History
Operation
Pelton Simmental/Red Angus is a family owned and operated seedstock business located near Burdett, KS. Gary, Donna and their sons, Jason, Aaron and Burke; and Lynn, Sue and their daughter, Shanna, and son, Dustin, began a partnership in 1976 and later incorporated into a diversified operation consisting of 4300 acres of grass, 800 acres in CRP and 4700 acres of cultivated land, 500 head of registered Red Angus, SimAngus and Simmental cows with 200 calving in the fall and 300 in the spring. Gary’s son, Aaron, and Lynn’s son, Dustin, and new wife Kendra, have since joined the business.
The purebred operation began in 1972 with 12 bulls being sold to local cattlemen. On March 22, 2006, 150 Red Angus, SimAngus and Simmental bulls along with 120 females were sold at the 13th annual sale into the 13 states represented. A total of 180 bulls were sold in 2006.
With the use of an extensive ET program and proven, predictable genetics, a strong genetic cowherd has been developed by utilizing every available economic and performance measurement. Along with a strong genetic base, a customer service program was developed and emphasized for the sole purpose of “value added marketing opportunities” for our customers.
In the past three years, the commitment to helping market customer’s calves, through various avenues, has been especially rewarding. Two alliances, with which we are involved, provide feedlot and carcass data on animals going through each program.
In addition, a Pelton Program Sale, held the first Friday of November, has proven very successful for providing customers an opportunity for marketing replacement quality females and performance steers. In 2006, over 1250 head were sold.
Since Lynn’s graduation from K-State in 1975, the program has become very “hands on” with respect to their entire operation. Whether it be day-to-day care of the cowherd, sire selection and mating, decisions, all heat detection and AI work, ET preparation, weaning and development of bulls and replacements, putting up and grinding feed, all aspects of sale management and promotion, financial and breed associations, bookwork, computer time, customer service and marketing options, hosting tour stops and judging workouts—the family works together and utilizes the strengths of each person to better enhance the efficiency of the operation.
Innovations & Improvements
In 1988, we started receiving inquiries from several customers about the possibility of making Red Angus available through our program to complement the Simmental program that we were involved with.
Being huge believers in crossbreeding, we purchased 40 bred Red Angus females in 1989 from McPhee Red Angus.
The rest is history. Being able to produce calving ease bulls for virgin heifers and having a demand for SimAngus bulls and females were reason for some change. Our desire was to become a single source seedstock supplier.
In 1996, the decision to use ultrasound on our sale bulls and heifers was put to action. All sale bulls, and the select top females, were ultra sounded the first three years. Then, in 1999, we began ultra sounding all of our registered Red Angus and Simmental females, realizing we could not identify the top females by visual appraisal. Currently, all of our data interpretation is through the CUP lab after the Red Angus Association and ASA approved Iowa State University’s CUP program.
Working with two cooperator herds has developed a working relationship that enables us to produce more total numbers of calves that are genetically superior. In addition, it has provided extra income for our cooperators who receive a nice premium for each calf produced.
The use of a fall calving herd gives better utilization of labor and resources as well as supplying older bulls for our customers. We sell these older bulls first in our sale, and it certainly helps set the pace for the sale day. Since our decision to calve in the fall in 1988, we have increased numbers from 50 cows to 200.
SimAngus program—we have provided ½ blood bulls for several years. The decision to flush our best Simmental and Red Angus donor females and mate them to high accuracy Red Angus and Simmental sires respectively, with proven pedigrees, has proven to be well accepted. The progeny is non-dilute, and we feel has helped eliminate the extremes in both birth weight and frame scores on our SimAngus bulls and females. The demand for our percentage cattle by seedstock producers has developed since we made the decision to flush for percentage cattle.
Extensive embryo transplant program began in 1997. Between ET and cooperator herds, we are able to propagate our superior genetics.
Started AI in 1973. AI is used predominantly on all our heifers and, of course, ET flush breeding. New synchronization methods have allowed us to be more efficient in breeding females for shorter calving periods.
The use of our computer has helped us generate and retain a wealth of information to provide us and our customers with individual feedlot and carcass data, interaction with both breed associations for registration purposes and transfers, customer contacts through e-mail, sale contacts and catalog development, along with digital camera picture viewing of sale cattle.
Starting with our 2006 March sale, the sale is shown live on-line for non-attendees to watch the sale and bid.
Pelton Simmental/Red Angus is a family owned and operated seedstock business located near Burdett, KS. Gary, Donna and their sons, Jason, Aaron and Burke; and Lynn, Sue and their daughter, Shanna, and son, Dustin, began a partnership in 1976 and later incorporated into a diversified operation consisting of 4300 acres of grass, 800 acres in CRP and 4700 acres of cultivated land, 500 head of registered Red Angus, SimAngus and Simmental cows with 200 calving in the fall and 300 in the spring. Gary’s son, Aaron, and Lynn’s son, Dustin, and new wife Kendra, have since joined the business.
The purebred operation began in 1972 with 12 bulls being sold to local cattlemen. On March 22, 2006, 150 Red Angus, SimAngus and Simmental bulls along with 120 females were sold at the 13th annual sale into the 13 states represented. A total of 180 bulls were sold in 2006.
With the use of an extensive ET program and proven, predictable genetics, a strong genetic cowherd has been developed by utilizing every available economic and performance measurement. Along with a strong genetic base, a customer service program was developed and emphasized for the sole purpose of “value added marketing opportunities” for our customers.
In the past three years, the commitment to helping market customer’s calves, through various avenues, has been especially rewarding. Two alliances, with which we are involved, provide feedlot and carcass data on animals going through each program.
In addition, a Pelton Program Sale, held the first Friday of November, has proven very successful for providing customers an opportunity for marketing replacement quality females and performance steers. In 2006, over 1250 head were sold.
Since Lynn’s graduation from K-State in 1975, the program has become very “hands on” with respect to their entire operation. Whether it be day-to-day care of the cowherd, sire selection and mating, decisions, all heat detection and AI work, ET preparation, weaning and development of bulls and replacements, putting up and grinding feed, all aspects of sale management and promotion, financial and breed associations, bookwork, computer time, customer service and marketing options, hosting tour stops and judging workouts—the family works together and utilizes the strengths of each person to better enhance the efficiency of the operation.
In 1988, we started receiving inquiries from several customers about the possibility of making Red Angus available through our program to complement the Simmental program that we were involved with. Being huge believers in crossbreeding, we purchased 40 bred Red Angus females in 1989 from McPhee Red Angus. The rest is history. Being able to produce calving ease bulls for virgin heifers and having a demand for SimAngus bulls and females were reason for some change. Our desire was to become a single source seedstock supplier.
In 1996, the decision to use ultrasound on our sale bulls and heifers was put to action. All sale bulls, and the select top females, were ultra sounded the first three years. Then, in 1999, we began ultra sounding all of our registered Red Angus and Simmental females, realizing we could not identify the top females by visual appraisal. Currently, all of our data interpretation is through the CUP lab after the Red Angus Association and ASA approved Iowa State University’s CUP program.
Working with two cooperator herds has developed a working relationship that enables us to produce more total numbers of calves that are genetically superior. In addition, it has provided extra income for our cooperators who receive a nice premium for each calf produced.
The use of a fall calving herd gives better utilization of labor and resources as well as supplying older bulls for our customers. We sell these older bulls first in our sale, and it certainly helps set the pace for the sale day. Since our decision to calve in the fall in 1988, we have increased numbers from 50 cows to 200.
SimAngus program—we have provided ½ blood bulls for several years. The decision to flush our best Simmental and Red Angus donor females and mate them to high accuracy Red Angus and Simmental sires respectively, with proven pedigrees, has proven to be well accepted. The progeny is non-dilute, and we feel has helped eliminate the extremes in both birth weight and frame scores on our SimAngus bulls and females. The demand for our percentage cattle by seedstock producers has developed since we made the decision to flush for percentage cattle.
Extensive embryo transplant program began in 1997. Between ET and cooperator herds, we are able to propagate our superior genetics.
Started AI in 1973. AI is used predominantly on all our heifers and, of course, ET flush breeding. New synchronization methods have allowed us to be more efficient in breeding females for shorter calving periods.
The use of our computer has helped us generate and retain a wealth of information to provide us and our customers with individual feedlot and carcass data, interaction with both breed associations for registration purposes and transfers, customer contacts through e-mail, sale contacts and catalog development, along with digital camera picture viewing of sale cattle.