K-BAR Predestined #167 is her name and producing eggs is her game. Oh yes, a quarter million dollar cow. Now that is enough information to make any cattle producer’s eyebrows raise. Every cattle producer would love to have a cow like #167, but there is only one, and the Kirkes K-Bar Black Angus Ranch owns her.
“When raising quality beef cattle ranchers want the best beef genetics they can buy,” said Don and Brian Kirkes, and they know this to be a fact. A trip out to the K-Bar Ranch located just south of Talihina, Okla., at the foot of the beautiful Kiamichi Mountains to visit with Don and Brian will soon give you a greater understanding of what all goes into producing quality beef cattle. “These cattle are not pampered they are use to the elements and stresses of everyday life on the range. This makes them favorable to the buyer who does not want a cow or bull that does not fair well when turned out to pasture,” said Brian.
Don explained how once a year the donor cows or flush cows as they are called, are brought in to have their fertilized eggs or embryos flushed and transplanted into other registered and non-registered cows, called recipients. It sounds simple just hearing Don and Brian tell about this procedure. But it is serious business and done with the latest state of the art equipment and precision, which is performed by a team of specialist out of Texas.
For the past seven years the father/son team, Don and Brian Kirkes, have held a production sale on the K-Bar Ranch. Selling quality beef cattle and bulls. Brian said, “that sometimes it gets complicated gathering all the data to produce the sale catalog, and looking at all the data on each cow and bull featured in the catalog can either make a persons head swim or swell.”
“Our buyers can rest assured that the K-Bar sale stock have all been through a complete exam for soundness,” said Don. Brian added, “The newest ultra-sound imaging with the latest state of the art equipment can give a close estimate of three important live animal carcass measurements. They are: back fat (BF), rib eye area (REA) and intramuscular fat (% MF).”
Their 2012 production sale is scheduled for September 22. Brian explained that all bulls in the sale have a “bull breeding soundness guarantee.” There will be approximately 60 bulls and 50 females slated for this year’s sale in September.
All bulls selling were fed on the ranch and the weaning weights are taken with no creep feed.
Brian and Don’s years of hard work and careful planning have paid off as seen in one of the most impressive Black Angus bull and heifer operations, however, impressive could possibly be an understatement.
