Spring Flood Ranch was established in June 2005, by Jim and Sherri Michaletz, as a commercial cow calf operation. In 2006 we purchased a purebred Gelbvieh Bull, as we had read about what Gelbvieh bulls could do for your herd. We liked him so much that later the same year we started purchasing Gelbvieh females, with the intent on producing Purebred and Balancer cattle for commercial cattlemen. We have enjoyed working with Gelbvieh and have met many new friends in the Gelbvieh breed. We are currently running about 50 head of registered and 30 head of Gelbvieh influenced commercial cattle.
We are located in Southwest Missouri approximately 25 miles South of Joplin. Missouri is big cattle country, and many commercial cattlemen here are coming to realize the benefits of Gelbvieh cattle. We have sold to folks from Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas as well as our state Missouri.
When we started in the Gelbvieh breed we purchased our females from the top seed stock producers in the Midwest. We were very careful utilizing all the tools available to us to build our original herd. We realized to produce what we intended to produce we needed powerful cows that could withstand the harsh environment of an Ozark cattle farm. They need very strong legs and feet to maintain condition in the Rocky pastures and be adapted to feeding on Fescue. Also, heat and drought can wreak havoc on cattle in this country. We stringently cull any cattle that are not strong producers and do not meet the demands of our environment. We match are cows with AI bulls on an individual basis, so we may select what we feel would make the best calf possible out of each and every cow. We realize our clean up bulls are as important as the bulls we utilize in our AI program so we have selected a variety of types to represent our bull battery. From the beginning we have concentrated on lower birth weight calves, (65lbs to 85lbs) and superb calving ease cows. A dead calf is a wasted year for that cow. We also realize what weaning weight means as profit for the commercial cattleman. We target 700lbs to 800lbs at 205 days. Carcass value is very important to us and we have been utilizing the very top sires in the breed to enhance the carcass values of our calves. We all enjoy a tender, juicy steak. We try to pack all this fabulous muscle into a slightly moderate frame package as we have found they work best in this environment. They also eat less which translates into more profit. We calve in the fall and spring so that we always have cattle available to sell. Most sales at this time are Private treaty.
The calves that are out of registered stock are weighed at birth. They are again weighed at weaning. If they do not meet our requirements for size, and conformation, they join the commercial calves and are weaned 30 days, given 2 rounds of Vaccinations, and shipped to town. The calves that meet our expectations are then fed to achieve an ADG of 3 lbs. We do not push them, we raise them as we are keeping them for our selves. They also have DNA samples taken at this time and it is submitted for DNA profile as well as coat color.
As yearlings they are again weighed, bulls are measured for frame and scrotal, females pelvic size. They are evaluated and culled accordingly. We have used ultrasound at times in the past, and will implement that procedure again this fall to give our customers more information to help them decide which animal suits their needs.
