A beautiful herd of Brangus cattle can be seen north of Monett, Mo., at the Vaughn homeplace. Their home and farmland are positioned next to the original Vaughn homestead and the family business, Vaughn Trucking Company.
Danny and Julie Vaughn, along with Danny’s brother, Jerry, and his wife, Linda, own and operate Vaughn Trucking and a herd of commercial Brangus cattle. The Vaughns father, Leon, started the trucking operation that they manage today. He built the company with a willingness to try new things and work hard. This legacy has nurtured an entrepreneurial attitude that still spawns creative endeavors for this family.
Their Brangus herd started in 2000 with 20 Brangus heifers and an Angus bull. Josie Vaughn, daughter of Danny and Julie said of the choice, “Brangus is a sound breed that deals with heat and the mommas have small babies.” They now run 250 to 300 Brangus cross cattle on their 200 acres, and another 200 leased acres. Their herd is grass fed and they use Vitafirm as a nutritional supplement.
Josie, who has an accounting degree from Crowder, started showing the cattle while in FFA at Monett High School. In 2006 she purchased her first two registered Brangus heifers and continued to grow a herd of registered, show quality cows by buying six more heifers the next year. She has bought heifers from several states looking for breed characteristics that she admires. Josie explained, “A registered Brangus is 5/8 Angus and 3/8 Brahman.” The Angus portion should translate into a deep bodied, muscular cow while the Brahman mixes in heat tolerance along with small birth-weight calves that gain weight quick. Julie and Josie both praised the breed for the calving ease and momma cows that raise quick growing, good-sized market animals. During her senior year of High School Josie took classes on AI and started breeding her heifers and cows. “I started using AI because I wanted good show heifers,” said this young, but seasoned veteran of cattle breeding and showing.
Josie is still young enough to compete in Junior showing events and enjoys competing nationally. In past years she has won Junior and Open class Grand Champion awards, in 2011 she won Grand Champion with a cow/calf pair at the Brangus Western National in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Josie now has 50 registered cows and heifers and sells the registered bulls at about 18 months of age. She explained, “A Brangus bull is good for any black cow herd.” She enjoys selecting AI bulls for good characteristics, using Onstar, Alydar, BlackHawk among others. She plans a synchronized breeding for the herd to either calve in September or March – this timing coordinates the heifers well with fair class ages.
Josie’s older brother, Jacob, also works with the trucking company and commercial herd. “Jacob got a scholarship to go to NEO to team rope,” Julie shared. Jake (as friends know him) started around 12 with riding calves and other rodeo events. He began team roping while in High School. Jake owns several quarter-horses that are trained for team roping and has a large arena that he uses for practice. There are also Longhorns on the farm that are used primarily for rodeo practice. He still competes for fun, returning to the family business with a degree in construction management.
The Vaughn family understands and appreciates the strengths of the Brangus breed and continues to survey their herd and modify it according to their needs. One benefit of being a mixed breed (the commercial herd doesn’t have to maintain the 5/8:3/8 ratio) is that they can use specific bulls to either sway more Angus or more Brahman. Josie explained that, generally, Brangus tend to be more Brahman as you travel south, especially to Texas, because of their strength in heat tolerance and foraging ability. On the other hand, Brangus herds up north will tend to be more Angus. Josie warns, “too much Brahman makes a cow sloppy”, referring to the drooping ears, excess skin and Julie noted, “too much brisket.” Making changes for the better and planning for the future continues to be a strength in the Vaughn family.
