ILC Feature
and private treaty. Magness, who has always relied heavily on embryo transfer, has about 150 ET calves born each spring and AI’ s 75 % of the herd.
If that sounds like a lot of cattle, you’ re right, but when you sell 225 commercial bulls and another 50 or so to fellow seedstock producers in a year’ s time, it takes a lot of momma cows.
Sales where you can find Magness genetics include their Mile-High Elite Sale, during the National Western in Denver, Colorado, their March Southern Division Bull Sale in Miami, Oklahoma, their newly developed Western Slope Annual Bull Sale in April in Loma, Colorado; their Labor Day Online Show Heifer Pasture Sale at the headquarters in
Platteville, Colorado, and their October Fall Female Sale in Miami, Oklahoma.
As one can imagine, Magness is truly dedicated to not only breed improvement, but overall genetic progress throughout the beef industry. Magness Land & Cattle is using all the tools at its disposal to produce Limousin seedstock that are balanced both from a maternal and carcass perspective. Through DNA, actual measurements and ultrasound they are working to identify cattle that truly push the genetic needle forward.
Given their vast marketing network and slew of clients from coast to coast, the Magness operation strives to propagate not only quality, but genetic variability. The means to this end is remaining flexible from a genetic standpoint. Due to changes in the environment, they have learned that customers prefer different kinds of cattle.
It is safe to say that if the Magness family didn’ t believe in Limousin cattle, they would not have stayed the course for this length of time. In their minds, the key to the future success of the Limousin breed lies within a balanced animal.
As a breed, they know they can’ t get away from the calvingease, muscle and efficiency
16 | APRIL 2018