Freeman Farms Stocker & Cow/calf Operation
Black Angus Cattle with Gardiner Genetics Influence
With around 350 cow/calf pairs per year we keep plenty busy around here.
With the upcoming USDA mandatory source verification program, we decided to go ahead and get started. As part of the source verified program when calving starts Bill Edd and Jesus ride the herds everyday and tag all the calves that are born that day. Summer of 2005 was the first year for us to try this and we figured out it saved us about 5 calves that we probably wouldn't have found otherwise. We had 7 sets of twins that summer! Just makes us wonder how many twins we actually had in years past. Calves are first worked and bull calves castrated while still on the cow, this is when we place an Electronic ID tag into their ears. We wean off the calf crop in the early summer and start them on feed to get them ready to send out west to the feedyard. As you can see in the picture we freeze brand all the heifers that we save back. They get their tag # on their left hip, the year they are born on their left shoulder, and our farm brand under their tag # on their left hip.
Commerical Heifers
Out of our calf crops we usually save out about 50-60 of our best heifers that we will AI in November. We Artificially Inseminate them with a Gardiner Bull from Select Sires that produces lower birth weights that make calving easier for first time heifers. For the past 3 years we have kept these heifers at the home pasture to watch after them during calving and we are proud to say we have only had 2 problem births that we had to help along and both calves lived. We started this as a way to cull out some of the older cows in the herds, but have sold some of the heifers along the way. If you are interested in seeing/buying some our heifers please contact us.
Bulls & Registered Cows
Most of our Bulls are Registered Black Angus from the Gardiner Angus Ranch in Ashland, KS, however we do have several commercial Bulls that we purchased from Gardiners. We have been more than please with the performance and genetics in our calf crops that our bulls have produced. Bill Edd and his father Davis started what has been a great working relationship with the Gardiner Angus Ranch back in the mid 1980's and as the old saying goes "Don't fix it if it ain't broke", so we keep going back year after year. So it was just natural when we decided to get our feet wet in the horse breeding business that we bought our first broodmares at the Gardiner Annual Sale from Greg Gardiner. A couple of years ago we purchased our first registered cows out in Ashland at one of their sales. This is a really small venture with only 2 cows, but we have kept the heifers that have come from them, so it's a growing venture!