Santa_Gertrudis_World_Congress_2019

WORLD CONGRESS 4-19 OCTOBER | GROWING GLOBALLY USA Santa Gertrudis 2019

 Ranch Host Profiles 

Quail Valley Farms Blountsville, Alabama

Tinney Farms is also a proud founding member of the Tinney Farms Gain Test. Tinney Farms Manager Arlin Taylor played a key role in organizing the bull data collection program focused on serving Santa Gertrudis Breeders International (SGBI) members in the Southeast. Today, participation in the program includes SGBI members from across the country, and the program is designed to grow demand for Santa Gertrudis bulls nationwide. Grandview Farms Haleyville, Alabama Delmo and Wilmuth Payne, Owners delmo.payne@gmail.com In 1983, Delmo Payne purchased a herd of Santa Gertrudis cattle from Anne Upchurch of Grey Rocks Ranch and started Grandview Farms. Over time, he purchased four different ranch locations in which his herd grew to 300 cows – 200 purebred and 100 commercial and recipient cows. Payne sells about 70 percent of his progeny to seedstock producers and 30 percent to commercial producers. Improving the genetics and expected progeny differences (EPDs) of his cattle has been one of Payne’s goals. With the help of his ranch manager, Brent Shaw, and herdsman, Seth Holmes, he has been using artificial insemination for many years and started embryo transfer over the last few years. More recently, Payne has found in-vitro fertilization technology to work well. Traits in the Santa Gertrudis breed that Payne is breeding for are low birthweight bulls, good weaning and yearling weights, total maternal traits from the female and high marbling numbers for terminal animals. Grandview Farms places a great deal of emphasis on quality characteristics like natural muscling and structural correctness. Breeding for these traits has paid off, as Grandview Farms has produced many show winners, including multiple national champions. Located in northwest Alabama, Grandview Farms borders Mississippi, an area not considered to be a big cattle county because a large percentage of the county is woodland. With an average 59 inches of annual rainfall and the best deep soils in the county in these river bottom areas, they are in an environment very conducive to growing grass.  

Ricky Cleveland, Owner • ricky@xcelmasonry.com Over the course of the last four years, Quail Valley Farms has worked to integrate reproductive technologies through its embryo program to push the boundaries of the Santa Gertrudis breed. The Blountsville, Ala., operation started in 2015 with 10 Santa Gertrudis cows. Today, the purebred operation has grown to more than 700 head. A strong embryo program has been a priority for Quail Valley Farms since the start. Currently, they run 300 recipient cows and, last year, they put in approximately 700 embryos. Owner Ricky Cleveland and his team have goals to grow to 1,000 head of purebred cattle, utilizing 100 percent artificial insemination. Located among the rolling hills of northern Alabama, the operation’s forage base is native fescue with some improved pastures on rye grass, clovers and legumes. The annual rainfall varies from 55 to 60 inches per year, and the annual temperatures range from the mid-to-high 90s in the summer to lows around the 30s in the winter. Summers are hot and humid and winters are cool and wet. Tinney Farms Hanceville, Alabama Arlin Taylor, Manager • arlin.taylor@bhamfast.com Tinney Farms was established in 1980 by the late Howard Tinney, who passed away in 2013. Tinney’s quest to put together an outstanding group of cattle to establish the Tinney Farms cow herd took him all over the Southeast; he even expanded his search into Texas. Tinney believed the show ring could be used as a great marketing tool and, since 1992, Tinney Farms has had 12 national champion Santa Gertrudis bulls and females. But the success doesn’t stop there. The operation has also had multiple winners in various gain tests, and won ranch- to-rail awards for highest average daily gain and feed efficiency. Commercial breeders throughout the Southeast depend on Tinney Farms for Santa Gertrudis bulls and females as the building blocks for their crossbred herds and STAR 5 programs.

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GROWING GLOBALLY • Santa Gertrudis World Congress 2019