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Harris Riverbend Farms is home to quality Santa Gertrudis

published: December 1st 2006
by: Martha Hollida Garrett

About 20 years ago, David Harris purchased some heavily Santa Gertru-dis influenced females for his growing commercial herd. That group of fe-males impressed him and led him to start a small purebred herd, as well as develop a herd of Star 5 females.
    Today Harris and his family, own and operate Harris Riverbend Farms and Harco Cattle Co. Both programs are located in Somervell and Bosque counties, with headquarters in Glen Rose, Texas.
    “That set of Santa Gertrudis sired females outperformed anything else I had or had tried. I was very impressed. That led me to become a purebred breeder and today we run about 100 registered mom-ma cows and produce somewhere between 150-200 calves by embryo transfer, annually,” explains Harris.
    The weaning weights of the calves out of those Santa Gertrudis influenced female were what really got Harris’ attention.
    “The number one thing at the end of the day is pounds. I believe that with Santa Gertrudis, I wean more pounds in my environment than I could with any other breed. This business is still about pounds,” he stresses.
    The herd is strong in the genetics of the Briggs, Wendt and Cosgrove, herds. In addition, they have utilized the sire Crackerjack heavily, as well as a bull they raised called Brazos.
    Harris has implemented the tools of artificial insemination, embryo transfer, ultrasound, and Gene Star® testing to advance his program.
    Their donor lineup includes about 20-25 superior females. They have the donors flushed and the recipient cows maintained at two or three locations that specializes in this type of work. They get the calves at weaning and develop them from there.
    “We have very strict criteria for the females we place in the donor program. We select them based on phenotype, performance, EPDs, Gene Star® data and overall quality. We have been utilizing embryo transfer for the past five years and are pleased with the volume of quality it allows us to produce. We feel that with the quality of our donors and our sire power, we are producing the cattle needed in today’s market,” says Harris.
   Ultrasound is used on all the calves selected to sell as commercial bulls and/or herd sires, as well as fe-males retained in the herd.
    Harris is also a big believer in new DNA genetic marker tests for tenderness and marbling, GeneStar®. All of their embryo transfer calves are tested at weaning for the traits.
    In addition, their sire power, which includes Chaps 372, Durango 56/3, Stetch 52 and sires such as Wendt 5321, Gridmaker 820 and Ricardo plus a number of young herd sires. Which are all srong in GeneStar ratings.
    “We have a number of sires that carry from six to eight stars for these traits. We feel this tool is just one more way to add genetic improvement to our herd. Plus we feel this information has strong potential for our commercial bull customers. Many of them are now asking for and paying attention to our GeneStar® data,” he explains adding that he feels it has helped expand his commercial base, as it has attracted customers.
    The Harco division, is co-owned with C3 is where the registered and the Star 5 females are developed and the GeneStar® data is heavily used in selection. Star 5 females are those recognized by the Santa Gertrudis Breeders International Association that carry a predominantly Santa Gertrudis influence.
    “I want to stress that we are not single trait minded. We are not just selecting for high markers in GeneStar, but focus on all the tools we have available and strive to select animals that will work for us and our customers across the board,” he emphasizes.
    The program makes a first cull at weaning. Bull calves making the grade are sent to Aztec Feeders in Dimmitt, Texas for a 112 day gain test. They finish this test at about a year of age and ultrasound and scrotal measurements are taken. This group is then culled again and those that will make commercial bulls are brought back to the headquarters.
    The heifers are also culled at weaning and yearling and are developed on grass pastures at the ranches.
    While some bulls and females are sold by private treaty, the majority are marketed through the Santa Roundup Sale in the Spring and the TriStar Sale in the fall. In addition, Harris markets groups of high quality Star 5 females in these two sales, as well.
    This coming year a group of bred heifers will also sell in the Bluebonnet Santa Gertrudis Sale.
    “We’re working to really build our Star 5 numbers and are moving some of our purebred heifers into this program to strengthen our production nucleus. The Star 5’s are very popular and cowmen tell us that the biggest drawback with them is that there are not enough of them and they want to buy them in larger quantities. They offer the commercial industry a strong maternal factory and they have the versatility to work with Hereford, Red Angus, Angus, Charolais as well as a number of breeds to produce calves just right for the industry,” says Harris.
    Harris is an active member of SGBI as well as the satellite associations, Mid-Coast and Premier. In addition, the ranch is a member of the Texas Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and Texas Cattle Feeders Association.