Kuykendall's ranch, which is home to Limousin and Angus cattle, was established in the 1990s. A great deal of time and money was spent clearing brush, building barns and fencing pastures.
Since the ranch's beginning, Karl has learned how to prepare for calves and keep his breeding stock in good condition. To keep calves and cows healthy, Kuykendall relies heavily on Expected Progeny Differences, better known as EPDs.
"Buy only registered herd bulls with EPDs below 3.0," Kuykendall said. "This can not be stressed enough. Buying bulls with unknown origin, lineage, or unknown EPDs is asking for trouble. Also, make sure cows are in good Body Condition Score before calving."
Kuykendall believes that the best way to prepare for spring calving is by paying meticulous attention to the breeding program.
"I use natural service, artificial insemination (AI) and embryo transfer (ET), probably in that order -- purely just to improve my genetics," Kuykendall said. "Really (I) select AI sires that are complimentary to, in EPD traits, what my cows don't have -- like birthing rate, weaning weight, yearling weight, carcass traits. Select sires so that calf offspring will really be complemented by those two pairings."
While AI and ET are used in his breeding program, he still relies on a strong herd sire.
"I still spend more on a high-quality, registered herd bull than I do on AI and ET, combined," Kuykendall said.
"Beyond that, I would recommend making sure the females are on a good free-choice mineral and are in proper BCS (Body Condition Score) of 5.5 to 6.5," he added. "Also, do not attempt to address body condition in the last trimester of pregnancy, since more goes to the calf than the cow, increasing the birth weight and perpetuating birth problems."
Expectant cows are kept close to the residence, to ensure better monitoring.
"Closely watch cows and be prepared to assist if birthing continues more than one hour," Kuykendall recommended. "Have a 'calving kit' ready containing pull chain, colostrum, Iodine, and ear tag.
"If the mother dies, you have to make sure the calf gets colostrum within the first few hours; whether that is from another nursing cow or from bottle feeding. In the case of rejection, put the cow and calf in a small pen and monitor them closely; colostrum is critical within the first few hours."
In the rare case that twins are born, a breeder should evaluate the sex of both calves as soon as possible.
"You need to determine the sex of both the twins," Kuykendall said. "If they are the same sex, both are good to keep, providing they can get enough milk through weaning. If they are opposite sex, the bull will be okay, but the heifer will be a free-martin (infertile)."
If the pair are either both female or both male, then both calves will still be able to produce.
After spring calving, Kuykendall's goal is to get the cows bred back as soon as possible.
"Assuming they are in good body condition, they should by cycling in heat within 45-60 days," Kuykendall said. "However, if they aren't breed within 90 days, they won't have a calf within one year of their previous calf. And that is a good rule to base your culling on the following year. With the high costs of feed and other inputs, if a cow doesn't have a calf consistently every year, she is not earning her keep."
Kuykendall has been strict about his cull program since his ranch's establishment. Instead of waiting until his herd had reached a substantial size then culling, he culls as he sees fit.
"Focusing on quality, it has taken me longer than someone else to get to where I'm at, to where I'm working my way towards 100 registered, superior genetic females."
Despite beginning with only five Angus and later adding12 Limousin cattle, culling immediately followed the first calving season.
"You would think with just 12, most people would keep everything they calved and get it up to a certain number and then start culling out," Kuykendall said. "But I feel like if I can cull while I'm building, then when I reach that goal, then I'll have really 75, 100, 120 solid-genetics females that breed back every year."
Kuykendall bought their first 12 registered Limousin stock when he decided he wanted to become a seed-stock operation and discovered their feed efficiency, maternal and growth traits, and docility.
"Little did I know at the time that they (Limousin) were becoming know as the best cross on Angus and Angus-influenced cattle -- providing the perfect balance of leanness and red-meat yield to the marbling traits of Angus genetics," Karl said. "By the time I started my registered Limousin herd and the North American Limousin Foundation (www.nalf.org) was just beginning to offer registration for Lim-Flex offspring: Limousin Angus cross. I felt it was a natural way to continue building my herd and improving my genetics by crossing the two and still having registered stock.
"My half and three-quarter males and females are the perfect blend of a docile, moderate-framed, easy-fleshing, easy-breeding and easy-calving beef cow that is on the place," Kuykendall said.
With his high-quality genetics and well-conditioned cows, Kuykendall is looking forward to another successful spring calving season.
To find out more about the Kuykendall's Windy Hill Ranch visit www.kwhranch.com.
