We only have two cows left to calve here at JJB Cattle Company and I am finally confident enough to say that this faze of the cattle raising process has been a success. We started out with three heifers out of the Perks/Langford owned Ramona cow sired by Shock & Awe. There will be one or two of those heifers in our string at this years Iowa State Fair. We then moved onto some AI calves with an Online heifer, a Right Track bull and a BR Currency bull calf being born. All three are really nice and have a shot to make the string as well. The bull that we bought from Whispering Pines to breed heifers did a great job delivering small calves with a lot of vigor. We will have no problems trusting him with the 7 heifers that we retained out of our 2013 calf crop. Our herd sire from Perks Ranch who is a full sib to the aforementioned Ramona cow has a really cool heifer out of a Battle Ground daughter that goes back to the Nanna cow; she could make some noise. We rounded out the calves that have been born as of yet with a maternal sister to Parker that is sired by Right Track and an About Time heifer out of the Bright Lula cow now owned by the Cook family in Arkansas. All in all a very successful calving season and we can’t wait to show you these babies, our deepest set yet.

We are very excited to see what all of the other breeders have had this year as well. The bar keeps getting raised higher and higher every year.  The Hereford train keeps chugging down the tracks and there is still room on the bandwagon. If you are on the outside looking in don’t be scared, just jump on in, the waters fine.

Our Expo consignments really mean a lot to us this year. This is the story of Parker.

To get to Parker you have to start where many great men start… With his mother, Teardrop. The life of Teardrop started in Oklahoma and her mother is Ginger Gal who won the 2005 JNHE in Milwaukee. I had the privileged of holding the halter when she won and this daughter is simply one of her best. Teardrop is sired by the only two-time Supreme Champion Hereford at the NWSS, Shock & Awe. We think that Teardrop is the best combination of both individuals. After Teardrop calved Parker she had a beautiful udder and remained in phenomenal condition throughout the summer while raising him. We flushed Teardrop to Right Track this summer and are expecting an ET heifer and a natural calf sired by BR Currency. You might also remember Teardrops full sister that was our Expo consignment last year. These cattle have the look to fit in the showring and as Teardrop proved this summer, the goods to raise a very impressive calf. The fastest way to propagate this cow in our herd is through the use of Parker and that is precisely what we intend to do. We are in expansion mode after buying the farm this summer. With Parker leading the pack in our AI sire battery and Teardrop contributing multiple calves each year we are in good hands.

The night that Parker was born Crystal and I were camped out in the office at the farm as we still lived across town and didn’t want to miss something. Looking down in the pen that Teardrop was in every 20 minutes Teardrop was obviously getting sick of us. Finally some time after midnight and well after Crystal asked if we could go home, Teardrop finally had her calf. The calf that we had expected to see would not have testicles as she had been bred with female sexed semen… Well we were in for a surprise. Little Parker was tougher or sneakier from well before conception as he made it past detection and into the soon to be frozen straw of semen. Once he was thawed out and put into his mother he was able to out race all of his sisters and make it into the egg first. You see what I mean, the boy just gets after it. After we realized what an overachiever he had been it is easy to say that we were not impressed. We expected a heifer, we would be selling his moms full sister in about a month based on the fact that we would have a heifer. But Parker made it up to us.

As Parker began to grow we fell hard and fast for the little guy. His attitude was the first thing to grab our attention. Much to his mothers discouragement he really wanted to be your friend. Then we started to see that the boy was good, really good. I have spent more then too much time looking at this calf. He has and continues to exceed our expectations. When Parker was born he weighed in at 90 lbs. he weaned off at 700 lbs. and when he was recently weighed on his birthday his yearling weight was 1,335 lbs. His big top, butt and nuts are reason enough to use him but his soundness seals the deal. Add his awesome momma to the mix and for us it becomes a no brainer, just as easy as breathing. With our 1/4 in-herd semen share we will heavily anticipate the arrival of his calves next year. If you have any questions about Parker who sells as Lot 30 at the Iowa Beef Expo on February the 13th, please utilize the Contact Us page and get a hold of us either on the phone or via e-mail.

Today we were finally able to get the videos of our Iowa Hereford Select Sale lots shot and edited. Mother Nature has been tough on us this year but we are very happy with the cattle that we will be selling on the 13th of February. You will be hard pressed to find the quality of cattle that you will find at the Iowa Beef Expo and we feel we are bringing some of our best yet. Click Here to view the sale catalog. If you have any questions please feel free to call or e-mail, our contact info can be found on our Contact Us page.

Swore I’d never step foot in Hilton Coliseum growing up an avid Hawkeye fan. Then I married a KSU alum and now I’ve been to Hilton and Jack Trice more then Carver and Kinnick as of late. Now my long awaited review of my experience of Hilton Coliseum and “Hilton Magic”-

The seats are comfy.

The first calf of the year has arrived at JJB Cattle Co.! She is an embryo calf out of the Ramona cow (owned by Perks & Langfords) and sired by Shock & Awe. She is a flashy little one weighing in at 85 lbs. There are two more siblings to this heifer due today and I think if they hold on like their mommas look like they are going to they will be bulls, which is just fine with us.

We hope that you all have had a very successful start to the year and that it continues to be so. You are the only one that can make or break your day/month/year, do what it takes to make it great, you’re worth it.

2014 Iowa Beef Expo Sale Heifer

JJB HONEY LOVE 16A ET

Reg #P43376695 ~ Birth: Mar. 19, 2013

Honey Love brings us full circle, she is out of the foundation of the herd “Lucky” who was the first cow I ever purchased. There have been brothers and sisters to this heifer that have went to work in herds all over the country and this one can do the same.  Honey Love has all the look you could want for the showring. EPD’s, look and lineage, Honey Love has it all! More info on this showstopper as we near the sale date.

We have a beast on our hands here at JJB Cattle Co. I could go on for days about this bull. Parker will be selling at the 2014 Iowa Beef Expo and is the type that we have been trying to raise since this herd was started. He has the EPD’s and the phenotype that will keep him in our AI rotation for years to come. When we decided that we would be selling Parker we knew we had to keep at least 1/4 in herd use. A bull of this caliber will be an easy addition to any herd. Parker is triple bred Online and is an example of line breeding working, this will add predictability to his progeny. For more information including a video of Parker coming in January please head to the For Sale page. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact us.

This past weekend we added another breed to JJB Cattle – a Simmental. I grew up with Simmentals, and my family still raises them under the name High Country Cattle Services. This story begins back in 2001. I was only 16 years old, but I knew I wanted to add a female to my herd that would be an investment. Something that wouldn’t be just a show heifer. She would be a foundation, and a female that would hopefully produce enough revenue to get me through college. (Attending school in the U.S., when then I was paying out-of-state tuition, and each of Canadian dollars were only worth $.60, wasn’t an ideal plan). That year I found Signature 19L.

Interestingly enough, 2001 was also the year that Jon bought Lucky, which became a foundation of his cow herd.

Thankfully, Signature did her job and produced many females that did exactly what they were supposed to do. They were productive cows that made a mark in both the showring and pasture. Over the years I had sold most of my females and ended up with one last Signature daughter, CDY Red Signature 20W. Last year, Dad had mentioned on his trip down to the Iowa State Fair that both her and her heifer calf were looking quite good, and now might be the time to sell. With Jon and I wanting to purchase a farm the following summer we knew that we could use the additional income. We decided to sell both Signature and her heifer calf in the Checkers sale. Again the Signature cow family did exactly what they were supposed to do. Together the pair brought $45,000. Signature was going to help buy the farm.

This fall Jon and I headed back to Canada for my sister’s wedding. While home a red heifer calf quickly caught our eye, and dad mentioned that they would be selling her in Checkers. She was a great-great-grand daughter of Signature. As Jon and I crawled into bed that night we both turned to each other and said we need to buy that heifer.

So last weekend we bought RJY She’s a Sure Sign 42A. We had kept it a secret from our family that we were going to make a run at her. Needless to say they were pretty shocked when JJB Cattle Co. was announced as the online bidder. We are very excited to see Sure Sign this weekend when we get home to Canada for Christmas. We’ll see if the Signature cow family continues to do exactly what they are supposed to do.