Barzona Bulletin Winter 2025

www.Barzona.org

Winter 2025

Barzona Bulletin

Adaptable • Sustainable • Profitable

A Publication of the Barzona Breeders Association of America

Let’s Get Bull-Season Ready

By Kelsey Pope, Contributing Writer B ull buying is an important business decision and winter is a great time to evaluate your cow herd and current bulls so you’re prepared when it’s time to buy your next herd sire. Following are a few key steps to help you assess your cow herd and make informed decisions that will drive your operation’s long-term success. 1. Evaluate your current cow herd performance. The first step any cattle producer should take before adding bulls to their battery is evaluating their current cow herd and last calf crop. Looking at your last weaned calf crop can tell you a lot about your herd and herd sires. Did they grow and perform how you expected under the environmental and man agement conditions? Along with knowing these constraints for your calves, ask yourself questions about your cow herd: Do my cows meet my operation criteria?; Did I have a good pregnancy rate?; Did body condition hold up?; Are they nursing well? The answers to these questions will help determine the priorities for bull-buy ing decisions that will have a multi-generational impact. If you are building your herd by keeping replacement heifers, then the decisions you made three to seven years ago were impactful in the development of your core cow herd today. If you answered “yes” to all or most of those cow-evaluation questions, and you’re happy with the breed you’re working with, the likely next step is to find similar criteria to your past

bull-buying decisions and look for seedstock producers with similar genetics. If you’re not happy with what you see in the pasture, you are probably ready for a change. What areas need some im provement: better maternal traits, carcass traits, feet, milking ability? These decisions will help guide you when those piles of catalogs come in the mail. But where do you start? 2. Find a seedstock producer who can help you reach your goals. When you know what traits you’re looking for in a bull, a quick phone call to a seedstock producer can be helpful for them to guide you in the direction of what bulls might be a good fit. Looking deeper at their catalogs, you’re going to find the premier bulls in the top few lots, but by studying the blood lines and EPDs you can likely find full brothers or similar genet ics farther down in the sale that are going to work just as well for your herd. Remember, the “best” bull is a relative concept. Most seedstock producers are striving to produce the next elite genetics in the industry, so you don’t have to spend too much time shopping if you can find a producer you trust. If you don’t know the producer, read about the operation’s philoso phy, and learn about their reputation and the customer service they provide. If possible, visit their operation or ask for cow Continued on page 3 ›

By Matthew Heinz, Golden Hz Farms, BBAA President President’s Message

Raising Quality Barzona Cattle for 46 Years. Bulls & Females Available 2-Year-Old Bulls Available Now F & F Cattle Company W elcome to the winter issue of the Barzona Bulletin . As I write this article, much of the United States is experiencing an arctic blast. Here in Iowa we get bundled up to do chores, trudge through feeding livestock, thawing hydrants and hoses, and bedding cattle for the cold days and colder nights. As I was feeding the fat cattle, the cows in the south pasture caught my eye. They were on the hillside, browsing and working. They weren’t huddled up around a hay ring or standing idle; they were foraging. As we fed, each group came out to eat as if it was like any other day. As farmers do, I wondered if that was the case at the neighbor’s. I walked over to the east side of our farm and watched the neighbor feed ing his cows. He was in the pasture putting forage in the tractor tire feeders with no stock following the tractor. There weren’t any at the tires he had already filled. The cows were huddled up behind his windbreak, watching but not moving. It’s days like these I am glad we have adaptable and sustainable cattle that are bred to go out and work! Since our annual meeting, the Barzona Breeders Association of America (BBAA) Executive Board has had several meetings to bring the BBAA back toward its original purpose. One item

Hampton Cattle Company Breeding Purebred Barzona since 1973 Fertile Range Cattle Steve Hampton P.O. Box 134 • Kirkland, AZ 86332 (928) 442-3438 was to locate a copy of the association bylaws, which was found after a lot of digging by several current and past mem bers. The board determined that items belonging with the association needed to be brought back to the BBAA. We want to gather and archive everything we can, not only to learn more but to have our past gathered from current day to our inception back in 1968. While looking through the boxes of paperwork “we” have (items the executive secretary was given over time), Alecia and I found out the BBAA used to offer several programs, including embryo transfer, semen certificates and performance pro grams, to the membership. We also found results from studies done by New Mexico State, Texas A&M and past feedlot tests. One interesting thing I noted: In the early 1990s, the BBAA had 8,400 registered purebred stock within the registry, and it had been growing by nearly 500 cattle a year! These are the types of things the board wants to learn about to help continue building our new foundation as we look toward the associa tion’s next 20 years. If you have any items such as meeting min utes, photos, even boxes of stuff from an estate (yes, we had someone send three boxes of items from an old board mem ber), we would love to have copies. Reach out to Alecia or me to expand the BBAA archives for the whole membership and others to enjoy and research from. We should be the experts on Barzona cattle, and the more history and documentation we have, the better we are! Last, Golden Hz Farms and the Charles Fitzgerald family have delivered cattle to Hereford Feedyard for the next round of feedlot tests. As we continue these tests, please consider participating with bulls, steers or heifers from your herd. If you would like cattle to be part of the test but logistical issues prevent your participation, reach out to or your district board member or me. We will find a way to get your cattle included. Any other questions, comments or concerns should be han dled the same way. I encourage you to stay warm during the winter season, and we all strive to be adaptable, sustainable and profitable! BB

Mike & Pat Fitzgerald 130 Fitzgerald Lane, Mosquero, NM 87733 (575) 673-2346 ffcattleco@plateautel.net

Golden Hz Farms Barzona: The breed for busy people These cows take care of themselves!

Breeding Stock Available

Matt & Alecia Heinz 2432 250th St Greenfield, IA 50849 smartace007@yahoo.com (641) 745-9170

Alvin & Karen Havens 2429 Orange Ave. Greenfield, IA 50849

www.barzonas.com

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From Our Association Secretary

By Alecia Heinz, Golden Hz Farms, BBAA Secretary

RULES FOR ADVERTISING REIMBURSEMENT • Current paid full membership (can be paid any time prior to reimbursement) $90. • Must include a receipt and a proof copy of the ad. • It MUST have the association website on it ( www.barzona.org ). • BBAA will reimburse half of the advertising fee, max of $100 annually. Can be done on multiple ads if the maximum is not reached. Contact Alecia Heinz, BBAA executive secretary, at barzonabreeders@gmail.com for more information. Member packets will be in the mail soon, but they will be bigger than usual! If you have not had a membership in a few years and wish to renew, please contact me at barzonabreeders@gmail.com or print a member form off the website. This year’s packets will include a membership form, bylaws, registration rules, semen inventory forms, etc. If you look through the bylaws and rules and want any changes made, please send me a rule change request. Changes must be submitted to the association in writing and postmarked 90 days before the BBAA Annual Meeting. Line strike any item you want to delete, and write purposefully anything you wish to add. It would also help if you wrote a description as to why the change should be made and financial impacts that you anticipate. Don’t forget to sign the bottom! The BBAA Executive Board has been meeting often this year to roll the association forward quickly and effectively. If you H appy New Year to everyone! I hope you have set new goals for 2025 and have plans set up to achieve them! The Barzona Breeders Association of America (BBAA) has new goals for 2025, and we are setting plans into motion. Please note, our official website is NEW! The domain is barzona.org , although barzona.com will still take you to our website.

have any comments or concerns, contact either me or a board member. We wish you the best while cattle prices are strong in 2025! BB

Let’s Get Bull-Season Ready Continued from page 1

Ad Index Bard Cattle Co............................................4 Carmichael Barzonas..................................4 F & F Cattle Company.................................2 Golden Hz Farms........................................2 Hampton Cattle Company..........................2 Raymond Boykin Jr......................................4 In summary, bull purchasing decisions are unique to each herd due to differences in producer-specific production goals and inputs. It’s important to your cattle business to understand bloodlines, breeds and indexes to make informed decisions. Take time today to evaluate whether your current bulls are meeting your criteria of a successful cow herd or if it’s nec essary to make a change. When those bull sale catalog begin arriving, you’ll be better prepared to make informed decisions that align with your long-term goals and operational needs. BB photos to learn more about how their operation goals could align with yours. 3. Consider your budget and return on investment when deciding how much to spend on a herd sire. Your investment in bulls is not only economic-based, it’s an investment in genetic longevity and your future calf per formance. The decision to invest in high-dollar bulls or more affordable options is influenced by your long-term goals and fi nancial capabilities. Whether you have terminal or maternal-fo cused goals, choosing a bull that can maximize profit from your calves will provide the largest return on investment. You can also look at the data, as several cattle breeds have economic selection indexes based on your production system: maternal, terminal and general-purpose. Maternal indexes focus on improving profitability in herds that retain females and sell calves at weaning. Terminal indexes are designed for commercial producers that retain ownership of their calves and market them on a merit-based carcass grid. General-purpose indexes assume that producers retain ownership of some ani mals and keep replacement females.

BARZONA.ORG • WINTER 2025 | 3

Barzona Breeders Association of America P.O. Box 154 Greenfield, IA 50849

PRESORT MKT. US POSTAGE PAID GUNNISON, CO PERMIT #154

If you’d prefer to receive the Barzona Bulletin by email,

please contact Alecia Heinz at

(641) 745-9170 or barzonabreeders@ gmail.com

FOUNDATION HERD BREEDING STOCK Since 1974

Selling bulls private treaty. Yearling bulls available now.

REGISTERED, PUREBRED BARZONA Breeder since 1986

Semen available on a number of older bulls. Females available periodically private treaty. Foster, OK 73434 (217) 649-5616 Bard Cattle Co. Nancy Bard Nunn 18800 E. County Road 1603

Raymond Boykin, Jr. (334) 430-0563 • etheldozierboykin@yahoo.com 8727 Lydia Lane • Montgomery, AL 36117

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