These guys have a clue.

Tallgrass Beef field representative Clay Nash says cattle that eventually carry the Tallgrass label are no more than 30 months of age with a carcass weight of 550-850 lbs., and a minimum live weight at time of purchase of 1,100 lbs.

Tallgrass Beef requires fat cover to be ultrasound-verified at a minimum of 0.25 in. at a maximum of 50 days prior to harvest, he says, with an actual ribeye area of at least 10 in. Minimum percent intramuscular fat must be 3.5% and ribeye shape score must equal or exceed 0.30. Tenderness score must register 25 or less. . .

John Cotton in Volga, SD, is one of the rare livestock breeders with that kind of genetics.”

Cotton, in east central South Dakota, was known during the ’80s and ’90s as “the guy with the little, dinky cows,” he says.

“My herd genetics are rooted in what my dad started in the ’60s,” Cotton says. ”He believed a successful livestock producer needed efficient cows to control input costs and raise average-sized cattle. My cows average a 4.5 to 5.5 frame score. If I have anything larger than that, I sell that animal.”

These guys aren't as rare as you might think. They're not the mainstream fashionable cattlemen who get whipsawed trying to follow current trends, they are crusty contrarians who have been thinking for themselves and closely observing reality all along.

One of them, Walt Hunzinger, was our local real-deal herd master. He passed this spring, and though he had always lived in the background, mostly managing herds for other people, his funeral was a major local event. Cowboys and cattlemen came from miles and miles around to pay tribute to a master.

What these fellows have always known is that performance on grass was the key to success since the cows, bulls and calves must do well there or there's no profit in ranching. Feedlot performance traits don't do them much good, even if such animals command a small premium at the sale barn on a per pound basis since there are fewer of them, tend to weigh less, and are more costly to raise when whole herd accounting is done.

Cotton’s cattle are on pasture as long as winter permits. Once home, they feed on silage raised on his cropland. Among Cotton’s profit guidelines is maintaining cows that wean calves between 42% and 50% of bodyweight. Cows average 1,380 lbs. . .

Because my genetics go back so far, I base breeding decisions on records I keep for each animal. One trait I’ve selected for is short gestation. For Angus, the standard is 283 days. I’ve worked to get down between 280 and 278. I like easy sliders so I keep birth weights down, too.” . . .

In selecting bulls, Cotton looks for a “John Wayne” profile.

“You want broad shoulders, wide in front, narrow in the hip,” he says. “A quality bull also has good testicle size, a clean sheath and curly haired coat. I want a good, deep chest and masculine look. With the genetics I’ve stuck with, you won’t make big bucks overnight, but you won’t lose overnight, either.

This isn't a general recipe for good herd performance, it is particular to the place. Other places will have different best practices. It is the method that is general, the idea of breeding for whole herd performance in a particular environment. For example, in my comparatively benign climate the idea of putting beeves in a barn and feeding them for 100-150 days while the pasture is frozen solid makes no sense. We graze 12 months of the year but it gets a little warm in the dog days of summer. John Cotton's animals might not like it much here.

We look for many of the same traits that Cotton likes - easy sliders make a world of sense - but some other things we look for are shorter legs and longer spines, big mouths and rumens, a calm disposition and a good work ethic. The more they work - and by that I mean eat - the earlier they mature and finish. This goes beyond just the visual selection methods since it requires a closer knowledge of animal behavior. This is possible in intensive management systems where the grazier is around the animals every day and gets to know them more than is possible on the open range.

“Many of our current economic factors make a low-input beef operation pretty attractive,” Gompert says. “Credit shortages and high interest rates are pretty likely in the near future. It’s also quite probable we’ll see extremes in input expenses for crops and livestock. Land prices could decrease significantly and added environmental and animal-care regulations could all stress the livestock industry.”

Grass farming was not developed for the currently fashionable grass fed, organic, yada yada market. It was developed as smart farming that had lower costs than conventional systems and did better when times were hard. If you spend your life in farming you will face several periods when things are hard. The key to success is surviving those periods. If you do it well then you will have the cash to buy out the fashionable fellows at fire sale prices when they go bust. Want a newer tractor? Wait a bit and the guy next door will go bankrupt and you can buy his for a song.

I'm happy to sell real grass finished beef at premium prices, but even if that market becomes glutted and prices fall I'll keep doing what I'm doing since my costs are kept low. The zealots and ideological purists will go broke, but I'll still make more pounds of beef and make more on each pound, even if I have to sell it at the sale barn for commodity beef prices. It's a better way to raise livestock no matter what the current consumer fashion might be.