2009 National Stocker Award Winners
The 2009 National Stocker Award Winner and Runners-up were chosen from a pool of nationwide nominees. They represent the best of the best that can be found in stocker cattle management.
2009 National Stocker Award Winner
Jeannie and Leo Hollinger
Hollinger Cattle, Co
Camden, AL
Hollinger Cattle, Co, Camden, AL
“What I like to do most is grow grass and graze cattle,” says Leo Hollinger, Jr., who owns and operates Hollinger Cattle Co. of Camden, AL with his wife, Jeannie. “My passion has always been to put light calves on grass and grow them to heavier weights.”
The primary program at Hollinger Cattle Company revolves around buying calves averaging 350 lbs., putting 400 lbs. on heifers and 500 lbs. on steers, and then marketing them in presorted load-lots.
“We are dealing with a more volatile market and economic climate than I've seen in my lifetime,” Leo says of his four decades in the business. “I think it requires assessment of how much risk we're willing to take on any single roll of the dice.”
2009 National Stocker Award Runner-up
Gale and Darrel George
G-Three Cattle Co.
Uniontown, KS
G-Three Cattle Co., Uniontown, KS
In a backgrounding operation where cattle are fed year-round, you'd expect to find pens and plenty of bare ground. At G-Three Cattle Company, though, the cattle always have forage beneath their feet, even if that means drilling wheat in 10-acre receiving traps.
Gale George and his younger brother, Darrel, explain it has to do with controlling runoff and limiting dust. Equally important, they say it helps reduce health problems.
Cattle arrive and leave G-Three, near Uniontown, KS, year-round. Buying and selling on the same market is one of the risk-management tools the Georges employ. These are typically bulls or steers weighing 500-550 lbs., eventually sold at 800-850 lbs.
2009 National Stocker Award Runner-up
Brad Etheridge
Thomas Cattle Buying Services
Williston, FL
Thomas Cattle Buying Services, Williston, FL
“I'm a firm believer that if we have problems in the preconditioning phase, 95% of the time it's because of management, because of a decision we made,” says Brad Etheridge, managing partner of Thomas Cattle Buying Services (TCBS) at Williston, FL.
TCBS is one of the oldest and largest cattle-buying services in the state. Besides buying and preconditioning calves for a long list of customers across the U.S., the firm also buys and manages its own cattle that are backgrounded here and then marketed sometime between preconditioning and the last day of finishing at a Kansas feedlot.
Etheridge and three other order buyers who work exclusively for TCBS purchase two-thirds of their calves direct and the other third from 11 Florida sale barns. These folks not only know their customers personally, they've been to their operations and return at least every couple of years.
View the 2008 National Stocker Award winners here