About Les Craft Angus
The registered Angus business started for me back in 1963 as an 11-year-old 4-H’er. My dad and I traveled to Front Royal, VA, to Five Points Angus Farm and made our initial purchase of ten registered Angus heifer calves to begin our Angus herd. As it turned out, this was an important purchase because several of these females became the beginning of valuable cow families that remained at our farm for quite some time. My dad always fed and finished cattle and with his knowledge of what the right kind of cattle were as far as efficient, good doing, high quality Angus cattle those females were the perfect fit for a new seedstock base. Also, a special memory of mine from this first Angus purchase was a 4-H steer that ended up being a second place heavy weight steer at the Indiana State Fair. This was certainly a thrill for a 12-year-old second-year 4-H’er like me. Other notable trips my dad and I made together were to the Staley Farms Dispersal in Kansas City, MO, for the purchase of a herd bull, Staley Ermitre 120, and also to Jorgenson Ranch in Ideal, SD.
Les & Yolanda Craft
As I advanced through my 4-H years I continued to show registered Angus heifers and Angus steers and had my first county fair grand champion in 1969 with a home-raised Angus steer. This happened after spending a summer at the American Herdsman Institute in Kansas City, MO, under the direction of Dr. Jack Phillips and Gail Long. Cattle types were gradually changing to the larger-framed, faster growing type of cattle. At this time I made the first of many trips to central Oklahoma, which at the time of the late 60s and early 70s was a hot bed of "new" seedstock producers who were emphasizing fast-gaining, more efficient kinds of cattle, particularly the "Emulous" and Big-Elban lines of cattle. These bloodlines weren’t really new, but just being "newly discovered" by breeders looking for the faster growing types of cattle. Several female purchases were made in Oklahoma on numerous trips which were all good learning experiences for me. Two female purchases of special note from my Oklahoma travels were the Grand Champion Female of the 1975 Wisconsin State Fair and the dam of Craft Lucky Strike who was born in 1978. "Lucky Strike" went on to be, among other things, the Reserve Junior Champion Bull of the 1980 National Western in Denver, CO. Not long after this in the early 1980s we began taking our best bulls to eastern Montana for spring bull sales. First, selling with Lund’s B-Bar Ranch in Baker, MT, then later with our friends at Nelson Livestock Co. in Wibaux, MT. This friendship and association with the Nelson Livestock Co. is still alive and well as we now run about 40 registered cows on shares at their ranch. Most of the heifers are kept for replacements and the bull calves are marketed at the Annual Nelson Bull Sale in the spring of the year. Our bulls are always well accepted in this part of the country, mainly because of the emphasis that has been put on performance in our herd. Our herd has been enrolled in the Angus Herd Improvement Records (AHIR) program for over 20 years and we’ve also been long-time supporters and consignors to the IBEP test station sales dating back to the early days of IBEP at Carmel, IN. We’ve also tested bulls occasionally at the Midland Bull Test and the Treasure Test stations in Montana. In fact, one year we had the high weight per day of age bull overall at Midland Bull Test.
In 1984 our good friend Dale Grubbs raised a bull called Canadian Big Promise DG. An interest was sold to Riverbend Farm Ltd. in Alberta, Canada and we also purchased part of "Big Promise" at that time. He went on to be successfully shown throughout Canada by Riverbend Farm and as a result of this partnership between Dale Grubbs and I discussions were initiated about having a joint production sale in the fall of the year. Subsequently, our first joint sale was held in September 1985 and we have had 23 fall production sales since that time. Dale and I have had many travels and activities together and our philosophies of breeding Angus cattle have always been similar. As a result, we’ve been blessed with a very good working relationship that has made 23 successful production sales so far with the next one scheduled for September 6, 2008.
Now for a few words about what we try to accomplish at our fall sales. We try to have something available for the variety of needs that our customers have. We have been very fortunate to have had a large number of repeat buyers over the years, I believe, because we have always tried very hard to satisfy everyone and "service what we sell." We normally will feature two to five elite bull calves from either one or both of our herds. Also, we sell a cross section of our cow herds every year. We try to sell cows for all different budgets, so we’ll feature some donor quality cows all the way down to some of our average cows so that there will be something for everyone. Our cull cows go to market so everything that we sell is something that we can stand behind 100%. The cows selling for the most part will be bred to the top AI sires of the breed for early spring calves. Also selling will be the top end of our early spring-born heifer calves. Many of these heifer calves have gone on to be successful show heifers for their new owners and most all of them have gone on to be valuable additions to our valued customer’s cow herds. We stress balanced EPDs in the herd sires we’re using, trying to breed for cattle with moderate birth weights that will grow fast and perform well and will make heavy milking cows when they’re put into production. We’re now also using ultrasound information in an effort to identify which lines of cattle will marble well without excessive outside fat cover to produce a high percent retail product carcass. All the bulls we’re using now must have positive marbling and percent retail product numbers. As a conclusion to each sale we’ll offer several registered Angus steer calves for our club calf customers.
Although our fall "Genetic Opportunity" sale is designed to be a showcase for our best spring-born calves, we will have something for sale by private treaty throughout most of the year. In particular, we have a selection of yearling bulls in the spring and summer months and cows for sale at any time.
We want to do whatever it takes to satisfy our customers. I learned many years ago that it is much easier to build a business on existing customers than to try to find new ones every year. We will stand behind what we sell 100% and if something isn’t satisfactory with our product we will make it right. We are in the Angus business to stay and want to treat everyone with the same respect and service that we would expect for ourselves if we were the customers. We’re very interested in doing business with families who are getting started in the Angus business because I feel with our many years of experience we can offer valuable advice that will be a strong base to build on if you’re interested in developing an Angus cow herd for the long haul. Visitors are always welcome and we would love to hear from you either by phone, e-mail or in person.