Bill Lundberg was raised in Valley Mills, Texas on a dairy farm, which served three small towns. His family’s milk route included the restaurants in these towns and individual homes. When Bill graduated high school, he went to electronics school, but he did not care for it. However, he loved farming and cattle, so he started working at custom fitting other people’s cattle for them. “It’s where you train, and halter break them, then show the cattle for the farmer that doesn’t know how, that’s how I got started showing,” said Bill.
“I went to South Carolina to a plantation which is what they call a farm. I worked there for about eight years; I managed the cattle operation part of it. I managed about 400 head of purebred Santa Gertrudis cows. Then I went to Winrock Farms, and managed there for five years,” replied Bill. It was after this that Bill decided to go to work for himself.
Bill is a consultant for ranchers all over the country and lives in Russellville, Ark. He advises and helps the rancher’s fine-tune their operations, which helps them in a difficult economy. He also is a photographer, and does advertisement layout and placement for the farmers. “I have been consulting for about 20 years and travel about 60 thousand miles a year. I didn’t go to school for this, if I did it was the school of hard knocks,” laughed Bill.
“Genomics is the DNA testing of hair, blood and semen,” explained Bill. “It determines the markers that can tell which cattle are the most efficient to raise, which can give you the best marbling and muscling, and which can convert grass or grain the fastest.”
The Santa Gertrudis breed started on the King Ranch, in Texas in the 1920s and you can trace the descendants back to the bull called Monkey, which was 5/8 Shorthorn and 3/8 Brahman. The USDA recognized them as a purebred in the 1950s. Bill really likes the Santa Gertrudis breed because they have heat tolerance and a lean tender carcass.
“I would tell anyone wanting to do this for a living that you just need to be honest with your customers and with yourself,” said Bill.
“I belong to Santa Gertrudis Breeders International, and I was on the national board of directors, for about 12 years. Now I serve as the sales and marketing chairman for the sales and marketing committee,” concluded Bill.
