"There are no solutions. There are only tradeoffs." -Thomas Sowell
For most people, their only regrets in life revolve around consequences of decisions made years prior - sometimes decades ago. At the time, many of those choices had obvious benefits. Whether it was short term monetary gain, pleasure, notoriety, or what were thought to be satisfying solutions to problems.
Unfortunately, ALL decisions have consequences and these consequences are what we consider to be tradeoffs. Most folks have enough intelligence to observe basic benefits and drawbacks to a given solution, but they struggle with weighing those tradeoffs and having the foresight to see the long-term repercussions. The result is either making the wrong decision, or arguably worse, an inability to make any decision at all, known as the “Ready-aim-aim-aim-aim” syndrome, as quoted by T. Boone Pickens. Both, can carry repercussions for years to come.
In the cattle business, tradeoffs are front and center at most of our decisions. Do I breed to this sire for incredible growth while knowing he tends to produce bad footed and uddered females? Or maybe it's the opposite, do you use a sire that cranks out beautiful females that are hardy, fleshy, and calf-raisin son-of-a-guns, BUT he'll suck the growth and carcass right out of your lines? Then there's the proclaimed "do it all bulls" because "look at their EPDs!" that show growth, carcass, good feet, etc and dang do they look nice on sale day. You turn them out in the pasture and a month later they look like a dog. Were they overfed early on or was it genetics? Was it both? Then, you see their progeny which maybe do have good growth and foot quality, but they are gangly hard doing things that just don't perform in the real world environment. Sound familiar?
There's a lot of buzz words going around in the industry that are used by seedstock producers as marketing ploys either intentionally or ignorantly to convince the commercial cattleman that their genetic solution is the only solution to avoid tradeoffs. "Balanced," "Maternal," "Curve-Bender," and many more. What do these things actually mean for you? Are they legitimate? The "balanced" phrase is probably the most amusing to me, and is often used as a marketing front by breeders that produce cattle with near zero performance (ie., no growth or carcass). They talk about "nature," "grass," that they don't "single trait select," (but who does?) and other hippy gibberish that sounds pretty darn convincing but is usually just.......yes you guessed it, marketing. I can tell you, we've bought entire "proof of concept" herds over the years from around the country, from every flavor of breeder, and put them to test in what I call VICCI's "Proving Grounds" near Gracemont Oklahoma. This is some of the most rugged country in Western Oklahoma, soil so sandy you want to grab an umbrella and a Corona, except there's no beach to speak of, let alone much water. The topography is brutally rugged with pronounced elevation changes going from sloped to vertical along massive red iron sandstone bluffs that soar above drainage valleys. Over 60% of our pastures are timber, ridgetop, and exposed rock. Sandburs spread like wildfire and often seem to suffocate the bermuda we do have. Sometimes I wonder why we raise cattle out here, but it's the land we have and we are a resilient stubborn people. Maybe the saving grace is the majestic beauty of the place and the fact that we have found cattle that both thrive and truly perform here. They aren't thriving because they are "grass" based genetics, or are "maternal", or "balanced", "carcass kings" or "curve benders." They thrive because they are excellent quality cattle crafted from the ground up, using genetic building blocks sourced from around the globe.
When we assembled this herd, we ignored their brand and marketing. Instead, we had a strict set of genotypical and phenotypical criteria. If they were missing any piece we deemed as crucial to the commercial cattleman, they were passed over. Using the entire angus database, we amassed a war chest of donor cows that we believe are the top 1% of 1% of animals in the breed. Animals with quality feet, udders, soundness, fleshing ability paired with both real world and on paper growth, and carcass, punctuated by elite efficiency. Most are Pathfinders, but all have proven above average calf raising abilities. We weren't going to risk developing this herd from untested females, or animals with incredible EPDs that hadn't proved it. Nor were not going to build it around animals who's only ability was "survival." They had to perform. They have to do more with less. Our sire list was assembled with equal selection pressure.
Outside of ranching, I have a science background with an obsession of all things statistics and genetics. I can assure my fellow "number" guys, this herd will blow your socks off simply by the rarity of traits assembled in a set of individual animals. What makes them truly special though is that they pair elite performance with donor quality phenotypes wrapped in functional soundness. Oh and they do all this on grass and mineral alone. No creep feed or supplement here. These animals are not perfect. My ranch VP Lindsey and I could nit-pick all day, about what we intend to improve in subsequent generations. Some hair shed here, a bit more growth there, a little tighter udder here, a smidge more or less milk over yonder. It's never ending. In the oil business, an often used phrase is "you can't fall in love with your own prospect." In the retriever breeding world, they describe it as "kennel blindness - a "disease" powerful enough to destroy any breeding program." I am certain, we are the most critical and ruthless when it comes to assessing our own cattle. We have to be. We don't want you to drink the kool-aide. Our customers should have higher standards for our animals and hold us to them. That's why VICCI has implemented one of the most robust bull guarantee's on the market. Additionally, to put our money where our mouth is, VICCI is building the most extensive data reporting program in existence covering weights, hair shed, claw/angle scores, udder scores, scrotal measurements, carcass scans, body condition scores, genetic fly resistance in partnership with the University of Georgia (more to come on that) and arguably most importantly, feed efficiency testing through our recent investment in a C-Lock's SmartFeed system. You can have it all, and we've set out to prove it.
Our brand, VICCI pronounced (vee-chee), is a Latin name meaning "victory," similar to the better known Latin verb "VICI" (also pronounced vee-chee) which means "victory" or "to conquer" as used famously by Julius Caesar after winning a battle in Asian Minor (present day Turkey). Well folks, in classic Okie fashion, this state has already conquered the word "VICI" and decided to name a city after it, but we didn't stop there. We correctly thought to ourselves, "to hell with the Romans, it should be pronounced "vigh-sigh." I'm no English teacher and certainly am not one to argue with well established practical Okie language strategies. So, to avoid any confusion we wisely named ourselves VICCI. Did it work? Of course not! Look folks, we don't care what you call us, as long as you remember, "VICCI is The Name to Know in Angus"......PS now that is what you call marketing.
Over the coming months, we intend to share more about what we believe makes our program special. Yes we will sell, market, and promote with the best of them. The difference is we'll work tirelessly to prove it. All done in a real world environment. That's why our motto is "NEVER SACRIFICE," because we don't believe the American rancher has to anymore.
We look forward to you joining us each Monday morning for our weekly newsletter filled with cattle facts, funnies, history, and more. Often, we will invite guest subject matter experts to write on pertinent topics we believe to be of interest to the commercial cattleman. Our ranch is an open book, feel free to call us and arrange a visit, or just pull into VICCI headquarters and say hello.
Josh M.A. Bedell
Owner & President
VICCI Cattle Co.
Elite registered angus genetics. Bred without sacrifice, developed with your profitability as our obsession. There is no question, you CAN have MORE-QUALITY-POUNDS-EFFICIENTLY wrapped in an attractive and truly maternal package. NEVER SACRIFICE. #VICCI
Comentarios