By Sarah Hill
Photos courtesy Warner family
The Warner Ranch has built its Nebraska seedstock operation with strong, maternal Gelbvieh females at its foundation.
A 4-H or FFA project blossoming into a multiple generation commercial cow-calf and diversified crop operation is how Dan Warner describes his family’s ranch near Arapahoe, Neb. With 850 spring calving cows and 200 fall calving cows, there’s never a dull moment for the Warner family.
“What started as a hobby became a habit that got out of control, but we’ve been blessed to grow,” Dan said.
Connection to Ag
The family has a long history of being involved in the agriculture industry. Dan’s grandfather and uncles worked in production agriculture and his great-grandfather had cattle and raised crops. Prior to 1991, Dan’s parents, Monte and Kristie, had a commercial cow-calf operation influenced by Gelbvieh sires. The Warners registered their first Gelbvieh/Balancer calves in 1991, when Dan was in high school. Dan decided his passion was the seedstock side of the cattle business, while his dad and brother, Darren, leaned more to the commercial side of the business.
After high school, Dan attended Northeast Junior College in Sterling, Colo., where he competed on the livestock judging team. After two years, he went on to Colorado State University, where he once again represented the university in livestock judging. Dan returned home to the family ranch in December 1999.
The seedstock operation grew exponentially after that, primarily focusing on commercial cows, but ramping up using an embryo transfer program. At that time, the family was only selling bulls through private treaty, until 2005, when the family hosted their first production bull sale.
Selling Bulls & Females
The operation includes 650 registered Gelbvieh, Balancer, and SimAngus cows, while commercial females are used as recips. The operation hosts an annual bull sale, selling about 150 bulls per year, and two annual female sales where they sell 100 to 150 registered and 150 to 200 commercial Balancer heifers. The Warner family also sells cattle in an elite commercial bred heifer sale at the National Western Stock Show (NWSS) called the Maternal Merit Sale in the yards.
“We’re also part of a group called Maternal Merit that sells 300 to 500 commercial bred heifers from multiple breeds,” Dan said. “Maternal Merit sales sell first-generation baldies, red baldies, SimAngus, Angus, Red Angus and Balancer bred heifers, and all heifers are bred to ABS sires.”
Today, Dan has plenty of help with the operation. His parents are still involved, as is Darren, along with his wife, Amy. Dan’s wife, Kate, a real estate broker, also helps at the ranch, and the couple have four children: Gentry is a sophomore at Kansas State University; Berkley is a freshman at Creighton University; Kallan is in seventh grade; and Creyton is in third grade.
Maternal Focus
“Everybody would say they focus on a balance of traits in their cattle, but we focus on keeping cattle as maternal as we can,” Dan said. “We work with a very maternal breed, but we can also push very hard on performance and carcass quality.”
Dan operates by the philosophy that the cattle business is a people business, and cattle are just the by-product, because people buy bulls from people. He strives to run enough cattle to diversify their matings to meet different customers’ needs.
“Not everyone needs the same type of bull,” he said. “Some of our customers buy a Balancer bull as a terminal sire, so they want a bull that’s performance-oriented and carcass driven. Some guys want to build replacement females.”
The herd is handled with a commercial cow-calf approach, which Dan believes is important. Cattle are raised on crop residue, calve out in big pastures, and on-farm labor isn’t focused on making sure every calf is born inside and gets up on its own—the calves must do it themselves.
“If cattle can’t survive in an environment that’s similar to that of their customers, then the genetics aren’t going to have any value,” he said. “In our embryo transfer program, we also make some matings that are courageous attempts at creating outliers while staying true to phenotypic quality, structural integrity, and keeping cattle maternal.”
Dan said the biggest challenge for their customers is fertility, which he views as a baseline. He said he likes the Gelbvieh breed because they take the work out of ranching, and they fundamentally do things very well.
“This gives us the ability to focus on performance and carcass traits without having to worry about females getting or staying pregnant,” Dan said. “We stayed with the Gelbvieh breed because of their maternal emphasis. They’re basically 85 to 90 percent black and 100 percent polled. My goal is to make them look like an Angus with more performance and muscle.”
Calving All Spring
Spring calving heifers are bred at the end of April for a target delivery date around February 1. Mature females calve in February and March, while commercial cows calve out from mid-February to mid-April. The fall calving females are bred shortly after Thanksgiving to delivery between September 1 through mid-October.
“It feels like we’re calving all spring,” Dan laughed. “We own a lot of the bulls that we use for artificial insemination, which helps create consistency and uniformity.”
One of the bulls raised by the Warners, DLW TPG Frontrunner 2510F, was the most widely used bull in their 2023 calf crop. Dan said that Frontrunner has been successful for them. For the 2024 calf crop, the main sires they have used are DLW TPG Glory 5141G and DLW Sand Trap ET - both bulls raised by the Warners.
“We use 10 to 12 different sires, including Angus bulls,” Dan said.
Natural Fit
Mature cows graze on crop residue until calving. In the summer, the herd grazes native pasture and during calving is supplemented with a total mixed ration that includes dry hay, silage, and distiller’s grains. The Warners develop their own bulls and background feeder cattle in their feedyard. The operation produces all of its own forages and grains raised for feed, only purchasing distiller’s grains and supplements.
The Warner’s children have all shown cattle through the junior breed associations, and Gentry currently serves as vice president of the American Gelbvieh Junior Association.
“I grew up through the junior associations, so it was a natural fit for my kids,” Dan said. “We take cattle to all of the junior shows, NWSS, and Cattlemen’s Congress. When we do show, we try to be competitive.”
Future plans are in motion at Warner Ranch, with Dan’s parents dispersing their cow herd this fall. Dan said that production agriculture gets harder every day, but he remains optimistic.
“We’re trying to stay the course, be successful, stay relevant, be profitable, and grow where we can,” he said. “We hope the next generation wants to be involved.”
Commercial Female Sale:
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
1:00 pm CST - Arapahoe, Neb.
learn more at www.warnerbeef.com
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