Our operation is located in west-central Texas headquartered in Miles, Texas, which is a very challenging environment. Our Red Angus cattle must work in the harsh dry environment, traveling over the rough rocky terrain of our native pastures with limited rainfall and forage.
Halfmann Ranch breeding philosophy is simple. The commercial producer must improve profitability using Halfmann Ranch genetics for our ranch to be successful. We base our breeding on fertility, calving ease, low maintenance, natural fleshing ability, high maternal traits, disposition and adaptability. Our rough environment dictates that our cows must be moderate sized, good footed and sound in structure. We only supplement with a high-energy liquid feed to help the cows utilize dry grass.
We utilize current technologies to develop dependable genetic packages for the commercial cattleman. We continually improve our genetics by studying individual performance, EPD’s, carcass ultrasound and DNA markers. We artificially inseminate all of our cows each year to produce the most dependable, highest performing calf possible. The cows must breed up timely every year and calve unassisted. On the calves, we record birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weights and ultrasound data at the end of yearling feed test among others. We record cow weights and body condition scores at weaning to insure they wean a high percentage of their body weight while maintaining good condition. A moderate sized cow is the most economical feasible to run in our demanding environment. We find that lower maintenance cattle breed back faster and maintain their flesh better on less feed, optimizing low maintenance.