By Cheryl Kepes
Photos courtesy Gutwein Angus
Gutwein Angus dives headfirst into the purebred Angus industry with a major purchase of elite genetics.
A rarity in the purebred cattle business occurred a year ago when Fred Gutwein bought a significant portion of a large, well-known Angus operation. Fred acquired Riley Brothers Angus’ elite purebreds; from embryos to pairs, opens to breds, and recips to donors – a total of 400 head and everything in between. “He (Fred Gutwein) went from zero to a hundred real quick,” Chad Morrissey, Gutwein Angus’ herd manager said.
The total package included the lease of Riley Brothers Angus’ land and facilities in Darlington, Wis. Most of the herd remains at that location. Additionally, Gutwein Angus is expanding its operations near Fred’s home in Francesville, Ind. Throughout the course of the past year, Gutwein Angus has added new genetics and built facilities in Francesville.
Longtime Riley Brothers Angus’ herd manager, Chad Morrissey, continues to run the operation under its new ownership. “Sometimes things just come together, and I always believe it is for a reason,” Fred Gutwein, owner of Gutwein Angus, explained. “Without Chad I wouldn’t have bought the herd and without the herd I probably could have never convinced Chad to come work for me. So, it was a package deal is what I looked at in my mind and it was what I needed as well,” Fred added.
Production Agriculture History
Prior to purchasing the purebred Angus herd from Riley’s, Fred had reached a point in his life and career where he was interested in taking on a new challenge. Fred grew up in production agriculture learning the ins and outs of his family’s seed corn company. His great-grandfather founded the family seed corn business in 1935; he was one of the first farmers in the country to produce hybrid seed corn.
Through the generations the Gutweins’ seed corn company, Fred Gutwein and Sons, flourished, expanded, and transformed. The Gutwein family farmed thousands of acres of cropland in Indiana, supplied product to retailers, and developed a wholesale production company called Flora Seeds. In 1999, the Gutweins sold the retail branch of their business to a leading national seed corn company.
Fred and his father sold the remaining production branch of Flora Seeds along with Fred Gutwein and Sons, to Remington Seeds in 2006. For the next several years, Fred was responsible for the oversight of Remington’s seed corn production east of the Mississippi.
Five years earlier, in 2001, the Gutwein family had started yet another company. The company, called Indiana Small Plots, has modified its services through the years. Indiana Small Plots’ current focus is utilizing small, well-isolated, and protected production sites (1-to-100-acre plots) to grow precommercial hybrid cross corn.
Indiana Small Plots grows the experimental crops for the research and development departments of major seed companies as well as for clients in the food industry and other industrial applications. Fred maintains ownership of the company and remains actively involved in its operation.
Seed to Seedstock
For the last decade, Fred has scaled back his work life. He and his wife, Darlene, spend extended stays at their vacation home in Arizona. Though he enjoyed being semi-retired, Fred felt there was another endeavor in the wings.
The venture into the registered cattle industry started when pastureland near his home in Francesville came up for sale in 2020. After much thought and family discussion, Fred decided to buy the land and start a small, registered cow/calf operation.
Albeit a bit out of his comfort zone, embarking into the purebred cattle industry wasn’t completely out of Fred’s wheelhouse. Though seed corn production had dominated Fred’s childhood and career, cattle were consistently in the picture as well. “All seed corn operations especially in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s always developed a lot of products that made great feed but not great seed. So, everyone had a cattle operation it seemed, and we weren’t any different,” Fred said.
As far back as Fred can remember, he has maintained a small feeder cattle program. The unusable seed corn serving as a ration for his feeder cattle. But with the purchase of nearby pasture and dreams of a new adventure, he was ready to traverse into the registered Angus world.
A mutual friend connected Fred with Glenn Davis, a longtime cattleman and owner of Genetic Pathways Consulting and Marketing. Glenn helped Fred find a group of 14 purebred Angus heifers to start his operation. Fred bought another group of heifers later that same year.
“I have always put a lot of stock in who you know not necessarily what you know. I got to be good friends with Glenn, and I could see his love for the cattle and love for the bred. It was just something that intrigued me,” Fred shared.
A purebred Angus operation was exactly what Fred was looking for at this stage of his life. So, when the opportunity to purchase Riley Brothers Angus arose in the summer of 2023; Fred never looked back.
Lady Cow Family
The purchase of Riley Brothers Angus’ herd came with a powerhouse cow family - RB Lady. “The Lady cow family is a performance family that became known through test stations across the country and many, many winners. It’s a cow family that produced multiple AI sires including the RB Tour of Duty 177 bull which led the bred for registrations,” Chad explained.
Something unique about the RB Lady cow family is its history. The genetics for the RB Lady cow family were stored as frozen embryos for two decades before they were utilized. “The breed went through 20 years of progress where this one sat idle as an embryo in a tank. Then genomics picked the cow family up and caught us all up to the rest of the world. So, it was really an outcross, unscathed cow family,” Chad said.
New Genetics
The RB Lady genetics provides a strong base for the operation. Additionally, Gutwein Angus is purchasing new genetics to infuse into their program. Chad and Fred frequently make herd visits to other operations. “It is a way to keep my eye in check. People are doing so many different things, breeding different ways and it is good to see different ways of doing things,” Chad said.
The breeding philosophy at Gutwein Angus centers around the idea of correcting phenotype first, then selecting a mating based on EPDs. “Anybody can create big numbers and big EPDs, if that is what you want. I think the challenge comes from being able to do both and doing it correctly without losing a cow that you can walk out in the pasture and be proud of to look at,” Chad stated.
Gutwein Angus utilizes 20 donor females in its ET program. The operation splits its calving between fall and spring seasons. Gutwein Angus has 400 calves a year, 300 of which are ET calves.
Phenotype-Genotype
Due to Chad’s breeding philosophy, Gutwein Angus is producing females ideally equipped for the American Angus Association’s Phenotype-Genotype Show (PGS). “It is not necessarily that our program is bred for PGS show heifers but it just kind of fits us. That is my breeding philosophy. Yes, we will experiment with some large-numbered stuff, but we mostly keep a good set of cows with a really balanced set of EPDs,” Chad added.
Gutwein Angus’ upcoming sale in September will feature PGS show heifer prospects. The operation is dedicating a separate section of its sale catalog specifically for the PGS show heifer offerings.
The sale hosted at Gutwein Angus’ newly constructed sale barn in Francesville will showcase 75 head: open ET heifers, fall and spring bred heifers, bred cows, and proven donors as well as pregnancies and flush opportunities.
Future Plans
Gutwein Angus started at breakneck pace, but the long-term goal of the operation is to hit the perfect stride so that it will endure for generations. “I want Gutwein Angus to be a significant operation in the Angus world. My plan is for our purebred Angus operation to develop into another successful family business that will thrive for many generations to come,” Fred concluded.
Inaugural Female Sale:
September 7, 2024
2:00 pm - Francesville, Ind.
learn more at www.facebook.com @GutweinAngus
コメント