Thank you for taking the time to look at
our 2018 bull sale catalog. We are the
fourth generation family to be ranching
on the Boardman Valley in the middle of
Cherry County in Nebraska. The family
ranch is the Three Bar. The ranch has
been a commercial cow calf and yearling
grass operation since 1959. My wife
Shannon and I bought our first registered Red Angus cows in 2008. We feel very
strongly about using bulls that are raised in the same environment that our commercial
cows are in.
This will be the fifth year that we have sold ranch developed virgin coming two year old
Red Angus bulls. Our feed program consists of meadow hay and pellet after weaning,
then out to grass for the summer. Why do we feed this way? We feed our bulls in the
same manner as the other cattle on the ranch. We feed our cows and calves a protein
cake through the winter, so that’s what the bulls get in pellet form. Last spring these
sale bulls went to grass 50 lbs lighter than the past year because we didn’t start feeding
them until later in the winter as weaned calves. When we weighed the bulls last fall
coming off grass they were 50 lbs heavier than our previous
sale bulls. Our bulls aren’t fat when scanned or pushed hard
as a calf because we want them to continue to gain on grass
without going backwards.
Last May we kicked the bull calves out with 50 head of the
ranch’s older bulls, that we use on the commercial cow herd, so
they didn’t get any special treatment until we turned the ranch
bulls out with the cows August first. That’s when they had
their own pasture. In October we sorted the sale bulls. One of
the qualities we look for when we sort for sale bulls is the bulls
that gained well through the summer. After the sort we put
them on meadow after grass and started feeding them pellet.
In November, they went to the hills for winter protection and that’s when we started
feeding them hay along with pellet.
If you have any questions or would like to come to the ranch and look at the bulls before
the sale please give us a call.
Thank you
Eric Ravenscroft & family
Ranch # 402 823 4140
Cell # 402 322 9248
Greetings
Jaylynn graduated last
spring and is now on the
Dean’s List at Fort Hays
State University.
