We are in the process of synchronizing the spring calving cows to be time AI bred in the upcoming weeks. The cows have been split into five bunches, the 2 year old cows, 2 bunches of RAB cows and 2 bunches of Durheim cows. The Durheim pairs have gone back to Bruce and Lynnettes for the summer, so a few of the guys go up to Ellendale and work those 2 bunches. The synchronization program we are using on all 5 bunches is a 7 day CIDR. We put the CIDR in and give the cows a shot of GnRH, the CIDRs are pulled 7 days later and a shot of Lutlyse is given, then 64 hours later the cows are AI bred and given a final shot of GnRH. Here’s the breakdown of the upcoming breeding schedule:

May 18: Put CIDRs in the 2 year old cows

May 20: Put CIDRs in the 1^st group of RAB cows

May 21: Put CIDRs in the 2^nd group of RAB cows

May 22: Put CIDRs in the 1^st group of Durheim cows

May 25: Pull CIDRs in the 2 year old cows

May 27: Pull CIDRs in the 1^st group of RAB cows

May 28: Pull CIDRs in the 2^nd group of RAB cows and Breed the 2 year old cows

May 29: Pull CIDRs in the 1^st group of Durheim cows and put CIDRs in the 2^nd group of Durheim cows

May 30: Breed the 1^st group of RAB cows

May 31: Breed the 2^nd group of RAB cows

June 1: Breed the 1^st group of Durheim cows

June 5: Pull CIDRs in the 2^nd group of Durheim cows

June 8: Breed the 2^nd group of Durheim cows

Steve inserting a CIDR 

Mike giving a shot of GnRH

Scott, Skylar, and Cody working the tub and alley

This week Craig Howard, Craig and Ron Bieber have been busy in the office mating all of the cows. Each cow that is bred here at Bieber Red Angus is mated specifically to the bull that we feel will complement her EPDs, Pedigree and Phenotype the best.  To do that we use the computer program Cowsense along with a copy of each cows printed pedigree. In cowsense Craig  enters all of the cows Red Angus Association registration numbers into the RAA Animal Search feature and pulls up each cows current EPDs. He then does the same with each bull that we are using both AI and Natural Service. For each cow the program takes her EPD values and shows what her calfs EPDs would be if she were mated with each of the selected bulls. We use these future calf EPD values, but we also keep in mind each cows phenotype, and pedigree and use all of this information to choose the bull that is the best match for each cow. Although the process takes a few days to get through each cow that is going to be bred here on the ranch, we feel that by mating this way we are getting the most genetic potential out of our cattle than we would if we just bred them arbitrarily to an AI and Natural service sire. 

Here are the AI sires we are using this year on the cows, click on the bulls name to view more infromation:

Bieber Rollin Deep Y118

Basin EXT 8628

Bieber Hard Drive Y120

Bieber Stormer Z433

LSF RAB Exclusive 2793Z

Schuler Endurance 2101Z

Andras Fusion R236

Paringa Iron Ore E27

We will be sorting all of the AI bred cows into their natural service sire groups June 1^st, 3^rd and 4^th. We will talk more about the natural service sires we are using and how we sort the pairs and take them out to pasture in a few weeks!  

 We branded the main cowherd on April 27^th. There was 80 pair that were to young to vaccinate and brand on the 27^th so we took the morning to work those today. It was just the Bieber crew working and we each took turns roping throughout the morning and had a great time.

Today we also had a group of Select Sire South America affiliates stop by the ranch to tour the cows, calves and herd bulls. Many of the visitors were from Uruguay, a few from Brazil and one from Columbia. They were visiting a few different ranches in the USA throughout a week long tour. All of the visitors were interested in looking at the bulls, daughters and calves out of Select Sires owned bulls. Many were veterinarians, breeding consultants, agronomists and beef producers. We had a great time getting to know the group and learning about beef production in their countries.

Looking at the replacement heifers that were AI bred and are currently with a natural service sire. The herd sire Rushmore is pictured in the bottom left  

Looking at Bieber Rouse Samurai X22 and the heifers that are currently with him. Samurai semen can be purchased through Select Sires. 

Walking through the Spring calving pairs.  

Looking at the seven donor cows that we are currently flushing.

Everyone at Bieber Red Angus enjoys showing visitors our cowherd and explaining our breeding program. If you ever have any questions do not hesitate to ask and if you are driving by feel free to stop in!

 Visit our Facebook page for more branding and tour pictures from today! 

Here at the ranch the summer cows have started calving. We have just a few calves on the ground so far. Both the cows and the guys are really enjoying calving out in the pasture. To process the baby calves we carry a toolbox with the scale, tags, sire breeding paperwork, and calving book. Here are a few shot of the newest additions at Bieber Red Angus

Processing newborn calves out in the pasture

 Customer Spotlight

Back at the beginning of February Craig, Peggy, Craig Howard and I traveled to the Wessington Springs, South Dakota area and visited Larry and Paulette Olson who have been great Bieber Red Angus customers. We wanted to spotlight their operation on our blog and are planning to spotlight other great beef producers and customers throughout the year.

Larry and Paulette Olson ranch northwest of Wessingtion Springs and have been ranchering their entire life. Larry got his start about 40 years ago in a combination of purchasing his own cows and taking over for his father. Larry started off with Gelvieh females and started using Red Angus bulls. He decided to start using Red Angus bulls to downsize his cattle, improve the udder quality and the look of his cattle.  Happy with the outcome Larry purchased around 25 head of Red Angus females to add to his herd and kept his replacement heifers, breeding them back Red Angus. His herd today has a high percentage of Red Angus genetics.

Craig Howard, Larry Olson and Craig Bieber looking through the cows at Larrys ranch, above and his bred replacement heifers, below. 

We enjoyed our morning looking through Larrys cow herd. He has done a great job and has moderate nicely balanced and conditioned females. Larry started calving his AI bred heifers on April 1st, and his cows on April 20th. He reports that he has had a great calving season so far and is at 100%. 

In 2008 Larry purchased his first bulls from Bieber Red Angus. He had heard about the ranch through advertisements, and from other producers who had seen RAB cattle and/or done business with RAB.  He was impressed with the ranchs attention to EPDs and quiet disposition in the sale bulls. Larry also mentioned that he likes the relationship that he has developed with Craig and appreciates how dedicated RAB is to customer service and satisfaction. After purchasing his first bull he returns to the production sale each year for high quality Red Angus bulls.    

Bieber bulls wintering at Larry Olsons ranch.

We appreciate Larry and Paulettes contiuned support of our program and are happy to see our genetics at work in a great program! Thank You for your hospitality during our visit!

Larry, Paulette Olson and their son 

 Last weekend was absolutely beautiful, with temperatures in the mid 70s and clear sunny skies. Last Saturday we branded and vaccinated all of the calves out of the spring calving cows, and gave the cows their breeding shots. The cows will be synchronized and set up to be bred AI around June 1^st.

Monday the guys time AI bred all of the replacement heifers that we had synchronized. Craig Howard and Jordan Rhodes from Select Sires bred, and Jordan’s brother Jackson was helping load AI guns and keep the paperwork straight. After each of the heifers are bred we give them a shot of GnRH, which is Gonadotropin releasing hormone. GnRH is responsible for the release of the hormones FSH, follicle stimulating hormone and LH, luteinizing hormone, from the heifers hypothalamus. FSH and LH stimulate and facilitate ovulation in the heifer.  

Craig Howard breeding a heifer and Jackson keeping the paperwork straight.

Jordan giving each heifer a shot of GnRH after she has been AI bred.

We selectively mate each of the heifers to an AI sire and a natural service sire, we talked more in depth about that process last week. After the matings are determined Craig and Peggy organize all of the information on spreadsheets that have the heifers eartag number, the AI sire she is bred to, and the natural service sire. To save time and to handle the heifers less after they are AI bred we sort the heifers into their natural service sire groups right out of the chute. With portable free standing panels we made 9 smaller pens, one for each sire. The pens were labeled and color coded, the color code was also indicated on the paperwork. After the heifer is AI bred Jackson would tell Cody which natural sire she is bred to and he would open that particular pen and let her in.

After all the heifers were bred each sire group was put into a pen in our feedlot. The bulls will be turned out into the pens this Friday. Each group will stay in the pen with their natural service sire until 35 days after their AI date. If the grass had been growing throughout April we would have turned the heifers out to pasture before breeding them AI and then turned them out again with their natural service sire. Since the grass is not ready yet and we are still feeding them, we will keep them on the same diet in the feedlot until after the 35 day mark so we do not jeopardize any pregnancies by switching the heifers diets so soon after AI breeding them.

Our 270 replacement heifers are synchronized using the 14 day CIDR method. CIDRs were inserted on April 3^rd and removed them 14 days later. On Friday we will run all of the heifers through the chute and give them a shot of Lutalyse. On Monday we will time breed all of the heifers and give them a shot of GnRH. Today Craig, Craig Howard and Ron sat down and worked on mating all of the heifers. We mate all of the females at Bieber Red Angus based on EPDs. Through our computer system CowSense Craig is able to enter all of the replacement heifers Red Angus Association registration numbers into the RAA Animal Search and pull up each replacement heifers current EPDs. He then does the same with all of the bulls we are planning to use both AI and Natural service.

For each replacement heifer the program takes her EPD values and shows what her calfs EPDs would be if she were mated with each of the selected bulls. Craig, Craig Howard and Ron then choose the best EPD match for an AI sire and the best match for a Natural service sire. We also print out
each of the replacement heifers full pedigrees and make sure the bulls we have chosen AI and Natural service, dont have any common relatives with the heifer. As we work through the matings we keep track of how many heifers we have bred AI and natural service for each bull. Yearling bulls will get 25-30 heifers to cover natural service and older bulls get around 50 heifers. Heres the list of bulls we are using on our heifers this year:

Bieber Hard Drive Y120: 2013 AI Sire

A bull and heifer calf on the ground this year out of Bieber Hard Drive Y120.

Hard Drive was bought by Select Sires off of our March Production Sale in 2012. We sampled this bull last year and his calves are low birthweight and look really good. Semen is available through Select Sires.

Bull and Heifer Calves out of Bieber H Hughes

Pardinga Iron Ore E27: 2013 AI Sire

Iron Ore E27 resides in Australia and was introduced to us last year through Leachman Cattle of Colorado. We are excited by the look of his calves on the ground. They are calving ease along with plenty of growth and style. 

Bieber Stormer Z433: 2013 AI Sire

We sold this bull last March to Accelerated Genex and Bachman Red Angus and are sampling his this year. 

Bieber  Rushmore Y106: 2013 AI and Natural Service Sire

This bull sold on our 2012 March Sale. Ludvigson Stock Farms used him in 2012 and we are sampling him this year both AI and Natural Service.

Schuler Endurance 2101Z: 2013 AI and Natural Service Sire

We purchased this bull in March from Schuler Red Angus.He is a son out of Schuler Nebula 0050 who is a son of the popular Nebula P707. He has impressive ultrasound ratios, impressive growth numbers and low birthweight.   

Bieber Rouse Samurai X22: 2013 Natural Service Sire

2013 Samurai Bull Calves

We have used Samurai hard for 2 years now, his calves are always calving ease and grow well. We sold his first set of sons on the March production sale this year. Samurai semen is available through Select Sires.

 LSF Takeover 9943W: 2013 Natural Service Sire

2013 Takeover Bull Calf

We bought the natural service rights for Takeover and had our first calves out of him in 2012. The calves are always calving ease and the calves out of Takeover have excellent carcass numbers. We are using two sons out of Takeover this year as Natural Service Sires this year.

GMRA Peacemaker 1216: 2013 Natural Service Sire

2013 Peacemaker Bull and heifer calf 

We purchased Peacemaker with Accelerated Genetics from Green Mountain Red Angus in 2012. We sampled him last year and his first calves are on the ground. Semen is available through Accelerated Genetics.

Bieber Take 2, Bieber Secondtake, Rouse Olaf Z104: 2013 Natural Service Sires

All three of these yearling sires sold this year on our March Production Sale. We are using them all Natural Service. Take 2 and Secondtake are both Takeover sons and Olaf is an Oly son. 

LSF RAB Exclusive 2793Z: 2013 Natural Service Sire

We bought this sire with Select Sires a few weeks ago from Ludvigson Stock Farms. Exclusive is out of the Nebula P707 son, Brown Paramount X7879. We are excited to see what this bull has to offer.

We are excited to see the calves out of these great herd sires. If you have any questions about our herd sires or would like help choosing the best Bieber sire for your females, feel free to contact Craig Bieber 605/439-3628 or Craig Howard 605/377-3128. Bieber Red Angus sells semen out of many of our herd sires, to purchase semen contact the office 605/439-3628. Also stop by our facebook page and Like us!