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COTTON BRANCH PLANTATION CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

“Some have this negative picture of what a Santa Gertru- dis bull used to look like and perform, but the cattle aren’t like that anymore,” Cowart says. “People are starting to see these bulls work really well.” Fifteen years ago, the Cotton Branch Plantation made a turn for the better in producing quality Santa Gertrudis cattle. “The commercial bull buyers now come in and look at the bulls, and they say, ‘I didn’t know these cattle have gotten this good,’” Herring says. “At one point, the animals were too big and soft sided, [and] lacked muscle. Now, just look at the volume, depth of body and amount of meat each one carries.” For the Cotton Branch Plantation’s future pl ns, they aim to cap the herd at around 250-300 cows. SGBI Membership One of the areas Cowart and Herring hope to assist SGBI with is increasing the association’s membership. “What’s so exciting about having this outside demand of commercial producers is they might consider making half of their herd Santa Gertrudis, thus increasing the membership retention for SGBI,” Herring says. “The more members you have, the more it keeps the breed strong and growing for the future,” Cowart says. Since being elected to the SGBI Board, Cowart has been able to watch the association grow over time. “The association is doing well. Membership is up compared to this time last year,” Cowart says. “It’s been going in that direction and we want to keep it going.” SGBI’s vision is to provide superior member service, actively seek and use partnerships to leverage success,

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and maintain a focus on profitability for members and their customer . “I think SGBI is really a leader in the cattle industry, and several benefits we’ll get from that is through all of the ultra- sound and DNA data the association is receiving,” Herring says. “Data drives everything.” SGBI’s dependable DNA-verified genetic evaluation allows cattlemen to make sound selection decisions, pinpoint- ing animals that will perform regardless of environmental conditions. Santa Gertrudis offer heterosis for reproductive efficiency, longevity and forage adaptability. “The ability to look at genetics and the performance of the genetics is going to improve the quality of the animal more and more as time goes on,” Herring says. “That’s necessary to remain a viable breed.” Planning for the Future “We will start having an annual Cotton Branch Planta- tion sale within the next one to three years, once we get our CONTINUED ON PAGE 20 

∆ank You Th

TO ALL OUR BUYERS!

Thanks to repeat customer Aaron Duke, Fulshear, TX,

on his recent purchase of four of our heifers!

We also want to thank– Mike Dick, Joe Smallwood and Adelyn Bronikowski for their recent purchases of our heifers Bluebonnet Classic Sale buyers: Wunderlich Farms, Solomon Butler and Hunter Swoope Semen buyers: Townsend Cattle, B Square Ranch, Tate Peppercorn and James Trant

Woman Hollerin Ranch H l Ricky & Betty McCormick 1211 Peach Ridge Road • Brookshire, TX 77423 Home: (281) 375-6861 • Cell: (281) 797-6355 www.womanhollerinranch.com

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SANTA GERTRUDIS USA