In addition to EPDs, weights, ratios and ultrasound data, Pharo Cattle Company provides star ratings for the following traits on our sale bulls.   A 5-star rating is the best – with 3-star being about average. Disposition Calving Ease Cow Longevity Udder...

In early January, I gave a ranch tour to a couple from Alberta, Canada.   They had been to a Ranching for Profit school in Colorado Springs.   When I showed them the cowherd, they said, “This is the first grass we have seen since we left Colorado...

How can you identify the most efficient and most profitable cows in a cowherd?   The answer is so simple most people miss it.   The most efficient and profitable cows in an unpampered cowherd will always be the oldest cows.   These are cows that have done everything...

Following last week’s PCC Update, we received several questions about late weaning and why we choose to leave calves on their mothers over the winter.  For starters, it’s natural.   In nature, there is no herdsman to wean the offspring.   In fact, when a doe gives...

When purchasing bulls, the most important factor to consider is the program behind the bulls.   Bulls that were produced in a program that aligns with your long-term goals are worth a whole lot more than bulls coming out of a program that does not align with your...

The following is a portion of a letter to the editor I found in a popular beef magazine a couple of years ago.   It is in reference to getting young cows bred back with their second and third calves.   I think it speaks volumes about what has been going on with most...

Cows must fit their environment to stay in production.   Common sense tells us it is much easier, as well as much more profitable, to change the cow to fit the environment than it is to artificially change the environment to fit the cow.  Your environment can only...

If you are a cow-calf producer, I encourage you to be honest with yourself when you answer the following two questions.   Were you profitable in 2019?   If you were profitable, would you be able to prosper with that level of profitability year after year after year?  ...

Defining and measuring feed efficiency is something I have always struggled with.   It’s definitely not as easy as science wants it to be.   Science wants to break everything down into understandable bits and pieces.   Unfortunately, that won’t work in the real...

No matter where I go, I hear people say, “You can’t do that here,” in reference to many of the management concepts we share in our presentations, our newsletters and our PCC Updates.   In most cases, there are people within 100 miles of them doing exactly what they...