Our ranch is located on the northwest shore of Cooking Lake, 25 miles west of Tofield. We are second generation ranchers on the farm homesteaded in the early 1900’s by my father Leonard and his brothers Dan and August. We began breeding with simmental bulls in 1963 and have bred registered cattle since 2002.
Our herd consists of about 80 Jan to Feb calving red and black simmental cows. We use primarily walking herd sires and utilize AI to introduce outcross genetics. We have also introduced Red and Black Angus cross bulls to our offering that are easy calving, growthy Simmangus cowmaker bulls.
We raise our own forage and the bulls are fed a blended pellet ration “DG Bull Ration” from Masterfeeds after weaning which allows these young bulls to reach their potential without affecting longevity. The bulls are fed 2nd cut alfalfa to compliment the pellet ration at a rate that allows them to gain 3lb / day on average.
Why Bull choice is important!
Bulls have a significant economic and genetic impact on a cow herd. A bull can sire between 20 - 40 calves a year while a cow may produce 10 - 12 calves in a lifetime. Bull selection is key to herd improvement and can impact the marketability of the cattle.
The perfect bull may not exist, but choosing one that can improve on the weak traits in the herd will offer overall improved performance.
We here at Rock Ridge Cattle, continually strive to raise that front pasture cow or that off the charts herd bull!
EPD’s
We use EPD’s in the selection of sires in our program. Our objective is to find bulls who have trait balance and accuracy. Using AI bulls allows us to access breed leading genetics to improve our herd and our offering
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