McAnelly Ranch/ Brush Country Angus 11/8/12

Rick and Deborah Machen kindly took Leah and I out to meet with Phil & Linda McAnelly who live at Yancey, Texas. Phil and Linda are fifth generation ranchers, who raises their angus herd on the same ranch their family has owned since 1883. Their cattle are sold through the Grassfed Livestock Alliance who provides a fair, sustainable market for family-owned and operated ranches. All members must adhere to holistic, environmentally focused land management techniques and compassionate animal handling standards. Cattle are born and raised on pasture without use of antibiotics, growth hormones, animal by-products or ionophores. The McAnnelly Ranch have a 20 inch rainfall, who usually run approximately 1000 head of angus cattle, however with the current drought they are experiencing their numbers have fallen to approximately 400 head. Phil gave me a great run down of bull selection methods he uses by recording attributes such as eye muscle area growth over certain periods of growth times in the animal's life, dna testing for feeding efficiency and most importantly personally knowing and trusting the stud's history of their genetics. Phil mates his heifers at between 12 to 14 months of age and mates his breeder cows all year round as his weather patterns are not predictable. As Phil told me, a cattle breeder should never stop learning and always have an open mind!!