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At Flintrock Feeders Ltd. we strive to help make the cattle feeding experience a profitable one.  We strive to have as many return customers that we can.  We have seen many mistakes in our time and wish to help our customers learn from others mistakes.  With this in mind, we have set out below some simple tasks that most of our customers need to follow to obtain the best “bang for their buck”.    While following these tasks will not guarantee profit, it will, in our view minimize the chances for loss. 

                A surprising fact is that the producers that grow 40 head of cattle or less actually as a group produce most of the cattle in the United States.  The only problem with our industry is that everyone has a different way of producing his or her product.  Therefore, cattle are not uniform in quality or price. In the next few years, the cattle/beef business is going to change as a whole.  Like the Hog producers, the beef producers will have a rapidly shrinking market for lower quality products.  More and more packers are refusing to purchase cattle that do not produce a consistent high quality end product. 

 Many Factors influence the ultimate success of your operation several main factors are listed below:

 FERTILITY is 100% more important than any of the other 4, because without fertility you can not produce the calves to sell, therefore no income, no profit, period.

                Body condition score of the cow, breed of the cow, age, balanced mineral intake, and time after last calf, disease control, selection of cows based on fertility in phenotype.  Bull’s breeding soundness and sperm count along with make up.  The temperament of cattle and the people caring for them.  Pasture conditions including noxious weeds.  Genetics and countless other things that separately or together influence a cow getting bred and staying that way until she produces a live calf.

 LIVABILITY is influenced by many of the same things as fertility.  Nutrition, disease control, predator control, management, selection pressure for livability and many other things.

 GROWTH RATE is influenced by sire and dams EPD’s for growth rate and the selection pressure applied.  By having your cowherd identified and getting birth dates, the individual growth rates can be measured and improved.  For example: you have three cows, one weans a 400-pound calf, and one a 500 pounds calf and one a 600-pound calf.  400 + 500 + 600 = 1500 or 500 pounds per calf average.  If you sell the cow that raises a 400-pound calf with the calf, the average increases to 550 pounds.  A 10% increase at no cost. 

EFFICIENCY OF OPERATION can be influenced by understanding what you need to do to improve the bottom line by cutting costs.  By using a mini version of SPA (standardized performance analysis) you can tell if your cattle enterprise is profitable or not and what areas of concern you have.  We can make the contacts for you to get help  with SPA.

 CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS are mainly influenced by defects or lack thereof.  When you think of the purpose of beef cattle, they have but one purpose, to be eaten by the consumer in one fashion or another.  The main things which make up good carcass characteristics are the lack of injection site blemishes, lack of bruises, lack of “dark cutters”, lack of defects in size or quality grade.  A high quality grade such as choice or better is the goal with a high yield grade of 3 or better.  Our goal is for the dressing percentage to be as high as we can get it, somewhere around 64% of the animal being high quality red meat.  We also want no more that 3/10 of an inch of back fat on the outside while having good marbling on the inside.  There are other factors we are concerned with, however most are in the control of others such as packers and feedlot operators.  Our methods of production in the early stages are the leading determining factors in carcass characteristics.  The remainder of the industry will have to work with what you produce.

 While Flintrock Feeders Ltd. can not tell you how to run your business, we can give you feed back of the type of product you are producing and at the same time attempt to market your product to the proper market that will best perform to your expectations. 

  Flintrock Feeders Ltd. is dedicated to making a consistent, high quality product for the consumer.  We know who buys our product, and why they purchase it, and so does everyone that eats our food products.  Therefore, we try to give that purchaser what they ask for.  The following is one of many recommended vaccination management programs.  We feel this one is the easiest to work with and will soon become the national standard.

Vaccination Management Programs

  Feedback of adequate information to most commercial cow - calf producers on how their calves fit the needs of the beef industry has been difficult due to the loss of identity of the ranch of origin as calves move through various marketing channels.  Most calves are healthy when they leave the ranch, but stress caused by weaning, transportation, changes in environment, etc. lowers the level of resistance at the same time exposure to disease challenge is increased.  The purpose of a vaccination program is to raise the level of resistance to viruses and other pathogens before a disease challenge occurs.  A properly designed vaccination program helps reduce medicine costs, lower death losses and enhance production efficiency.  Stocker/ feeder producers are recognizing this value.

 It is critical that the proper vaccines are administered and that adequate time is allowed to develop immunity in an environment where stress is reduced for optimal response.  The following vaccination regime to produce protection against the major viral pathogens is based upon results observed in the TAMU Ranch to Rail Guidelines program.  This regime resulted in calves with more consistent, predictable, favorable health results. This process it also one required by the Texas Beef Quality Assurance Program. This program is fast becoming the National Standard.

This program is designed to get the calves ready to enter the various marketing and production channels after they leave the ranch.  Other problems that exist at the ranch level are unique to each operation.  Consult with the Flintrock Feeders Ltd. Cattle Company to determine what other measures may be needed for their program.

The Flintrock Feeders Ltd. Health program includes:

             Flintrock Feeders Ltd. Value Added Calf- PreWean (VAC- PreWean)

            Flintrock Feeders Ltd. Value Added Calf- PreCon (VAC- PreCon)

Flintrock Feeders Ltd. Value Added Calf- PreWean

(VAC- PreWean)

Most producers don’t have the resources to be able to background calves.  VAC- Pre Wean is a vaccination management program designed to increase the level of resistance prior to weaning so that calves have more immunity as they enter various market channels.  This program is based upon a pre - weaning vaccination at branding with the calves being shipped at weaning.  This plan does not normally receive any bonus from Flintrock Feeders Ltd. but is required.

 Vaccination against IBR-PI3-BVD-BRSV with an injectable vaccine and an intranasal modified live IBR-PI3 vaccine when the calves are worked at 2 -4 months of age.  The IBR and PI3 components of the injectable vaccine must be chemically altered modified live, the BVD killed, and the BRSV modified live.  The vaccines must have label clearance for use in calves nursing pregnant cows.

Flintrock Feeders Ltd. Value Added Calf- PreCon

(VAC- PreCon)

 Producers that process weaned calves and background them on pasture or in a dry-lot situation are our major source of stocker/feeder cattle.  VAC- Pre-Con is a vaccination management program designed to help ensure healthy stocker/feeders for Flintrock Feeders Ltd. Cattle Company.  This program may be based upon cattle put together from other Flintrock Feeders Ltd. producers that are preconditioned or backgrounded for at least 45 days.

 Administer an intranasal modified live IBR-PI3 vaccine and an injectable IBR-PI3-BVD-BRSV vaccine upon arrival.  Re-vaccinate with the injectable vaccine 14-21 days later.  The IBR and PI3 components of the injectable vaccine must be modified live and the BVD and BRSV can be either modified live or killed.  (Note:  If no know history of vaccination against clostridial organisms (blackleg, etc.), vaccinate and booster at the same time virus vaccines is administered.)

Here is a simple plan that will work for the cattle producer that wishes to either sell or retain ownership in cattle and get better returns.  First, during branding (calves must be at least 60 days old) along with the other processing such as branding in the proper location, the calves should be vaccinated in the proper location and in the proper method (subQ is always preferred) with a "Blackleg (7 or 8 way)" vaccine as well as something similar to Cattle Master by Pfizer.  A "Chemically altered" vaccine seems to work a little better than a "modified live" vaccine at this point for overall protection.  Then at weaning a "Blackleg" booster should be given along with a true "modified live" vaccine covering BVD,BRSV, IBR,PI3 and we also recommend administering a shot for Pasteurella types of infections.  For an updated list of Vaccine types and manufactures please use this link:    Suggested Manufactures or click on the tab at the top of the page.

With this in mind we offer these services to our customers:

  Ø      A total quality management system that begins on the ranch or farm

Ø      A system that cuts discounts by sorting cattle using the latest technology for specific market to maximize returns and minimize costs to the producer

Ø      Cattle financing that allows the owner flexibility and comfort of cash flow (we require a small reserve of equity)

Ø      A feedlot that knows how to feed and treat cattle for maximum returns

Ø      Personal assistance and advice anytime you wish it with straight forward answers

Ø      Data returned to each customer in a manner you can read and use, either on individual animals or group data or both

Ø      Plus many other personal services