On the rolling fescue-covered hills of eastern Missouri, just a few miles off the Mississippi River, the Karl family works hard to raise quality cattle.
The fourth-generation family farm is owned and operated by brothers Davey and Ronnie Karl and Ronnie’s son, Ryan. All three work off the farm full time, but they spend just as much time in their evenings, weekends and time off caring for their cattle and the land as they do working their day jobs.
“I tell everybody, once I’m back from my town job, I’m out until dark 30 … seven days a week,” Davey says. “We all stick together until the work gets done.”
Davey and Ronnie’s grandfather started Karl Farms near Weingarten, MO. Their father later maintained the business with just a few beef cows for many years. Then, nearly 40 years ago, as teenagers, the brothers wanted to have a herd of their own and bought two cows from a neighbor and subsequently bought heifers from their father.
“We bought those two pet cows and continued to grow through the years to more than 300 cows now,” Ronnie says.
Throughout those 40 years of growth, Davey and Ronnie grew their herd of commercial Angus, Simmental and Hereford influenced cows by raising quality replacements and making timely purchases when neighbors were scaling back.
Marketing ups and downs
Karl Farms runs spring- and fall-calving herds, helping to maximize its bull power and optimize its marketing windows.
Having a few different times each year to market calves has let Karl Farms implement different marketing strategies. In the early days, Davey and Ronnie sold calves at various local sale barns in their region.
“We’ve always given our calves two rounds of shots off of the cow and weaned them for 60 days, but we didn’t have a way to verify our work,” Ronnie says.
About 20 years ago, a value-added program became regionally available. It lasted for a few years, and then the local support for the program went away, so Karl Farms was back to square one.
“We had to go back to playing the market with whichever sale barn we thought would have better results,” Ronnie says.
Adding value
Even without a value-added program to back up their production practices, Karl Farms built a reputation for quality calves.
“Despite not finishing a lot of their cattle out, they still want the next guy to have a good product,” says Tod Wideman, a local sales representative with Purina dealer Gateway FS Inc. “And they have a really good reputation.”
Karl Farms routinely marketed its heifers to other local farmers through private treaty sales as replacement females, and it still does today. Still, the sale results for steers and nonreplacement heifers weren’t what the family thought they could be.
In 2015, Wideman began a pilot project with Gateway FS Inc. to market calves fed Purina starter feeds through a value-added program. One of the first farms to get involved was Karl Farms.
“We jumped on board, and we’ve been selling high ever since,” Ryan says. “We’ve had nothing but a good experience with it.”
This pilot project would one day become the Purina Plus value-added program, which nationally rolled out in 2021 and is one of the first programs of its kind to marry industry-leading nutrition and health protocols. Program requirements include feeding Purina starters with RX3 Immune Support Technology at weaning, vaccinating with approved products and utilizing program-approved dewormers.
Seeing success
Karl Farms has marketed 15 sets of calves through the value-added program at a regional sale barn.
“Back when we marketed them ourselves, we always did good,” Ronnie says. “But with the current value-added program, it just went from beyond good to excellent. There’s just no comparison.”
Something the Karl family believes helps set apart their current marketing through a value-added program from their previous experience is the support of their local feed dealer.
“The best thing about going to these programs is when you’ve got a guy like Tod; he’s right there for you,” Ryan says. “Our experience has been nothing but excellent. Even marketing. Tod goes above and beyond to help market those calves.”
When asked if they plan to continue marketing calves with the value-added program, Davey said, “That’s a big Y-E-S. Yes. Yes. Yes.” — Purina Animal Nutrition LLC
