Today is day six of our
summer ag tour. We visited Little Creek Cattle in Starkville, Mississippi. This
cattle ranch is beef and beef only! They raise Fleckvieh Simmental cattle. This
family has been raising cattle for 22 years. Mrs. Nikki talked to us about the
cattle and taught us a lot. She told us that she has annual auction sale every
October. They also ship cattle to Canada and Mexico. In addition to raising and
selling cattle they also do embryo transfer work.
When she started talking
about breeding, she explained that before they do any breeding, they do
research. They do this so they will know whether that cow will be good to use
for their program. They use A.I., which is artificial insemination or embryo
transfer when breeding. To learn more about this check this link out.
They have many groups of
cattle, so they put heat detection patches on each of the cows. They use orange colored scratch off patches
because it is more noticeable on their cattle. If you want to tell the genders apart,
you could just look at the ear tag. The males have them on the left and females
have them on the right.
But let's talk about what
she feeds them. She feeds them a mineral-based feed. The feed is pelleted or
textured. Their feeding protocol is a little different than the other places we
have visited. They get 4 pounds per head per day.
It was really cool seeing
all the beautiful, gentle animals that the Gress family are raising. We
appreciate their hospitality.
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