Robert Elliott & Sons Angus Practical Performance Angus Since 1935 “form follows function…think about it” A SHORT HISTORY OF OUR 91 YEARS
Robert Elliott was the second oldest of six children to be raised on the family farm in the heart of the Great Depression. During high school, he worked on the farm and anywhere he could find work to help the family make ends meet. He saved what money he could because he had a dream. That dream was to make a living farming on the small family farm in the rolling hills of north middle Tennessee. He wanted to raise registered Angus to increase the income from the farm. Upon finishing high school in 1935, he took his entire savings and purchased four registered Angus bred heifers. This was a bold step in the middle of the Depression, but he had his dream. In 1942, he married Margaret Bush and they raised three children, furnishing all three with a college education, something that they never had. They made sure the children understood the meaning and rewards of hard honest work. The Angus herd grew. In the early 1950s, Robert realized that most cattle were sold by the pound and cows that did not wean a big healthy calf every 12 months did not make you as much money as those that did, and he did not have time to manage cows with problems. Robert started keeping records by hand on weaning weights, calving intervals and identifying cows and sires that had problems. He did not just keep records; he used them to cull the cows and bulls that did not measure up. He sold the low growth, slow breeding, bad udders, foot problems and bad dispositions at the local sale barn. With the philosophy, “I don’t care who your dam and sire are, where they, or you, placed in a show or what your last calf did, you have to add to my bottom line, and you must do it on grass. If not, you are gone.” Things changed in his herd. Pounds weaned per cow in the herd went up; cow numbers went down; and profit rose. In 1958, Robert enrolled his herd in a new program at the University of Tennessee called Tennessee Beef Cattle Improvement Records. He was the first Angus breeder to do so and the first to take birth weights on all of his calves. In 1966, his oldest son, Joe, used an analysis of these records to become a national winner in the 4-H beef project. Joe’s oldest son, Lake, returned home in 2005 after college and a stent working at another Angus seedstock operation. Lake added youth, a fresh overview and a more up-to-date formal education to our operation. William’s sons, Robert and Will, both returned after college and have off the farm jobs but spend a lot of time helping with the operation of the
farm. Robert’s daughters, Meredith and Bailey, keep everyone on their toes. Meredith is showing her 4-H calves and Bailey, who is still too young for 4-H, is her herdsman. They want to change our name to “Robert Elliott and Daughters.” We believe in measuring economically important traits, because you cannot manage what you do not measure. We have been doing both since the 1950s. We do have a few rules of management that we have put into place over the years, and we feel they are time tested. They are as follows: 1. Match our genetics to our resources and the resources of our bull customers. 2. No bad genes in equals no bad genes out. In other words, do not use an animal that has a big weakness. 3. Breed for balanced EPDs; cull on performance and structure. 4. Use proven genetics. 5. Always remember that numbers are just a tool. They do not tell the entire story. 6. Treat all animals in a contemporary group alike. If you don’t, your ratios and records are meaningless. 7. Do not get a membership in the bull-of-the-month club. 8. Only use genetics from an outfit that has to make their cattle pay their way. Anybody who passed sixth grade math can breed numbers, but can they breed cattle? 9. Always remember that maximums do not keep you in business but efficiency will. 10. Realize that trend is not destiny. Over the years “Form follows function...think about it” has become the byline at Robert Elliott and Sons Angus and we do it “In the Real World on Grass.”
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online