Rocking G Farms has evolved in a manner similar to many North Louisiana hill farm operations. Most of our pasture land was once farmed for row crops while cattle were grazed on the "open range". As stock laws were passed and larger equipment became available the hilly crop land was either converted to timber or pasture production.
Some of our crop land was converted to pasture and leased for several years. Then in the early 1980's we began our own commercial cow-calf operation and diligently worked to improve the production quality and quantity of our pastures. This has allowed us to slowly increase stocking rates since about 1990 and begin a more concentrated work to improve the quality of our primary harvesting tool, our cow herd! Since most of our forage production is marketed in the form of cattle, we recognize that having an efficient cow to convert our pasture production into a highly marketable product is the most important key to our future success.
Our first concern was to develop good quality females on which to build our herd. We wanted cattle that were fertile, efficient converters, moderate in frame, easy to handle, easy keeping, and capable of producing a high quality carcass. We tried crossing several different breeds in the 1980's, one of which was Gelbvieh. We found that the Gelbvieh breed had more of what we were looking for than any other breed or cross we tried. The more we learned about Gelbvieh cattle, the more we liked them.
As our herd began to grow, we found our Gelbvieh heifers were not only very fertile, but had very good milk production and strong maternal instincts. Their overall structure and style appealed to us as well. Our Gelbvieh steers grew fast and efficiently when put on feed producing high yielding, top quality carcasses. We were so satisfied with the breed, we are now using Gelbvieh bulls exclusively on our commercial herd for meat production and are working toward developing a purebred Gelbvieh operation as well.
Our Ultimate Goal in the cattle business is to produce an animal that is strong in every economically important trait. This goal of "cattle perfection" will probably never be totally attained on a herd wide basis, but it provides a driving force that keeps us striving for constant improvement. Whatever your goals are in the beef cattle business, we invite you to consider what Gelbvieh has to offer. Maybe they're just what you've been looking for too!!