Udy Angus Plus

03/11/2025

If your bull budget is between $4700 and $6500 and ya want to move your cow herd forward in fertility and longevity and not just buy a bull you can afford, then give me a call.

That price range given the many many sales will get you a bull born in 3rd or 4th cycle of majority of seedstock that have nothing in common with your low input environment and range. That bull born 3rd and 4th cycle has infertility written all over it.

Furthermore ya might think based on growth numbers he was a steal!! That bulls numbers are good because his adjusted weaning weight which a March calf has a better WDA; weight per day of age, thus the reason I advocate March calving. You don't sale your calves on adjusted 205 weight.

What makes Udy angus plus different? I take the hit on pounds weaned per cow exposed so you don't have to.

How?? All buĺls developed the cow had 30 days to get bred. All bulls were born unassisted and unwatched. Which assures they are out of bulls that have good udders. Cows had to be good mothers. No locking them up in a 16x 16 pen take sure they mother and suck.

The heifers are developed so only the fertile ones breed. 30 day breeding developed to gain 1.5 lbs a day. We only want 80% to breed.

60% of the bulls are out of 7 year and older cows

03/11/2025

Average cow-calf cost of production in 2025 estimates are $1,064 per cow, or $2.91 per head per day, down slightly from the previous year.

Source : Livestock Marketing Information Center

02/08/2025

Poor Dallas fans every year at this time they have to think back 35 years ago

Super Bowl champion Danny White…. 🇺🇸⭐️🏈

02/08/2025

Many ask about sending information on our bulls.

I can do that, yet the more I thought about it, it's more about our management and goals than it is about individual bulls.

If I could describe our goal in three words. It would be Elbon Cereal Rye.

ELBON rye was developed by the Noble Foundation in 1956. ELBON IS noble spelled backwards.

The rye has stood the test of time. Still used more than any variety of rye.

What's that got to do with cattle? Elbon can be grown just about anywhere. Has the unique ability to glean from the soil what it needs without adding expensive inputs.

It produces much forage with very little inputs.

Same with our cattle. We expect performance and seek those genetics that will thrive on what they are given. No expensive vita ferm concept-aid, alfalfa, multi min,vaccines, minerals and especially labor.

When we first started planting triticale over alfalfa I was told by many many that conception rate would go down. It didn't go down nor did body condition score.

When we planted cereal rye was told if I didn't cut it in boot stage it wouldn't work. Cattle wouldn't eat it. Not only do they eat it, it's 75% of their diet.

We feed 16 lbs per head alfalfa every 4 days or 4 lbs per head beginning 20 days prior to calving. It's used for one thing. A cheap protein source to keep the rumen functioning to utilize poor quality hay/forage.
9
So what does elbon rye do. Produces 4 ton of hay with 25% of water of alfalfa and 30% of the fertilizer required for alfalfa.

This is the same philosophy of our cattle. We want cows bred and wean a good sized calf without us altering or having to supplement what is available.

Heifers are expected to breed in a 28 day breeding season gaining 1.3 to 1.5 adg from weaning to breeding.

Currently I just bred heifers 10.5 to 11 months old that cycled on this type of management. 2 and 3 years old breed 100% last 4 years. I know this is where most of you run into issues.

Our goal is to develop performance with longevity. 60% of our bulls are out of 7 plus year old cows. 25% are out of 9 plus old cows.

Our philosophy is reducing your input cost by 2% will improve profits more than a 3% increase in weaning weight. Increasing lbs per cow exposed not weaning weight is what separates profit from non profit.

All sires used have to have one thing we won't compromise on. Vigor!! One of the reasons we don't use young AI sires. He can check all the boxes but if calves don't have lots of vigor at birth, we won't use him.

No bull born 30 days into breeding season is kept as a bull. Any cow with bad udders or feet can't have a bull or replacement heifer.

Bulls have to ratio at least 98%. Bulls have to gain on a ration designed for a 2.9 LB adg.

We want muscle easy fleshing sound bulls. THESE ARE NOT FRAME 3 OR 4 BUĹLS. BUT we do all of this with a goal of a 1300 LB cow.

06/01/2024

“𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛 $300,000 𝚒𝚗 𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛,” 𝙲𝚊𝚜𝚎𝚢 𝙶𝚛𝚒𝚏𝚏𝚒𝚝𝚑, 𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚋𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚛, 𝚜𝚊𝚒𝚍.

Cattle on Colorado Forest Service permit were stolen. Read all about it here 👇

https://bit.ly/4e0WsI2

📷 Terra Ochsner

03/04/2024

If your trying to reach me by phone, I lost my phone somewhere doing calving stuff could be in the 10 inches of snow i have no idea. Maybe I will find it this spring. Phone was messed up for 6 months and I dealt with it but I did order a new one last Wednesday will be here Tuesday. The new 2 day prime amazon now that USPS is taking over means 4 day and ya gotta to check because in 12 hours they may change their mind and make it Wednesday delivery.

02/27/2024

After looking at over 3000 bull videos to look for possible AI sires looking at feet tailhead overall phenotype and looking at what each bull brought dollar wise; I promise you will get more value for your dollar right here at Udy Angus Plus.

01/19/2024

Bulls are coming along great. We weaned them mid September and did something different this year. We turned them out to rye and they grazed on the rye for 60 days before coming into the feedlot. We are trying to develop them for longevity.

What makes us unique?

1. Our heifers are fed to only gain 1.5 to 1.7 lbs from weaning to breeding. and then have 28 days to get bred. We want to find the ones that can get bred without the inputs and it translates into only keeping as replacement breds the ones that can handle not being pampered. They breed 80 to 85% as yearlings and last 4 years our wet 2s have bred 100% and wet 3s have bred 100%.

2. Our bred heifers run with our mature cows. They are fed along with the mature cows prior to calving and after calving.

3. 25% of our cowherd is made up of cows 9 years and older. We have several that are 11 and 12. We know that it is difficult to make a profit if cows are falling out before age 7. The 9 to 13 year olds are expected to perform. We don't keep them if they have subpar performance.

3 All the bulls in the offering are only the bulls that calve in the first 35 days of the breeding season. Furthermore we find any possible reason to cull. We generally will only develop 65% to 70% of the bulls produced.

3. All bulls are DNA tested for 15 economical traits.

4. All bulls are being tested for Bovine Congestive Heart Failure. Simplot Land and Livestock are finding 5% of the cattle fed in their feedlot in Idaho have this problem. To help you avoid this and to market your calves, we are testing every bull. We will also provide blood cards and if you can collect the blood, we will pay to have any bull you have purchased from Udy Angus Plus in the last 2 years free of charge. Moving forward, we will send a sample of any bull we use through artificial insemination to the lab before we use the bull. If we do purchase an outside bull, we won't buy one unless he has been tested. It is more of an Angus problem and the Angus Association in my opinion is dragging their feet.

5. Our cows are not pampered. They are fed 60 to 70% triticale or rye hay put up in soft dough stage and are fed on average 8 to 10 lbs alfalfa thru the feeding season.

6. The average weight of our mature seedstock cows is 1365 lbs. We have found just as Oklahoma State University that mature size needs to be held down. They found that for every 100 lbs over 1200 lbs, it only added 4 lbs of weaning weight. Another 100 lbs of mature size for 4 lbs is hardly economical.

7. Heterosis. We believe in it and it works. 75% of the bulls will be Simangus. We have found that 1/4 to 1/2 is all we want. We also have many what we call the UDY Super Baldy. This is a 1/4 to 3/8 hereford, 1/4 to 3/8 Simmental and 1/4 to 1/2 Angus.

8. All bulls are tested to determine if they carry the red gene. So when ya buy a black bull you know. Many of you run in Associations that do not allow Black Red Carriers.

9. Bulls are priced reasonable. No pressure. No ringman, No Bu****it.

02/14/2023

02/07/2023

DNA is just approximately 3 weeks from being processed. Some ask why we use AgBoost DNA test over the Angus GS test.

1. AgBoost is a 3rd party. No affiliation to any Breed. I believe this makes the data more honest and reliable.
2. We own the DNA not the Angus assocation
3. AgBoost is not breed specific. This is very important since we are producing many breeds. For example, you can compare the results whether the bull is Red Angus, Angus, Simangus, or Simangus X Hereford.
4. Along with #3, this allows you to know the genetic merit of a crossbred bull; such as Simangus as we know phenotypically there will be some heterosis in regards to Weaning Weight, Yearling Weight. EPDs try to account for heterosis but it can be difficult to do. Well and ya all know what I think of breed based EPDs. Marketing tool more so than a true representation of genetic merit. The Ag Boost scores are ranking that animal with all animals in the data base whether it is Angus, Charolais, Simmental or any other breed. So if you are trying to make progress with a certain trait, then you can make better selection between animals even if they are of different breed types.
5. AgBoost measures 3 economical relevant traits not available in Angus GS test. Those 3 are: Residual Feed Intake, Stayability, and ADG. It also tests for BW, WW, YW, Docility, Milk, Heifer pregnancy, Tenderness, Calving Ease Direct, Calving Ease Maternal, Hot Carcass Weight and Fat.
6. Not specific to AgBoost, but all black bulls with any Red gene 4 generations back will be tested for the Red Gene. I realize this is very important to many of you, especially those who have grazing permits with rules against any Red or Black Red Carrier bulls.

AgBoost test is slightly more than the GS test, but given the reasons outlined above; especially that we own DNA, 3rd party, comparing animals of different breeds and especially knowing or eliminating the heterosis effect in crossbred bulls.

If you have questions; please don´t hesitate to contact me. We are striving to provide you real genetic merit in the most economical traits.

01/11/2023

Intelligent first calf heifer. This had to be the best spot for her to calf

01/11/2023

Bull sale season in full swing. Many of you will be getting sale catalogues. If you are like me, they really don´t tell me much. The date, number of bulls, time, and lunch and sires they used. As if everything hinged on the sire. One thing I always look for is what is their goals or breeding philosopy. Many times all I hear is that we AI to the best bulls in the breed. Okay well everyone that AI thinks they are doing that.

We have chose to sale private treaty and the main reason is so we can one on one discuss our entire program. You will hear me talk about cows and our management style. Here are a few points.

1. We are a low cost seedstock operation. We run our cows with the lowest inputs possible. What does that mean?
A. We feed hay the fewest days possible.
B. When we feed hay; they are limited to no more than 8 lbs of alfalfa per day on average thru the feeding period
C. We feed mostly Triticale Hay and on average cows will be fed 5 lbs of Bean or Wheat straw.
D. Very limited vaccination program to the cows. We are trying to find the cows that have natural immunity. Bulls will be fully vaccinated however to assure they will be healthy and work in your management and environment.
E. Bulls are developed on a mostly forage based diet. This to assure longevity and at the same time enough corn to find those that have feed efficiency and have the DNA to provide feeder cattle that the feedlot will want.
F. Heifers are developed to gain 1.3 to 1.5 lbs per day from weaning to breeding. Heifers are exposed to two chance AI or a 21 to 25 day breeding season. Our goal is to achieve a 75% to 80% conception rate. That may seem odd, but we want to keep only those who have fertility built in not fed in.
G. We are striving to produce females that will last 12 to 14 years. The average Angus purebred cow is falling out before age 7. You don´t hear this discussed with most seedstock providers. The key to low cost production is simple really. Reduce the number of replacement heifers you have to retain to replace the culls. Translation: you sale more heifers and thus more pounds.

These are just a few of the things we are doing. Stay tune for part 2.