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Josephson Angus - The
Cow Herd
Through over
50 years of selection and improvement, the Josephson Angus cow herd has been
the backbone of our quality seedstock operation. The first registered
Angus bull was purchased in 1914 to use on my grandfather's commercial herd.
In 1949, the first registered Angus heifer was purchased to start my father
Raymond Josephson's registered herd. Since that time, the herd has
undergone intense selection, resulting in the good, productive Angus females
we have in our herd today. Starting with the first performance-tested
Angus bull purchased from Dale Davis and the Rolling Rock Angus herd in
Montana, followed by extensive early use of A.I. breeding, the quality and
performance of the Josephson Angus cow herd has improved with time.
Quality
runs deep in a number of established cow families in the Josephson herd.
Cow families such as Josephson Primrose, Josephson Blackbird, Josephson
Pride, Josephson Blackcap, Josephson Erica and Josephson Princess provide
the factory to produce top quality bulls and females that are offered for
sale each year.
Over the years, attention has been paid to
structural soundness and correctness, femininity, sound udders, quiet
dispositions, adequate muscling, milking ability, calving ease, carcass
quality, growth and performance. Constant culling has resulted in
the problem-free type of cattle that everyone likes to own.
Although our target customer for Josephson Angus is
the commercial bull buyer, we have sold cattle that have been successful in
the show ring as well. Josephson Primrose J801 was sold as a heifer
calf in the North Dakota Select Sale to Mitch Becker and went on to become
the "Winningest female in North Dakota" after compiling many grand
champion and supreme champion honors. Show heifers have also been sold
into Iowa and Ohio.
I like to tell the story of a bred heifer I
purchased from another Angus breeder. She was a little hard to handle
in the chute, but she produced a heifer calf that I kept back for
replacement. Her next calf was also a heifer and I noticed that all
three of these animals were harder to handle and had poor dispositions
compared to our cows. That fall I made the decisions to sell all three
of them based on their disposition alone. I have found that life is
much easier when you select for good disposition in your cow herd.
Our
main emphasis, however, is to raise productive females through our program
of estrus synchronization and A.I. breeding to some of the top A.I. sires available. EPD selection is for balanced
traits including low to moderate birth weight EPD's, solid growth and milk
EPD's and excellent carcass potential.
We invite you to give us a call and stop in to see
our cattle. The coffee pot is always on and we would be happy to give
you a tour.
-Kirby Josephson |
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