By Cheryl Kepes
Photos courtesy Sierra Ranches
Sierra Ranches consistently looks for new avenues to strengthen and sustain its operations.
Sierra Ranches calls the heart of California home. Surrounded by fertile farmland, lush hills, and expansive valley floors, Sierra Ranches’ business operations are as diverse as the environment in which they thrive. Tim and Kara Coleman and their family have spent decades building purebred and commercial cattle operations, as well as cultivating walnut, almond, and wine grape crops in Modesto, Calif.
Sierra Ranches operates purebred Angus and Hereford herds as well as a commercial herd focused on producing black baldie calves. Though each segment of the cattle operation excels on its own, Sierra Ranches’ cattle herds work in harmony to achieve greater success.
“The practicality of operating a cow/calf operation has allowed Sierra Ranches to breed our purebred herds with the commercial cattleman’s interest at heart. Our emphasis over the last several years in particular has predominately been focusing on birthweights, weaning weights, and CHB$,” Tim Coleman said.
Sierra Ranches’ History
Tim grew up on his family’s purebred Angus operation - Vintage Angus Ranch in Modesto, Calif. He started Sierra Ranches in 1994 with an emphasis on building a commercial cow/calf program. In 1998, Tim and Kara got married and started managing the operation together.
Though they have had ranch employees through the years, the Colemans now run the operation with the help of their son, Tyler, and their cowman, Treyton Baker. They also utilize local cowboys for additional day help.
The Colemans’ daughter, Kathryn, helps at the ranch when she has a break from her international agriculture business studies at Oklahoma State University. Both Tyler and Kathryn have worked through the years to achieve success on a national level through showing Sierra Ranches’ Angus and Hereford genetics.
Purebred Herd Builders
The foundation of the Colemans’ registered Angus herd derived from purchases from Tim’s father, Jim Coleman, owner of Vintage Angus Ranch. “Our son Tyler was infatuated with cows, so that is when we started dipping back into the purebred herd. It made a full circle, Tyler bought his first Angus cow from his grandpa,” Kara Coleman recalled.
The Colemans expanded their purebred herd with genetics from Express Ranches and a daughter of the highly valued VAR Blackbird cow. They built a donor base and utilized ET to generate top-of-the-line genetics for their purebred Angus operation. “The foundation cattle were phenomenal females with excellent EPDs and were good show animals,” Kara said.
As the purebred Angus herd grew, the Colemans continued to manage their large commercial herd as well. Through the many years of utilizing Angus bulls on their commercial herd, most of their replacement commercial females had become solid black.
In 2011, the Colemans decided their cattle operation needed additional diversification. So, they added a purebred Hereford program to the ranch. “Tim bought a couple of Hereford bulls from Pedretti Ranches. He really liked the females and the calves on the ground,” Kara shared.
The Colemans grew their purebred Hereford herd at a fast and furious pace, implanting 450 embryos the first year. Tim built the Hereford herd on a foundation of phenotypically solid females. “Tim went on a mission. He looked at udder and conformation predominantly, and then he looked at the animal’s pedigree and EPDs,” Kara said.
The purebred Hereford herd served a dual purpose. First, the purebred Hereford herd created another avenue for seedstock producers looking for Hereford genetics in California. “There were very few bigtime Hereford breeders on the West Coast at the time,” Kara explained. In a short period of time, Sierra Ranches became known as a go-to for Hereford genetics in California.
Secondly, the Colemans’ purebred Hereford bulls were turned in with their black commercial cows. The result gave the Colemans highly marketable baldie calves. Additionally, the Colemans leveraged the benefits of hybrid vigor by breeding their purebred Hereford virgin heifers to Angus calving ease bulls. The offspring from those matings produced animals that possessed the calving ease, vigor, and carcass traits for replacement females or highly marketable steers. The purebred Hereford females are then bred to a purebred Hereford bull as two-year-olds for purebred calves the following calving season.
The Colemans also appreciate the Hereford breed for its docility, fertility, and feed efficiency in the pasture and in the feedlot. “Our experience working with the breed association has most definitely been wonderful, and the breeders we have met throughout the country have been very welcoming. As first-generation Hereford breeders, we are very conscientious to keeping the values and traditions of the breed,” Tim shared.
Herd Management
Sierra Ranches currently operates with approximately 225 production age purebred Hereford females, 150 purebred Angus females, and more than 500 commercial females. The commercial herd is predominantly red or black white-faced cows with about 20 purebred Herefords in the mix.
Sierra Ranches owns several ranches in the region, running its cattle over thousands of acres. The central California location provides ample native forage in the ranches on the hills during the winter and spring months. The herds are moved out of the hills to the valley in the summer. Typically, the Colemans’ herds graze grass year-round.
“We are fortunate to calve the majority of our purebreds up at our hill ranch in La Grange, California. This allows us to have pairs on native feed and off the irrigated ground. The calves are healthier. This process also gives us an idea on females that are more sustainable and will make bulls for our customers – the commercial cattleman,” Tim shared.
The purebred herds calve in the spring and the commercial herd calves in the fall. All calves undergo evaluation throughout multiple management stages. First, the calves are evaluated at weaning. After weaning, the calves are vaccinated and backgrounded for 45 days. At this point the calves are evaluated again.
After the 45 days of backgrounding, calves flagged to go to the feedlot are sent to HRC Feed Yards in Kansas. The bulls and heifers retained for development are moved to the hills in separate groups to grow throughout the winter and spring.
The heifers are removed from the ranches in the hills before the bulls. “We will bring the heifers down from the hills around March because we are prepping them for breeding and at that time we will do another sort. The top end we will AI, if there is any in question we keep them with the top end. And then the bottom end, we roll them to the falls (commercial herd),” Kara explained.
The bulls continue to develop on the foothill ranch that is comprised of steep terrain and annual native grasses. “In turning the young calves out in the hills their foot and bone gets built phenomenally. Their structure holds,” Kara said. “Instead of being on feed in a feedlot and not moving around, they are taught to travel. So, we have really noticed a difference in our cattle the past couple of years from doing this. The set of bulls that we are selling are by far the soundest, good-footed animals I have seen in 10 years,” she added.
In 2019, Sierra Ranches implemented a new management strategy to track the parentage of its cattle. The Colemans incorporated the DNA process of using TSU samples to confirm parentage on all the purebred cattle on the ranch. They send in samples to verify the parentage of the sire and dam, ensuring they know 100 percent of an animal’s genetics.
New Markets
Sierra Ranches sells its bulls at its own sale or at Vintage Angus Ranch’s sale. Bulls, females, and pairs are also marketed through private treaty or in consignment sales.
In recent years, the Colemans have been particularly excited about the market they have found for their black baldie calves born out of their first-calf heifer Hereford females. The decades of persistence and diversification is paying off. “We know what our females can produce on the commercial side and the purebred side. It is exciting. It is opening up many other options and avenues,” Kara stated.
California Conditions
Similar to most cattle operations across the country, weather conditions play an important factor in the success of the ranch. For Sierra Ranches, water is the number one determining factor regarding the sustainability of its cattle operations.
The Central Valley does not typically accumulate moisture from June to October. Therefore, Sierra Ranches relies on the early rains in October or November to germinate the native feed and grow grass in the hills. The winter snowfall runoff fills the reservoirs for summer irrigations for Sierra Ranches’ pastures.
“The other most challenging factors for running cattle in California is location. It’s not a short drive from Kansas! The main advantage of being in California is weather. The beautiful, sunny days and mild winters without having to deal with snowstorms, does make ranching more enjoyable. As well as being near family,” Tim said.
Additional Agricultural Ventures
Another benefit of the California climate is it offers the Colemans the ability to diversify in other agricultural practices. Tim focuses much of his time on developing walnut and almond orchards, along with many varietals of grape vineyards. Tim and his late brother developed several ranches together that were molded from the teachings of their late grandfather.
Investing in the Future
The Colemans are dedicated to making the future brighter for youth involved in agriculture. Sierra Ranches initiated the Hereford Youth Foundation of America (HYFA) Foundation 1 Campaign, a program in which breeders can donate 1 percent of their production sale proceeds to HYFA. Tim came up with the idea and Amy Cowan, HYFA Director of Youth Activities and Foundation, brought it to fruition. The program has grown through the years giving breeders, regardless of their operation’s size, new opportunities to make a difference in the lives of youth.
The future of Sierra Ranches stands strong and secure. The Colemans plan to grow their commercial operation and fine-tune their purebred operation along the way. The family’s commitment to the cattle industry runs generations deep as well as their dedication to cultivating crops and vineyards. Tim’s deep family roots in the Central Valley inspires him daily to prioritize being a good steward of the land in all the family’s agriculture endeavors.
Fall Offering:
Thursday, September 5, 2024
12:00 pm PST - La Grange, Calif.
learn more at www.sierraranches.net
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