About Pharo Cattle Company™
The Pharo Cattle Company™ Philosophy
OPTIMUM SIZE is much more profitable than maximum size. POUNDS-PER-ACRE determines profit, not pounds-per-animal. In fact, PROFIT is the only thing we want to maximize!
Cattle Must Fit Their Environment
WE BELIEVE that to achieve optimum production, a rancher’s cows must fit their environment rather than the rancher changing the environment to fit the cows.
Since many ranchers have cows that are inefficient (too big), they are forced to change their environment by providing harvested or purchased feed to keep their cows in production. There goes what profit there is in ranching! We want a cow that can survive strictly on what the ranch produces, with little or no additional inputs. A cow ought to support the ranch, not be supported by the ranch!
We select for cows that thrive on native shortgrass prairie with almost no hay supplement (only in extreme weather.) We let the environment sort out the “good ones”, while we show absolutely no sympathy for open, late, or dry cows. Cows must produce and wean a calf every year or they are culled. We don’t give second chances!
Desirable End Product
We not only want a cow that fits her environment, we also expect her to produce a desirable and profitable end product. Her calves must be able to feed efficiently and meet the requirements established by the current beef industry. The industry wants a steer calf that can produce a 700- to 800-pound Choice carcass with a Yield Grade less than three.
Contrary to mainstream opinion, we know that it is possible to produce ideal replacement heifers and ideal feeding steers with the same bull. To prove this point, we enrolled our steer calves in a feed and carcass test for three consecutive years. We are extremely pleased with the results.
Our Averages
In Weight (Pounds)
Out Weight (Pounds)
Carcass Weight (Pounds)
%
Percent Choice
Yield Grade
Ribeye Area (Square Inches)
Philosophies Behind Our Bulls
1. Honesty and integrity will not be compromised.
2.We manage our natural resources in a sustainable manner.
3. The breed of cattle is not nearly as important as the selection criteria that comprise the breeding program.
4. Our cows are run in a real-world environment as tough as—or tougher than—the environment most commercial cows are run in.
5. We let the environment sort out the good cows, and show absolutely no sympathy for open, late, or dry cows.
6. We will never make excuses for a cow. A cow must produce and wean a calf every year to remain in the herd.
7. Our management practices apply sufficient pressure on the cowherd to force out the unadapted and infertile animals—at least 10% each year, if we’re doing it right.
8. In addition to growth and performance, we select for vital economic traits such as fertility, calving ease, moderate cow size, fleshing ability, structural correctness, disposition, and longevity. We have also started keeping data on other heritable traits, such as fly resistance and preputial prolapse.
9. Replacement heifers are developed on a low-cost, forage based diet with minimum supplements. We want only the most efficient and most adapted heifers to make it into our cowherd.
10. A bull calf must be born unassisted from a fault-free cow that has never missed a breeding opportunity, to make it into one of our prestigious bull sales.
“We love your outside-the-box way of thinking. Thanks for challenging our traditional ways of thinking.”