Crouthamel Cattle Co. works closely with Dr. Terry McCoy at the Animal Health Center in La Grande, OR to customize/execute a vaccination program that not only maximizes the efficiency and production of the cowherd, but more importantly develops these bulls with an end goal of providing a sound breeding tool that will transition to multiple environments without acclamation. These bulls have received the following protocol: Crouthamel Cattle Company Herd Health and VAC Program BIRTH Vision 8-Way Multimin
BRANDING Vision 8-Way Vista Once Ivomec pour-on
PRE-WEANING 7-Way w/ Haemophilus somnus Vista Once MultiMin + Naselgen Ivomec pour-on
POST-WEANING Bovi-Shield Gold One-shot Haemophilus somnus Safe-Guard Oral Drench
FALL BULL DEVELOPMENT: Cows calve out on meadow aftermath in late October and November and then wintered on hay. They move to spring pasture in March and the calves are pre-conditioned and weaned the end of June. The calves are weaned on long hay and left on a hay-only diet until October 1st when they are sent to Top Cut to start on test. It would be very possible to have these fall bulls weighing a lot more and be over- conditioned, but we have followed a strict management program to get these bulls properly developed to be ready to see heavy use come spring turn out. By bringing them along rather slow, it makes for fit bulls that are fully developed while increasing their longevity by not having them over conditioned. SPRING BULL DEVELOPMENT : Cows run on meadow aftermath/corn stalks/Alfalfa regrowth until two weeks prior to calving in January -February. The heavy cows are sorted off and calved in Touchet, WA. The cows are synced, bred, and turned to spring grass the end of March. The entire cowherd is summered on grass and mineral only (we do not believe in a creep feeder). September 1st the calves are weighed and weaned into a backgrounding lot at the ranch on nothing but long-stem hay for 45 days. This time period allows for us to get 3 rounds of shots in the bull calves and set up for the transition onto a high roughage development ration at Beus Feedlot, Pasco, WA to begin test by October 15th. Once again, we are aware that there are lots of management practices that would create 900-pound weaning weights and 1500-pound yearling weights but those are not the practices that we choose to develop range bulls on. These bulls have been developed slowly, have had all data turned in with correct contemporary groups that give us very meaningful and measurable weights and ratios to select and cull from.
EMBRYO TRANSFER CALVES: Our embryo transfer (ET) program has grown significantly over the past few years, due large in part to our partnerships with cooperator herds. These herds are diverse in both environment and management where a large percentage of these calves are “born outside” on native feed conditions to foothill/mountain terrains. We only mention this as you look at some of the data on the ET calves where there were weaning differences from those and our home raised calves. Also, there are some instances in the sale book with no BW information. This is due to the fact that there was simply no way to gather an accurate measurement on those individuals. As always, the numbers back from American Angus show ratios of 100 for all ET calves as they are born out of commercial recipient cows with varying breed make-up and genetics. These calves see the exact same CROUTHAMEL CATTLE VAC PROGRAM listed above as the entire set of home raised cattle. FEEDLOT DEVELOPMENT: The bulls are developed at Beus Cattle Company in Pasco, WA. Brad does an excellent job not only keeping these cattle healthy but also getting them developed. There truly is a science to the development of bulls: they need to be brought along hard enough to see genetic differences in the cattle yet slow enough to allow us to turn out structurally sound bulls that will go to cow country and hold up. I have known Brad since college, and he has a highly trained crew of cowboys that mange and handle these bulls on a daily basis. The bulls have seen a high- forage diet with the goal of development at 3.2lbs./day. Bulls that return post-sale to the feedlot will see a strict low-maintenance diet until delivery.
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March 6, 2026
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