging almost $3,200. Females have been consigned to the GAIN female sale, as well as being available private treaty. While producers needs for frame size, milk, or percentage may vary, we strive to produce stock with balanced traits of birth weights, performance, carcass merit, and cow productivity. Carcass traits of Gelbvieh, Angus, and Red Angus genetics are watched closely, without sacrificing balance. Because of this, Bauer Gelbvieh has very little time or use for the show ring. It provides little true multiple trait selection or practical use. The cowherd has been developed strictly on the basis of making the next calf crop, replacement heifers, and bulls the best we have raised without a lot of outside influence. On display will be 3 of our donors, including BABG Ms Direction 42P, with their 2008 calves at side. 42P is a full sister to Director, the top selling purebred in the ‘07 Flying H Genetics sale. If time allows and calves get weaned, some bull calves will also make the tour.
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Special Guest -- Twig Marston - Gelbvieh Association In Nebraska

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