New Sale Date & Location
Monday - April 10, 2006 @ Glasgow Stockyards Inc, Glasgow MT
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Updated 3/6/06
| Hello!
Welcome to our Program! Spear J Inc. is a family ranching operation located in the heart of Eastern Montana's plains, on the rim of the Missouri River Breaks. The ranch was started in 1957 as a commercial cow/calf program. Our registered Red Angus herd was started in December 1979 with the purchase of two cows from Sodak Red Angus. Four purchased cows from the Bootjack program were added over the next 5 years. From these six cows we proceeded to build a cow herd. We have added the occasional purchased female from the XXX program. Our current cow herd is comprised of approximately 150 head of registered Red Angus mother cows & yearlings. We also maintain a herd of full blood commercial Red Angus mother cows The cattle summer on native grass along Big Dry Creek and the Big Dry Creek arm of Fort Peck Lake. They winter on native grass and cake in the Missouri River Breaks along the south side of Fort Peck Lake. Our calves are not creep fed; however in dry conditions we do occasionally use some lick tubs. Our supplemental feeding program for the cows begins in late November and runs through April. The short grass and the winter conditions of eastern Montana demand that you run easy-fleshing, high genetic growth cattle. Our breeding program was focused primarily on strong genetic growth characteristics until the last ten years or so when we have worked aggressively to balance those traits with acceptable calving ease, strong maternal qualities, and carcass quality. First and foremost, we believe that a calf must have genetic growth potential to be versatile in his ability to express that growth in relation to his environment. Those growth traits must be balanced with calving ease and solid maternal qualities to yield functional breeding cattle that will thrive in our environment. In a nutshell, if they cannot work for us, they will not work for our customers. We performance test 40-50 head of registered Red Angus bull calves each winter and sell them as yearlings at our Annual Production Sale. We have retain 45-50 head of registered Red Angus heifer calves for replacements and will be selling half of them in our sale as well. We actively cull cows based on age, fertility and productivity. We also occassionaly have older cows available for sale at private treaty pricing. We retain 30-35 commercial heifer calves each year for replacements as well. The balance of our calves are sold as feeder calves in October. |