THE
Baker chuckles at a memory from
his younger years, “We used to get out of school in early September to plant wheat,” he says and still uses that timing today. “By Sept. 1 we’re drilling in our wheat and we try to turn our steers out on our wheat, if we can, by the fi rst of November.” The 2013 steer crop did exceptionally well on wheat
City
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and pasture, Baker says, thanks to good genetics from the Steiner Ranch bulls he uses, and thanks to timely rains. The 250 steers stayed on wheat until late May, gaining about 3 pounds per day. “They weighed 575 pounds when we turned them
out. They weighed 902 pounds when we sold them. That was the biggest set of calves we’ve weighed here in a long time. They won’t have to feed them very long,” he says of the Colorado feedyard that bought the steers. Speaking of selling steers off the ranch, I asked Baker
how he handles the challenge of shipping or receiving cattle, or moving equipment, in an area full of com- muters. After considering for a moment, he answers with a wry question, “Do you cuss? You will if you drive around here. It’s always a dangerous thing for us to move our tractors and equipment. We wait till 10:30 or 11:00 when traffi c has died down to start shuffl ing equipment or cattle,” he says. “We have our own scales right here, so we weigh
all of our cattle here. It’s easier for us than having to go somewhere where there is a truck stop and fi ght all that traffi c,” he says.
The right bulls for the right kind of females Working with Tom Johnson at Wortham, Baker has
added Hereford genetics to the Circle T breeding pro- gram. “We would like to have some black baldies to
RANCH
Circle T Ranch proves that agriculture and urban commerce can thrive next to each other.
consign to the commercial heifer competitions. We’ve been successful in the pen shows and we’d like to have a set of black baldy cows to give us a fresher look and to put some different genetics into our breeding program. We’ve bred about 150 cows to Hereford bulls this year, so we’ll see how that turns out for us next year,” he says, lighting up at the thought of the next calf crop. Baker looks for bulls with expected progeny differ-
ences (EPDs) to complement the herd. Bulls with lighter birth weight EPDs make life easier for the ranch hands when it comes to calving. Depending on the group of cows to which the bull will be bred, he considers EPDs for improved milk production and for heavier weaning weights. Most beef breed associations provide their mem-
bers and bull buyers with performance data on the registered cattle. Sometimes this wealth of data can be overwhelming in its scope, detail and intricacy. Perot says, “Very few people realize how sophisticated this industry is. If you’re going to do well, you must have a well-educated team and they are going to have to get better all the time because of the competition.” Disposition is another important selection criteria.
Baker says he doesn’t want a “snorty cow,” and with neighbors gazing across the fence at any time of the day, that’s probably a good precaution for ranch rela- tions and ranch hands. Since Circle T doesn’t bring in very many outside
cattle — just the 2-year-old bulls they add to the herd sire rotation — sickness is not much of a problem at the ranch. Bulls are quarantined for 3 months to ensure they do not transmit anything to the cow herd. “We Continued on page 87
November 2014 The Cattleman 85
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