Females to Sell in Ft. Worth in Conjuction with the FWSS

In addition, Ratcliff Ranch will be participating in the Ft. Worth Stock Show & Rodeo Commercial Heifer Show and Sale the first weekend in February. The Ranch will be entering at least one pen of pairs and one set close to becoming pairs from high-demand genetics like Steel Force. These females are A.I. safe to Dakota Gold. Ratcliff Ranches has been one of the premier exhibitors and high sellers in this program for a number of years. Unfortunately, due to the extreme blizzard that occurred in February 2011, the Ranch was unable to compete and sell.

The Ranch is looking forward to taking a great offering of females to the 2012 event. For more information, please contact the office at 918-256-5561 or Heath Kohler at 918-244-8025.

Bulls Still Available Private Treaty

Although you might not have had the opportunity to make it to our bull sale, don’t be concerned that you have missed out on the opportunity to purchase Ratcliff Ranch bulls for this breeding season or next. The Ranch has a select group of private treaty bulls that are currently available to the public. These bulls are from popular and desirable blood lines and both Angus and SimAngus breeding age bulls are available.
All bulls are sold with a one (1) breeding season guarantee. For more information on the bulls that are available or to schedule a visit to pick out a bull, please contact Ratcliff Ranch Manager Heath Kohler at 918-244-8025. E-mail inquiries are also welcome at heath@ratcliffranch.com.

Ratcliff Ranch Combines Production & Customer Appreciation Sale

Ratcliff Ranch has combined its annual Fall Production & Customer Appreciation Sale this year. The sale
will be held Saturday, November 12, 2011 at the Ranch headquarters in Vinita, Okla. The sale will
feature 110 Angus and SimAngus bulls that are Ranch Ready.

In addition, the sale will feature nearly 1,000 females consisting of Ratcliff Ranch females and Ratcliff
Ranch Customers’ females. Fall pairs, spring bred heifers and cows will also be available for purchase.
“This is by far one of the stoutest bull offerings we have ever auctioned,” said Ratcliff Ranch Manager
Heath Kohler. “We are also selling a significant number of A.I. bred cattle and some Steel Force
daughters during the sale.”

Individual videos of the bulls will be available around October 20th along with a select number of female
videos. More videos will be added every few days after. Opportunities to see the bulls in person will be
available at both the OCA Fall Gathering and the SW Missouri Cattlemen’s events on October 20 and
October 27th.

A more detailed listing of the offering is available on our sale page.
For more information, please contact the office at 918-256-5561 or Heath Kohler at 918-244-8025.

Ratcliff Ranch Hosts Record Crowds and Boasts Record Sales

The field was full of trailers and vehicles as prospective buyers pulled up the flag-lined drive. Although the wind was sharp, it didn’t deter people from getting out in the pens and inspecting the offering of bulls and females.

The stands were full as Mr. Ratcliff introduced the color guard and the national anthem and the prayer were given. Shortly after introductions, the sale began with Matt Sims opening with the Angus bulls. A total of 55 Angus bulls sold for an average of a little over $4,700/head. A few shy of 30 SimAngus bulls sold next and averaged a little over $3,600/head.

Auctioneer Ronn Cunningham co-sold the bulls and the females with Matt Sims. A total of 638 females, with a little over 170 fall calving pairs. The averages for the females ranged from $1730 for fall pairs to a little over $1400 for spring calving cows. A set of fancy spring 11 females were offered and averaged nearly $1400/head.

Genetics that were highlighted in this offering ranged from Grass Master, Anticipation, Final Answer, Steel Force and Upgrade in the bulls. Females were mainly Angus genetics with some Steel Force daughters and Emulation Granddaughters, mainly A.I. serviced to leading breed sires.

For more information or to find out about the next Ratcliff Ranch sale offering, please contact the office at 918-256-5561. Bulls are available by private treaty year round, or as long as they last.

Long-time Customer Feature: Larry Skeets – Branch, Ark.

Larry Skeets, Age 70 Skeets Ranch, Branch, AR

Background: Larry and his wife, Linda, have been in the cattle business on a full-time basis for nearly 25 years and prior to that on a part-time basis. Larry and his son, Mac, also operate 10 poultry houses in addition to 200 head of cows. Their commercial cow-calf operation is located in the Arkansas River Valley, 10 miles off the river in the Ozarks. The grass is 75% Bermuda and 25% fescue. The Skeets utilize all the litter from their poultry houses to fertilize their pastures.

What made you decide to become a commercial cattleman? We were in the crossbred cattle business, raising Brahman/Hereford cross cattle. We found they were ineffective to market. We had excellent quality cattle, but couldn’t get what we deserved for the quality, so we sold out.

We were going to replace them with Angus cattle, and we had the idea that we could just go out and replace them with a 100 Angus cattle and be back in business the next day. It wasn’t that easy.

How did you become a customer of Ratcliff Ranches? I had several bulls go bad at the same time and it was about to be a train wreck. We were right in the middle of breeding season. I kept seeing ads for Ratcliff Ranches and so I called Billy Hall one day right in before a sale. We purchased several bulls in 1999 and have been a repeat customer ever since.

Do you purchase just bulls? No, we have a 60-day calving window in the spring and fall. We buy the majority of our replacement heifers through Ratcliff Ranch and their sales, mostly bred heifers. Since we have good grass, we can develop a heifer pretty good and put her into our breeding program.

How have you got along with Ratcliff Ranch cattle? Great, fantastic, like I said we have two calving seasons, spring and fall, and I can’t remember when Ratcliff Ranch didn’t buy my calves since 2001. In addition, I asked Billy about marketing some of his bulls in my area, to develop a local market. It’s been successful for both parties. Some are repeat customers; others will buy a bull and then purchase a bull or females direct from Ratcliff Ranch the next time. It has gotten the Ratcliff Ranch name out in my area and we have served a multitude of people, probably 50 or 60. It’s been very good.

Do you have any support on the ranch? My son, Mac, is an integral part of our operation. He handles the majority of the day-to-day operations. He has two boys Tyler and Slade. He is a full-time Dad, full-time rancher and a full-time chicken grower.

How important is it to have a program that you market to? It’s imperative; you just have to do it. You can move from one program to another, but you need to find your niche and stay with it. It just takes out some of the responsibility, burden and doubt. Marketing calves through Ratcliff Ranch just eliminates the hassle. If you have a relationship with someone and you buy your bulls from one place and three of them wreck, you simply get in your truck drive there load it up and then your back in business. Having a program, gets me back to doing the things that I do better.

Do you follow you calves through the feedlot? Yes, our calves are fed mainly through Chappell Feedlot and Tom Williams. Our calves grade, we very seldom have a select calf and when we do we will go out and take a look at the cow. When we have looked at the cow, it is amazing to us how nobody noticed she wasn’t giving enough milk or that she didn’t have that great of a calf. It is important for us to realize this also, as it is how we get better.

Ranch to Host Two Cattlemen’s Groups Oct. 20 & Oct. 27

The Ranch will be busy at the end of October. With sale efforts well under way, the Ranch will host the
Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association’s NE District Fall Gathering Meeting on October 20, followed a week
later by the SW Missouri Cattlemen’s Association on October 27.

“In addition to finding out the issues relevant to cattlemen in your area, it’s a great opportunity to get
an in-person preview of the sale offering, as all the bulls will be at the headquarters along with a large
offering of the females,” said Ratcliff Ranch Manager Heath Kohler.

The OCA Fall Gathering event will begin 5:45 p.m. with an open tour of the ranch and the sale cattle.
The meeting will begin with dinner and entertainment at 6:30 p.m. The OCA staff will advise members
of issues they feel relevant to the cattle industry and the legislative issues they will be addressing in the
2012 legislative session. The “Gathering” will also feature a theft update and prevention tips as well as
an animal health presentation sponsored by Merck.

This is the kick-off to the OCA’s annual membership drive. Ratcliff Ranch encourages OCA members and
non-members to attend this informative and informal meeting. Any new members joining during the
OCA Fall Gatherings will be entered to win an ultimate grand prize courtesy of the OCA.

The following Thursday, Oct. 27, the SW Missouri Cattlemen’s Association will also visit the ranch and
tour the Temple Grandin Blackwell working facility around 4:30 p.m., just outside of Vinita. The group
will return around 5:30 p.m. to the sale facility to view sale cattle and to enjoy a meal at 6:15 p.m.
Both events will feature Heritage Ranch Brand meat and more information about the program will be
presented. Representatives from both the Ranch and Heritage will be available for any questions.

We look forward to seeing some of you in attendance. If you are interested in attending, please R.S.V.P.
to the girls at the office at 918-256-5561.

A Career Born of Autism: Grandin Leaves Legacy of Change

We hear a lot these days about people who turn tragedy, illness or disease into a winning situation. In
this case, Temple Grandin turned autism into a career, one that has been filled with success, much in
part to her ability to see and sense as animals do. Although misunderstood and ridiculed most of her childhood and adolescence, Ms. Grandin found her purpose in life while in college, touring slaughterhouses and feedlots. Even going as far as figuring out a way to fit in where only men had fit in before.

Temple was born with autism and Asperger’s syndrome, a developmental disorder that affects a person's ability to socialize and communicate effectively with others. As displayed in the movie Temple Grandin the noise of a fan or the simply swaying of a curtain would not frighten or evoke unease in others, but to Temple it was terrifying. While on her aunt’s farm she watched the cattle being worked and saw how quickly they calmed down while in the squeeze chute. One day, although very unorthodox, she used the chute to calm herself down and found it to be extremely soothing and relaxing.

While working on her college degree she had the opportunity to tour several slaughterhouses and feedlots and identified areas in which both needed to be improved to handle the animals in a manner that was not frightening or dangerous to their well-being. Over time she started to design working facilities and feedlots and through her connections was able to slowly integrate those plans into actual designs that are still utilized today.

It can be as simple as the radius of a turn in a tub of a working facility or in a feedlot the grid pattern in the concrete floor, but those simple attentions to detail have earned Temple Grandin a reputation second to none on being a foremost expert on animal handling and animal sensory perception. That is why in the late 90s Ratcliff Ranch approached Ms. Grandin about designing the new beef working facility for the Blackwell Ranch north of Vinita, Oklahoma.

“Prior to building the facility, we researched various designers of working facility and determined that Ms. Grandin saw things the way we saw it. We wanted her to design a facility that made working the cattle easier, more efficient with the least stress possible on the animal going through the chute,” said Ratcliff Ranch Owner Jim Ratcliff. She designed the barn, the tub, helped us with the choice of chute and then the half-moon of traps with five doors operated by hydraulics.

The facility is used for everything including weaning, yearly and routine calf working/processing, sorting and readying calves for the feedlot, artificial insemination, pregnancy checks and occasional embryo work.

According to the ranch hands, the attention to detail that Ms. Grandin put in the facility goes as far as even the height of the barn and the length of tin from the roofline to promote an area free from changing shadows based on the time of day the cattle are worked. Those details seem so minute to others, but yet to her are so important and are important to the animal’s comfort as well.

Ratcliff Ranch is planning on utilizing the services of Ms. Grandin again in the near future when they enlist her help in reworking the backside of the sale facility. Auctions are very loud and very quick with lots of abrupt sounds. The more that can be done to keep an animal calm prior to it entering the ring, means ultimately more money in the ranch pocket and less stress to the animal. In addition, a portable working chute and tub will be added for work around the headquarter facility.

It wasn’t inexpensive to build the Blackwell facility, but it has proved to be money well spent and Ratcliff Ranch is proud to have such a premier working facility that is both functional and practical. And more than that Ratcliff Ranch is proud to join Temple in her efforts to promote calm and humane cattle handling. Each of the calves on the ranch are born with a purpose, rather it be to be seedstock, semen sires, replacement females or ultimately a steak on a plate.

But no matter their lot in life, it is the Ranch’s goal to do it in a manner that is non-harmful and stressful to the animal. Ratcliff Ranches is glad Temple Grandin and her family didn’t let people’s perception of autism
deter her from not only a rewarding career, but a blueprint for the humane treatment of animals.

2011 Ratcliff Ranches. All rights reserved.

Grass Master & Okla. Sec. of Agriculture Spark Interest in Argentine Breeder’s Minds Offspring displayed in Genex Tour; Jim Reese speaks to Agriculture’s importance

Ratcliff Ranch was a part of a multi-state tour that was a joint venture between Genex and a major semen distributor in Argentina. Nearly 50 people, including the Argentines, Genex representatives and various legislative staff members joined Ratcliff Ranch to see first-hand the results of the genetic and phenotype footprint that Grass Master is leaving on his progeny.

The group was met by a driveway lined with flags from both Argentina and the U.S. The tour began with a brief welcome from Ratcliff Ranch followed immediately by a field trip to the Blackwell facility located just outside Vinita. This premier livestock handling facility was designed by well-known animal behavior specialist Temple Grandin. The Argentines and guests watched as the cowboys worked through a set of cows in a quick and quiet fashion.

“Building the Blackwell working facility was one of the best investments we have ever made. By handling our cattle in a humane and calm manner allows us to have higher conception rates during breeding, less trauma and stress to the animal at working time and ultimately leads to more dollars in our pocket,” said Ratcliff Ranch Owner Jim Ratcliff.

Upon returning to the RR headquarters, the group was able to truly see the impact of Grass Master through both his daughters and sons that were on display.

Representatives from Sinclair Cattle Company and Ratcliff Ranch were available to answer specific performance questions including the remarkable carcass data his first progeny to be graded have turned in.

Following the viewing of the Grass Master progeny, the group was introduced to the Heritage Ranch program and Unger Meat through a multi-course dinner. This dinner featured some of the fine meat available through this premier source and age verified program prepared by Unger Meat Executive Chef Damion Tittle. The chef prepared meals local in flavor to Argentina. Heritage Ranch Brand Director of Cattle Operations and Ratcliff Ranch Advisor Billy Hall spoke to the group about the premiums available and the quality of the cattle that are a part of Heritage Ranch program.

In addition, he also talked about the ability to trace food from the hoof to the plate, as well as the marketing opportunities to available to ranchers participating in this program. Restaurants and grocers have the ability to “tell the story” of the ranch through various promotional items and menu inserts. Each box has detailed
traceability through a unique bar code that can be scanned. This bar code will identify the exact ranch that produced the cattle that will be served.

The evening concluded with featured speaker Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Jim Reese. Recently appointed by Gov. Mary Fallin, Reese has previous experience at a national level with the USDA. He spoke on the importance of agriculture in general as well as its direct impact in Oklahoma. “Some industries in Oklahoma just pass around money to each other; but agriculture actually creates money by producing food and fiber,” Reese said. He also stated that the possibility of increased exports of cattle and beef genetics is good for Oklahoma.

“Oklahoma is the second-largest producer of beef cows in the nation at a little more than 2 million head, and we are the fourth largest producer in the nation of cattle and calves at 5.4 million head, said Associate Agriculture Commissioner Blayne Arthur.

The evening concluded with Ratcliff Ranch owner Jim Ratcliff and Sec. Reese presenting each of the Argentines with an “Honorary Oklahoma Rancher” Certificate and a hat token of the state and the ranch.

“It was a true pleasure to show-off our Grass Master progeny and to interact with the Argentine breeders. It is something we look forward to doing more in the future. The opportunities for Ratcliff Ranch and our customers through our genetics and new affiliation with Heritage Ranch are very exciting,” said Ratcliff.