CALF News Aug./Sept 2018

24 CALF News • August | September 2018 • www.calfnews.net W ith nearly 60 years in the purebred Angus busi- ness, 90-year-old Texan Richmond Hales has seen the breed become a staple for many ranches across the Lone Star State. Son Rick combines his father’s old-style production and marketing techniques with new, hi-tech methods of measur- ing quality to help maintain and grow a customer base aimed at a good return on investment. Richmond remembers how their opera- tion benefited from the program. “Our steers excelled and many times topped the feed-out,” Richmond says. “We knew from our records that calves out of our genetics performed well for our customers. Data from Ranch to Rail provided us with additional information. That’s when the use of carcass informa- tion really took off.” The Hales were among the pioneers in using ultrasound to gauge carcass quality. “We started breeding for carcass data in the late‘80s before carcass information really caught on,” Rick says.“We began ultra- sounding our calves every year. That pro- gram helped us do a better job of breeding.” Current data shows they continue to excel in their breeding program.“This past year, the Angus breed average for By Larry Stalcup Contributing Editor HALES ANGUS FARM Six Decades of Black Success That changed when Richmond started showing the family’s breeding stock. He had experience showing dairy cattle in his early years. Richmond’s family would load Holsteins on railroad boxcars, then ride with them from fair to fair, stock show to stock show. Years later when he entered the Angus business, trucks replaced trains. Richmond became nearly as much of a fixture at regional fairs as the Midway tilt-a-whirl. While the breath-taking ride has provided years of thrills and excitement, Hales and his family have captured numerous blue ribbons for his purebred Angus bulls and heifers. “We depended heavily on the show string,” Richmond says.“We showed at the Tri-State Fair in Amarillo, the South Plains Fair in Lubbock, the Texas State Fair in Dallas, and other fairs and stock shows. It was no time before we devel- oped a world of business.” Ranch to Rail The Hales were among earlier seed- stock and commercial ranch operations to enter cattle in the Ranch to Rail feed-out program. The program was started in the 1980s by Texas A&M and New Mexico State universities. It was as an information feedback system that allowed producers to learn more about their calf crop and the factors that influenced value beyond the weaned-calf phase of beef production. It created an opportunity for produc- ers to determine how their calf crop fit the needs of the beef industry. It pro- vided information needed to determine if changes in genetics and/or manage- ment factors were warranted. Ranch to Rail also provided informa- tion about the need for a good animal health program. Ranches that didn’t use good genetics and/or animal practices often saw their cattle require heavy addi- tional costs in medicine and nutrition. At 91, Richmond Hales has seen the Angus breed grow into a major force in beef production. Hales Angus bred heifers will calve in early 2019. Hales Angus Farm of Canyon, Texas, began in the 1960s a few years after Richmond and his wife, Mary Jo, han- dled Holstein breeding stock. They saw an opportunity to take a new cattle trail. And it has been all black cattle since then. Richmond and Mary Jo are still highly involved, along with Rick and his wife, Stephanie. Their sons, Chance and Cade, also play a part in the operation. “We got into the Angus business when Mary Jo’s uncle in Lockney sold us a set of heifers in 1962,” Richmond says.“We then bought 30 to 40 heifers from a rancher in St. Mary, Missouri.We also picked up some good bulls and were among just a few Angus operations in Texas back then.”