FERN RIDGE RANCH is
located in northern Idaho about 8 miles northeast of Sandpoint. We
operate on 220 acres varying from productive hay ground to rocky
hillsides.
We have been raising Polled
Herefords since 1979. Our beginnings were a small bunch of cows from
several northwest breeders however most of our roots go back to a few
cows we purchased from Denny Shields' Meadow Brook Ranch. Denny had a
history of over 50 years of Hereford breeding. His cows were noted
for their easy calving and milk production and went back to Big Sky Guy,
Trumode, Westwind, and Enforcer breeding. We then began an AI program
using proven sires with balanced performance traits to build our herd.
Early AI sires used included BT Butler452M, GK Justification, Goldbar
Godfather, Skywalker, Remington, Feltons 324, Feltons 517, Feltons Matthew 597, and Feltons Enduarance 745. Recently
we have been using or owned herd sires RPH CHAIRMAN 19F, and RST 1000
BLAZER 1011. Our goal is to to attain as much growth as possible with
out sacrificing calving ease and milk production.
We know that EPD's are not the
total picture. However, EPDs based on over 20 years of total herd
reporting are very useful. We have been keeping guidlines/TPR
records on all our calves since 1982 and have found that in our
herd the EPDs correlate very well with observed performance. We
annually have several cows on the Dam of distinction list. In 2003
and 2004
we had five cows listed.
We calve from late January through
March. We seldom have to help a cow calve. Our records show that
we have had only four births that required major assistance ( a hard
pull that required a calf puller),
and have never had a "C" section, since beginning business in
1979.
We make our registered herd work
and survive just as our commercial neighbors do. The cows are run on
Fern Ridge (brush and timber) and native grass pasture in the spring and
summer, then on cut over hay fields in the late summer and fall. We DO
NOT creep feed the calves. We wean by the first of October. Most
(a few are sent out to other regional bull tests) of the bull calves are
placed in our own bull test/development program to be ready for sale and
use as yearling bulls for spring breeding programs. Our
replacement heifer calves are placed on mostly roughage with supplement
feed program to be ready for May breeding. The cows are fed our own
grass hay, usually beginning in mid November, with a protein supplement
just prior to calving and before turnout depending on hay quality.
We require our cows to not only
calve easily and milk well but also to maintain good udders and be
structurally sound. We have built longevity into our herd by retaining
genetics from our top older cows who have maintained structural
soundness and productivity. A good example was Gold Benchmark Dam FR Geri 471P 306T.
She is
pictured below in this file photo after producing 13 calves for us.
