We bought our first registered cows in 1968 (25 cows and 31 heifers) from Richard Alkire at Lemmon, SD. Our first herd bull was BHR Yellow Designer 16 by Yellow Designer, and bred by Baldhill Dam Hereford Farm in North Dakota. Sixteen bred 30 cows naturally when he was 13 years old. We also used several of his sons in the herd including LH Yellow Designer 01 who followed his sires foot steps for several years after Sixteen’s retirement.

Great Northern 7215 a grandson of Big Northern and out of a Battle Intense cow was our next addition to the herd. We purchased 7215 from Wiese & Sons as a yearling. He was a long quartered bull that had a big influence on our herd.

Two bulls from Oxley left their marks on our cattle. One was a grandson of 970 and the other a grandson of Classic. Both bulls were out of daughters of SR Mark 1J215, and the dam of the sires of both bulls were daughters of Winrock D4. We bought AGA 10s Standard 131W from Hans Ulrich of Canada in 1989. He was by 10S and out of a 93J daughter. He gave us length and thickness. We have never added a female since our original purchase in 1968.

We currently are still using 1008 ( last Oxley purchase), Beau Mark 2144, and two of their sons 340 and 535.

Reynolds Herefords was started by Matt’s great grand father Joe W. Haines in the mid 30’s. The Reynolds family took a more active roll in the mid-seventies. In the spring of 1978 we purchased an interest in Montana Domino 77069, he was the top gaining bull out of the Montana State Research Center. In 1979 we purchased 40 cows in the Turner Ranch dispersal in Oklahoma. An outstanding son of 970, 2292 was added to our herd from Oxley Hereford Ranch in 1983. In the mid eighties we purchased an interest in two sons of GK Encore 609R. AGA 10S Standard 131W from Hans Ulrich of Canada was used as an AI sire in 1988 and early in 1989. Late in the spring of 1989 we were able to purchase and interest in a son of the Denver Champion SR Verdict 455 from Lodoen Herefords in North Dakota. L Prairie Pride a bull of the times, extreme frame and length. In the Spring of 1990 we went back to Lodoen’s and added a son of N179 out of the same cow family as Prairie Pride. These two bulls are probably the sires of our top-producing cows today. Three outstanding sons of Prairie Pride were put into service in 1991, 9110, 9112, and 9114. The 9114 bull was out of the 175 cow we purchased at Clair Parcels dispersal in Kansas. In 1992 our 2080 cow produced the 9245 bull pictured on the front cover. This is the most problem free bull I have ever seen and used. We will try and blend him into everything we have. This past fall we sold half interest in him to Bent Tree Farms. In 1993 we were back at Lodoens and found a bull we renamed Beau Mark 2144. A son of DH High Time 925. By the time he was two years old the Hereford breed had decided that his grand sire was not a bull to build on, we decided to move on also, with our main goal in mind of building a cow herd. We added a son of Coopers 109 bull. We purchased a bull from Kreth Herefords in SD., KL1 Domino 327, and he looks to be a female bull (just what we wanted). Leonard wanted 868 back to use so we traded for 4117 a grandson of Lone Stars 429H out of a 904 daughter. 4117 is my pick of the four Lodoen bulls. It should be easy to figure out that we have picked bulls to build a cowherd with. We started to bring AI back in the spring of 1997 and will continue that and consider flushing a top cow or two this spring. I’m hoping a future herd sire was born on Feb. 17,98 by 15C out of and outstanding 868 daughter, only time will tell.

In the mid eighty’s our biggest challenge was finding the money to pay the feed bill. QUESTION: Do we continue feeding cattle or go to town and get a job? Our love of Herefords and a lifetime of farming was hard to give up. ANSWER: In our quest to remain in farming we decided value added marketing may be the answer, Sell more buy less. Because of the previous 20 years of carcass work we knew or Herefords were the right kind of cattle. Our next project was to find the best quality grain to market and feed. Through the Iowa State corn yield test we discovered Golden Harvest corn was consistently high in protein and test weight. Our next project was soil fertility and grain drying. Our fertilizer program was designed for optimum yield's not maximum yields, our research on grain drying told us drying temp. not to exceed 120-130 degrees resulted in the best grain quality. Crop rotation gave us a supply of alfalfa hay for an added source of protein. The next project was to continue the improvements of genetics in our cattle. We have always had cattle that marbled but in the seventy’s we had yield grade 3’s & 4’s now we have 2’s and 3’s with the same degree of marbling. In the past ten years we have feed good hay, corn, corn silage, and self-fed mineral and salt with no commercial protein. Grain quality good forage and genetics have been a good way to market our crops with much less out of the pocket cost.