Winter Time News

It is winter, but it hasn’t been bad so far, at least not in our area.  We feel really blessed as the ice storm went north and south of us.  We had a glaze on the grass, but nothing on the dirt roads at all.  The temperature hasn’t been bad either.  We did have some sub freezing temps, but only for about three days.  Even we Ozarkers can handle that.

In the past we  have been listing bred heifers for sale and at the end of November we sold ten of those heifers to Wedermeyer Farms in Nebraska.  Unbeknownst to me or Wedermeyer Farms all bred animals shipped into Nebraska must be bred at least 120 days.  Preg checking showed we had a few bred 80-100 days, so we have eight heifers still available for sale. 

In addition to the bred heifers we have 20 yearling to yearling plus open animals we would sell.  Also for sale, we have a purebred,  blonde colored bull ready for service.  He is 37.09% bison and a son of LNH Rondo who has been pictured on this site in the past.

Looking forward to Spring and new calves.  Everyone take care.

Fall 2016

We started the Fall season by taking four young heifers to the Ozark Fall FarmFest.  As usual there many animals on display this year including a total of twelve Beefalo. Circle Z and Fowler Beefalo were also displaying Beefalo.  We visited with a number of people who had an interest in Beefalo, both from a consumer and a  producers point of view. It is always gratifying to hear folks say how they enjoy the meat from Beefalo, but mystifying  that producers who understand the benefits of raising Beefalo are still reluctant to trying it. Education, that is a mission for us.  Better promotion too.

On the farm today we have 140 animals, everything included. We have a small group of steers we are planning to sell as well as a few open cows.  In addition, for anyone wanting to start with Beefalo or to increase the size of their herd, we have twenty heifers that have been exposed to a bull since the end of May.

Holidays are just ahead and we wish everyone all the best. Take care.

Summer 2016 has been Good!

Late again!  I’ve been meaning to get out another post for at least two months, but just kept procrastinating.

For those of us in Wright County 2016 has been a good summer.  Grass has stayed green all summer and the ponds are full.  The cows have benefitted greatly as they are looking slick and their calves have grown well. We sold some steers last week and they weighed out well for their age;  I’m very thankful for the weather we have had.

I have received a couple calls recently enquiring about heifers, bred or first calf.  We have several first calf heifers, with lively babies, that could be for sale.  In addition we have twenty one that have been exposed to a bull since early June.  If anyone is interested in these animals, or even younger heifers, give us a call at 417-569-3838 or email at usseerye@outlook.com 

Spring?? We hope!

I meant to get out a posting last month, but hopefully I’m not too late.

It has been a very nice Winter here in the Ozarks, but like most everyone I am looking forward to Spring.  We are in the position on our hay supply that we haven't been in years and grass is starting to grow.  A little rain and some warm night and we could be off to the races.

I need to apologize to someone who was on our Facebook last Fall asking if we had some heifers to sell (we did and do),  but I was never on the page myself and missed it.  My wife informed me of my mistake so I have learned how to get on the page.  Our daughter-in-law, Gena, has been putting this posting online for me, on both the Blogspot and Facebook.  Obviously I need to start posting myself.

As noted earlier we still have springing heifers for sale.  They could start calving about April 20^th

Our cow have wintered well  also and are already calving.  I enjoy watching one week old, or younger, Beefalo  calves eating a mouthful of hay and chewing it like an old cow; that’s Beefalo for you.

Looking Forward to 2016

Another year.  They do seem to go by a little quicker each year.  Maybe Winter will too.

Last month we took our first animal to our new meat processor, Cabool Kountry Meat.  Our customers seemed to be pleased with the different packaging look;  I do not want to confuse anyone as it is still vacuum wrapped.  The beef was nice and lean dressing out at about 61 %.  We are currently planning on harvesting our next beef around the end of March.

It is Winter calving time and we have two new ones this month;  the next few months should see several more.

In the meantime we still have the 31 springer heifers for sale.  They should start calving in March.

In the absence of any more news I’ll bring this to a close and wish everyone all the best.

Finally---Back on Line

I have to apologize for not posting any new information for a  long, long, long time.  We had computer problems initially, but after they were fixed the problem was just me.  No excuses.  I will try to do better in the future.

2015 has been a great year for good weather;  July and August provided plenty of rain, cooler than normal temperatures, and the grass was green and growing.  At the same time cattle prices stayed high.  Then the rain stopped and prices dropped almost in unison.  As of this date we are getting rain again, but cattle prices are still down from their highs and aren’t forecast to return.

Back in March we had to sell our big bull, Rondo, which we have pictured on this site in the past.  He had developed a foot problem in one of his hind feet about three years ago.  We placed him in a corral for six to eight weeks and he recovered.  Last Fall he had a similar ailment in the other foot, but never recovered.  He was the most gentle bull I have ever been around and a lot of his calves seem to have his docile disposition.  I miss him.

Currently we have 130 head of animals.  We have 32 heifers one and a half to two years of age running with a young bull we purchased from Larry Hacker.  In addition we have 21 more six months to one year.  Most of these are available for sale.

We are still selling packaged meat, but are going to be using a different processing plant.  The one we have used  previously  closed its doors a couple months ago.  We will be taking our next beef to Cabool Kountry meats, LLC , a certified USDA facility,  in Cabool, Mo. Hopefully we and our meat customers will be happy with our new provider.

I will bring this posting to a close and promise not to be so delinquent in the future.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.  

Fall Update

We meant to make a posting immediately after the Fall Farmfest, but as you can see immediate is not as fast as you might think.

 

We have been busy selling cows, heifers, and a bull.  Also we have harvested one animal.  Our stock of packaged meat was very low, but starting 10-26-13 we will have an ample supply of hamburger, roasts, and steaks.

 

In addition to packaged meat we have for sale several heifers that have been exposed to a bull all summer, weaned calved and  older cows if that is your desire.

 

The holidays are here and so is winter; we hope we will be ready for them.  Until then, take care.

SPRINGTIME???

It seems Mother Nature can't make up her mind; one day it is hot, the next day it is cold.  Grass tries to grow, but not as fast as the cows want to eat it.  Maybe next week.

As usual the cattle are ready for Spring and the new lush green grass  that comes with wet and warmer weather.  Baby beefalo start eating forage just days after birth and we have several calves already on the ground with more on the way.  It's also that time of the year when farmers often purchase new stock for the upcoming season.  We have a variety of classes availableat this time:  yearling heifers, bred and open older heifers, and some with calves by their side.  We have older cows as well if that is someone's preference.

In addition we have a two year old scurred, black purebred bull and a one year old scurred, buffalo colored, purebred bull for sale.  Both of these animals are halter broken to lead.  As we have mentioned before the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to get into beefalo is to use a purebred or fullblood bull;  all of their offspring will qualify to be beefalo.

If any of our readerss are students at MSU, or have children at MSU you are probably aware the the Aguculture Dept. (Darr Agricultural  Center) recently received a donlation of a farm, and a small herd of beefalo, from Dr. Norman Shealy.  These are the beefalo we sold to Dr. Shealy in 2011.  We congratulate and commend Dr. Shealy on his generous gift. You can read more at Ozarks First dot com.

That is about the extent of our information for this posting.  Until the next time everyone take care.

Another New Sale

This week we sold a young bull, but not one of the two we have pictured on this blog (they are still available).  Laszlo and Kathy Nemeti of Rogersville, Mo. wanted a red bull and we had a younger one.  When we delivered the calf we saw why they wanted red;  they have some beautiful, great looking red animals.  This is the second bull the Nemeti's have purchased from us;  the first was probably about eight years ago.  We say "thanks" and wish them continued success.

Ussery Beefalo Update

My daughter-in-law, Gena, who posts this blog for me asked some time ago if I didn't think it was time to make another posting; I agreed, but am just now getting the information to her.

 

We are certainly enjoying the nice Spring weather and eagerly looking forward to the coming of lush green grass.  We now have over 20 new calves who should be ready to take off on the new grass.

 

We sold five cows to Roger and Kathy Cady of Ozark, Mo. last month.  They located the cows at Greenfield, Mo. and already have some new additions.

 

Cattle are still selling quite well at the sale barns and we sold thirteen last week.  Also, we delivered one animal to our local processing plant (Forrest Meat Processing) earlier this week.  That animal was purchased by John Waddell of Springfield, Mo.  For anyone interested in purchasing a beef we have a steer ready for harvest as of this writing.  He will probably weigh approximately 950 lbs.  In addition we have some younger males ready to turn out on grass and some young heifers  we would be willing to sell.

Finally, we have two young virgin bulls we feel would make good herd sires.  They are pictured at the end of this posting.  We will try to be less tardy in the future.

Yellow Jacket--DOB: 2-16-11,  37.09 % bison

Yuri--DOB: 2-24-11, 37.16 % bison

Weaned Heifers For Sale

We have now weaned all seventeen (17) heifers born in February and March.  They will soon be calfhood vaccinated, wormed, and given their other shots.  At that time they will be available for sale.  These 17 are all sired by LNH Rondo who is pictured on this blog; they should make fine beefalo cows in the future.
To a picture of Rondo, click here.

New Calves

A couple months back I said we would try and post some pictures of this years calves;  it took longer than I anticipated, but finally we photographed a few, more heifers than bulls.  Here they are.

These calves will be weaned about the end of August and could be for sale shortly thereafter.

General happenings

We don't normally have "bottle" calves with beefalo, but occasionally something happens and we have one.  We had a first calf heifer that needed a little assistance in delivering her calf and when it was born she got up and walked away.  We had to bottle feed the calf some colostrum and tried for two days to get Momma to accept it, but to no avail.  Last Fall during some of our beefalo business we had discussed "bottle" calves and were told "if you ever have one".  We remembered, and contacted the Jerry Smeltzer family of Marshfield, Mo.  They said "yes" and now have a baby beefalo heifer.  Good luck Jerry and family.

 

So far 2011 has been a heifer year, 27 heifers to 14 bulls.  Most of the calves have been sired by Rondo who is pictured below.  Those calves born in February will be weaned by about September 1st.  For those who would like to purchase some weaned calves at about that time we are taking orders now.  Hopefully we can add some pictures of these calves in the near future. 

 

Good bye X-Factor! Hello New Beefalo Farmers!

We are happy to report that we have sold the young bull X-Factor to the Deer Run Beefalo Farm in Lebanon, Mo.  This farm is operated by Tony Flores. Tony is a newcomer to the Beefalo industry, but is very passionate about Beefalo and its health benefits. 

Tony is buying a steer from us as well. That steer is ready for harvest and Tony is having him inspected so he will be able to sell the meat. If you live in and around the Lebanon area give him a call if you want to sample some Beefalo.

We say "welcome" to Tony and his family and wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

Bull For Sale!

We are posting a couple of pictures of a young bull we have for sale. X-Factor is a bull we took to the Fall Farmfest in October. He is 37.03% Bison and his date of birth is 3/02/10. As you can see by his bison percentage his calves from any beef cow will be considered Beefalo. He will soon be a year old and should be ready for service by May. As you can see he is halter broke and quite gentle.

More Ussery Beefalo Cattle SOLD!

This has been another interesting week at Ussery Beefalo.  We were contacted by two more people who had gone by our animals at Farmfest. Unfortunately I was not there at the time, our business cards were taken and we were contacted. 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Noel T. Thompson of Seymour were interested in a young bull ready for service next Spring  to use on their Red Angus. They acquired our first born calf from last Winter/Spring, a blonde colored bull that should work well on their herd.

 

Also contacting us were Mark and Sherri Breitenstein of Yellville, Ark. They wanted a two year old heifer that would calve next Spring/Summer.

We wish these two new customers all the best in the future and remind you we have more Spring born calves that we are weaning; these include steers heifers and a few bulls.  

We also have several heifers that have been exposed to a bull this past summer. 

HEIFERS & STEERS FOR SALE

We currently have a dozen heifers born during February and March 2009. As of now, May 21st, they are all open but are ready to be put with a bull.

We have another dozen, a little younger and smaller, who are also available.

We sold ten steers two weeks ago and were pleased that prices are better than last fall. We still have another ten that are ready to go to market soon.

At this time we are feeding out a steer for one customer, but have three others that could be ready in a few short months.

Welcome, Rondo!

As we reported here earlier, we recently purchased a new herd sire from Done Rovin Farm in Lincoln, Arkansas. LNH Rondo, a four year year old bull raised by Larry and Nelda Hacker arrived on our farm October 4th. Larry had weighed Rondo just prior to our acquiring him and he weighed 1,875 pounds, down 200 pounds according to Larry. We are very impressed with Rondo; his stature, length, overall conformation, and especially his docility. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of some little "Rondos" and "Rondoettes" next July.

Meantime, we still have LNH Pickett FOR SALE (to your right). Pickett who has been our primary herd sire since 2005, has sired many fine calves for us and we feel would make an excellent herd sire for anyone interested in producing quality Beefalo.

Ozark Fall Farmfest

We will be in attendance at the Ozark Fall Farmfest on October 2nd, 3rd and 4th in Springfield, Mo at the Ozark Empire Fair Grounds. Click here for more information on Farmfest. We will be displaying Willie, Tiajuana, Uzi, and Wisteria. Willie and Uzi are for sale. Come by Barn 1 to meet us!