Miller Gelbvieh is a family enterprise which started late in 1990 with the purchase of 4 bred purebreds from Sandy Knoll Farm.  Around the same time 3 percentage bred heifers were purchased from J & L Farms.  From the beginning the emphasis was on fertile, high volume, good-uddered and good-dispositioned females who raised a stout calf every year, bred back promptly,  and looked good doing it.

Several  years ago, Miller Gelbvieh held a dispersal sale.  Cattle sold to breeders from Alaska to South Carolina.  Miller Gelbvieh doesn’t show or advertise heavily but the cattle only needed a discriminating audience to sell themselves.  LGWR Martha Jane 79D 791G ET and her progeny made quite an impression at the sale, one open heifer calf daughter selling for 10,250.      

In the meantime we have reloaded.  We retained a number of Martha Jane embryos–she was an unusually prolific producer-and purchased outstanding genetics from leading programs around the country.  We had 46 calves born this season.  Well over half are ET calves.  MLLR 12M, the top selling bred female at our dispersal is back on the farm in an embryo transfer program and doing a tremendous job.  In four flushes she has produced 65 good embryos and only had a single unfertilized egg in the 4 flushes.  I have never AI’d her the second time.  She epitomizes the breed’s superior fertility, a trait we cannot afford to lose . She is the ideal type and kind with a beautiful udder and a moderate frame.  She is homozygous polled.

The last several years Miller Gelbvieh has gone strictly AI and ET.  Among the purebred sires being used are Carolina Fortune, Carolina Hero, Extra Exposure, Extra 2106K, Northern Wind, Rupple Gunnison, Freedom, Free Agent, and Bennett G196. 

Since our dispersal we have placed added emphasis on Balancers.  Balancers are 1/4 to 3/4 Gelbvieh with the balance Angus/Red Angus of known parentage.  Combining the fertility, maternal superiority, red meat yield, performance, and efficiency of Gelbvieh with the calving ease and superior marbling of Angus produces an optimal beef animal.  Using Balancers simplifies crossbreeding by using bulls with the desired percentages to maintain the preferred percentages within the herd.  Cherokee Canyon, arguably the best muscle bull of any Angus of any color, has been the Red Angus sire of choice for red Balancers.  He has done a fantastic job for us.  Black Angus sires used are Morgan’s Direction, an ABS son of Future Direction, who is the gold standard carcass bull in the Angus breed, and Foresight, a son of Papa Forte and Bon View Gammer 85, the dam of New Design 878.  Morgan’s Direction is a calving ease sire with exceptionally short gestation.  He is the breed’s leading bull for Rib Eye Area and ranks 4^th in the breed for tenderness based on shear force testing of progeny.  Foresight is a high performing, big scrotal bull with excellent carcass merit.  He is the #1 bull in the breed for tenderness based on shear force testing of progeny.  Both Foresight and Morgan’s Direction have 7 of the 8 known favorable genetic markers for tenderness. 

Visitors are always welcome. Give us a call or drop us a line. We love to talk Gelbvieh.

More Pictures of our Cattle
(click any picture for a larger view)

MLLR 115H
An example of our Balancer program

MLLR 122M ET Freedom/Martha Jane

Last year's Landmark bull calf topped the KGA bull sale in Salina

MLLR 26G  Colorado Cool/31X
2004 Bull Calf was Denver Class Winner 
 Her Influence Remains in Our Herd

MLLR 12M  Freedom/Gizmo

As a First Calf Heifer, last year's Landmark Bull Calf sold for $3000 of the Farm

   
                   Martha Jane--Donor Cow

         Dam of $10,250 MLLR Miranda 114N ET

                        Progeny for Sale

MLLR 12 M -- Lot 80

MLLR Prairie Princess 118R ET -- Lot 81

MLLR 220S --Lot 84

MLLR Marjorie 122M ET -- Lot 95

MLLR 120S ET -- Lot 98

RAG Miss Sweety 31L -- Lot 101

MLLR 829S ET -- Lot 106

MLLR 114P ET -- Lot 113

MLLR 115 S -- Lot 114

MLLR 221S -- Lot 116

MLLR 129S -- Lot 119

MLLR 112T -- Lot 120