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Whitetail Ranch’s Braunvieh program in one of the largest in the United States

published: May 17th 2002
by: Martha Hollida Garrett

Whitetail Ranch, Athens, Texas is home to one of the largest Braun-vieh programs in the United States. Their attention to genetics, marketing, customer service and advanced technology has  placed the program at the forefront of the breed and the  beef industry.

Owner, Kip Estep and manager, Roger Mc-Dowall, are very committed to their program and it’s role in the beef business.

Whitetail Ranch’s Braunvieh program was started in 1994, by Estep’s dad, Earl. Prior to that, he ran commercial Brangus cows and a dental practice in Athens. Kip bought him out a few years ago, but Earl is still very involved with the directions and goals of the ranch.

For two years, Earl researched the beef industry, studied the various breeds and their attributes. He made it a point to at-tend the National Western Livestock Show in Denver to compare breeds. He took notes and he went straight to cattlemen to talk to them about their chosen breed.

It was in Denver, where he became acquainted and impressed with Braunvieh cattle.

“Earl saw an opportunity with Braunvieh. He realized the potential the breed possessed and realized there needed to be more of them,” explains McDowall, who joined the Esteps in 1997 and has worked in the purebred business all his life.

They made their initial purchase in late 1994 and traveled all over the nation, buying the best Braunviehs available. They also purchased the senior herd sire, Vernon, early in the program. Vernon is one of, if not the most popular, herd sire in the breed.

Their program has gained acceptance throughout the US and beyond. They have bulls working across Texas and in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Okla-homa, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia and Virginia.  They also have sent cattle/embryos/semen to Mexico, Central and South America and Australia.

“We send the bulls, a lot of times, sight unseen. We guarantee you’ll like them and we can proudly say at this point, we have never had one come back to the ranch,” stresses McDowall

They also provide options to their customers for the sale of their halfblood Braunvieh calves .

“Because of the performance of Braunvieh sired calves in the feedlot, we now have anywhere from 5-10 different buyers at any one time for our genetics and we work with our customers to be involved in their marketing,” says McDowall.

Also the Whitetail program has dominated showrings as trophies, banners and plaques fill the office walls.  They exhibit at Denver, Ft. Worth, Houston and Louisville primarily and have a number of junior customers showing their genetics.

“We have been very successful in the highly competitive Texas junior show circles. Our genetics have won the grand once and reserve grand, twice since San Antonio started a Braunvieh show three years ago. We also saw our junior customer Matt Clark, Van, Texas take the reserve grand honor at last year’s National Junior Show. His little, brother, Chase, was able to win the $6,000 scholarship with his Whitetail heifer at San Antonio this year.

Today, Whitetail runs about 150 registered Braunvieh females, including 20-30 donors. They are also developing a purebred homozygous black Braunvieh herd. The cornerstone for this is a black homozygous bull,  called Final Answer. He was out of a first calf heifer and had a 905 pound weaning weight, which according to McDowall is outrageously good in the  breed and posted a 1,378 pound yearling weight. They are very excited about the future he holds for their program and the breed.

They also run 600 commercial cows. This commercial base female is a 1/2 Angus and 1/2 Simmental or 3/4 Angus x 1/4 Simmental cross. These  are being bred back to Braunviehs primarily to develop a Whitetail composite. A select number of these crosses are also being bred to steer bulls to develop a show steer market.

They initially put a egg in these crosses and use them as a recip, then they are used to develop the composite.

“We’re developing a composite that is 1/2 Braunvieh, 3/8ths Angus and 1/8th Simmental. We purchased our Sim-Angus from the performance herd of Nichols Farms in Iowa. Our goal is to sell 300 composite females annually and market 250-300 bull calves. The top end will go as herd sires or show steers, then we’ll send the rest to the feedlot,” says McDowall.

The cross has everything the industry needs, according to McDowall.

“Our composite will offer cattlemen growth, milk, marbling and carcass,” he emphasizes.

They cull heavily and maintain very strict requirements for phenotype, birth, weaning and yearling weights, plus cull on ultrasound information to assure high performance in their cattle.

In addition to Earl and Kip’s business sense, their attention to detail and Roger’s cattle knowledge the trio has relied heavily on technology to advance their program and reach their goals.

An aggressive AI and embryo transfer program has allowed them to multiply superior genetics and utilize only the best the breed has to offer.

“We have also become involved with Dr. Looney of Ovagenix, in Bryan, Texas. He has a nine day synchronization program that has really allowed us to maximize our resources, time and labor and get cows bred efficiently.  He also does our embryo work and our success rates are consistently very high,” says McDowall.

McDowall goes on to say they routinely get 90 percent heats with this program and in their embryo transfer section they are running at a 62 percent conception rate on fresh transfers and between 50-55 percent on frozen.

“For instance, we just had one set of 35 recips cows that we synchronized. We caught 31 in heat and put in 28 eggs. We have days like that routinely and that’s a big plus for us,”  he stresses.

McDowall says Dr. Looney has taken their reproduction program and fine tuned it.

“The shot system with the vaginal inserts has greatly increased our pregnancy rates  in our ET program. He knows what’s going on with our cows, how many eggs to expect. And maybe most importantly, Dr. Looney is out to make sure he’s doing all he can do to make our program a success, reproductively and he’s always considering new ways to improve the program and help us develop markets,” says McDowall.

Whitetail primarily markets their cattle by private treaty, although they have held a production sale and occasionally consign to select sales.

They also value their customers and feel that customer service should be and is one of their highest priorities. They follow up on their sales, they develop informational pieces to assist customers and potential customers and McDowall can almost always be found ring side offering assistance to their growing junior customer base.

They enjoy visitors and the opportunity to show their Braunvieh and Braunvieh cross cattle to interested cowmen.

Whitetail brings an enthusiastic approach to the beef business. Their motto, “Where Quality, Performance and Customer Satisfaction are all equal,” preceeds their decisions. They have mapped out a course for their program and clearly see the Braunvieh breed as a major contributor to the beef industry.