Developing "Grown on Grass" Herdbulls

Click on the picture above to watch video of our "Grown On Grass" Herdbulls

Flying H Genetics "Grown On Grass" Herdbulls are developed by the Salmon Ranch, which lies between Appleton City and Lowry City in Midwest Missouri. Right now, our bulls are being strip grazed on stockpiled fescue pastures and supplemented with a high fiber bi-product ration designed by Cargil Animal Nutrition. Bulls are given a fresh strip of grass every day and fed twice a day in piles on the ground spread out across their paddock.



Bulls are supplemented with the special high fiber ration to help us grow them at an optimum pace and while allowing us to observe genetic differences (i.e. superior individuals) for carcass traits, hardiness, and growth. Moreover, the maintenance of a "fiber" based environment in the bull's rumen will facilitate a smooth transition into breeding pastures later this spring. Bulls will be rugged and ready to work, as well as having a digestive track that is geared up for a grass diet.

It may sound strange that a beef animal would need be ready to handle a grass based diet and that we need to be concerned with the diet of an animal that has survived off of grass for centuries. Yet, years of research have uncovered the vast problems caused by feedlot developed bulls and the use of high starch rations.

High starch (corn) rations, like feedlot developed bulls are grown on, turn the rumen into a starch focused environment. This type of high starch condition in the animals gut produces an excess of "bugs" that specialize in the conversion of corn (not grass which is a fiber source) into pounds of growth, muscle, and the extreme layers of body fat we've come to dread.

Obesity caused by excessive corn consumption and the "non-grass focused bugs" are the leading cause of "melt" in young breeding bulls. Animals dumped out onto pastures, especialy fesuce, go through a period of "shock" in their rumen as it gradually changes back into a grass digesting environment.

This is presicely why we believe our "Grown On Grass" development process is a superior way to develop bulls. And we haven't even touched on the numerous feet problems caused by bulls fed on concrete and mud!

* If you would like a Sale Catalog and/or DVD video of the offering, *
Please contact Jared Wareham @ 417.309.0062
or email your request to mba@hughes.net