The Ohio Cattle Company
“the genetics you need…integrity you can trust”
-Written by Bryan Wright, Owner of The Ohio Cattle Company
Our family has been actively involved in the cattle industry since 1983. As Life Members, and Performance Breeders through the American Hereford Association (registered under M. G. Wright and Sons) we have held ourselves to the highest standards of the AHA. We operate under the strictest of moral and ethical guidelines- not only to the cattle that we manage, but also to state/local/federal regulatory commissions and to cattle markets regardless of whether you are a performance breeder, commercial producer, or a beef consumer.
We are excited to have the opportunity to work with New Century CSA, and we are looking forward to building this partnership. If you should have other questions please feel free to contact me directly at your convenience.
Best Regards,
Bryan Wright
The Ohio Cattle Company
Phone: 740-601-2595
E-mail: OhioCattle@hughes.net
Website: www.ohiocattlecompany.com
Beef Information
Where is the beef raised?
My father started our operation in Southern Ohio when I was a child, and is currently involved in our Hereford Breeding program in Scioto County, Ohio. Since New Century is located in Pickaway county, we felt it nessecary to secure land in close proximity to their base of operation. We have expanded commercial cattle operations to include property located at 7370 Bell Station Road in Circleville. Supporters are welcome to visit our operation at any time.
Is your beef grain fed or grass fed?
The short answer is that all of our cattle are grain fed. However, unlike feedlots who corral their livestock on concrete and only feed them grain- we do pasture our herds. We believe that pasturing our cattle provides a stress free environment that in the end provides a higher quality product. Although we do pasture our herd, we are not a “grass fed” cattle operation in that we do not budget for any gain from pasture time.
We manage a very controlled feeding program that involves daily rotational grain feeding for each animal which allows us to control their rate of growth, and monitor the overall health of the individual animal.
What kind of beef is it…breed info?
We provide only F1 bred cattle for beef production. F1 cattle are a purebred cross. We use only registered Hereford dams with registered Angus bulls which will produce a black-bodied white faced calf or “Black Baldy”. Surprisingly to most people is that these F1 cattle can be marketed as Certified Angus or Certified Hereford beef. One of the reasons that we do this is that it combines the muscle structure of an Angus with the beef superiority of the Hereford and produces high quality beef.
Are you certified organic?
We are not certified organic. Herd health is maintained under the care of a licensed veterinarian, and we maintain compliance with USDA regulations concerning immunizations and antibiotics.
Do you use hormones?
We have a simple rule…no hormones or implants…ever. This is a very controversial issue within the beef industry that reaches far beyond the United States. Although up to 90% of beef is produced with some form of hormone, our standard of ethics will not allow us to skirt such a controversial issue. This is a decision that has not always given us the advantage regardless of whether it is at the sale barn or in the show ring. This is why maintaining proper genetics are so important to our program…if they need it God will give it to them.
What do you do to provide consistent quality throughout the year?
Programs such as a CSA provide challenges to most beef producers in terms of consistent quality. This is simply due to the fact that the beef you receive during the first week of the program may not come from the same animal as the beef that you receive in the last week of the program. We have developed a simple program that will allow you to know that each time you go to your grill you will enjoy the same quality. It is Breeding, Sorting and Feeding.
Breeding- Through selective breeding practices the genetics of the herd are controlled as to produce similar stock in terms of Expected Prodigy Differences or EPD’s. This allows us to predict the performance of an animal before it ever leaves the calving pasture.
Sorting- Although EPD’s are predictable performance indicators, we also sort our stock that have too large of a variance from their weaned weight frame size. Frame size indicates the overall structure of an animal and can be used as a good indicator overall development- both muscular and skeletal. Stock that do not meet our frame score standards will be culled out of the program through other market outlets.
Feeding- I have already alluded to our feeding program, but to sum it up there is no creep feeding. In creep fed operations feed is dumped into a feeder and fifty steers are given free access to the feed. Simply put the most “bullish” of the bunch gets the most. Unlike creep fed operations we control their intake individually and monitor growth to produce similar stock. A point of interest here is that we are looking at ultrasound technology as an added addition to this program to verify marbling and trim percentages twice through the life of the program.
Here at New Century CSA we are pleased to have the opportunity to work with The Ohio Cattle Company. They operate their business with great integrity and share our same passion of delivering a high quality product. This page has been dedicated to providing you information concerning their operation and their unique method of producing a superior beef cow.
