What Does ROUGHAGE N’ READY™ Mean?
ROUGHAGE N’ READY™ means our bulls and females are developed on roughage diets so they are ready to make a living on roughages.
Beef cattle have four stomachs that allow them to convert roughages (straw, corn stalks, hay, grass, etc.) into usable energy and protein to produce, reproduce and supply us with great-tasting beef. Try feeding hogs or chickens or fish some straw and see what happens.
Developing bulls and heifers on roughages trains them to forage and work for their food. It also helps us identify those that cannot survive without a corn bucket so we can eliminate them before marketing them as breeding stock.
In Nebraska we use grass, straw, corn stalks, cane hay, silage and wet distiller’s grains as roughages for our rations. In Missouri, the bulls are Grown On Grass® (FESCUE ADAPTED®) year around with dried distiller’s grains and other byproducts like soy hulls to supplement the protein and energy the 
grass lacks during certain parts of the year.
Our ROUGHAGE N’ READY™ development system identifies genetics that make the cattle business profitable.
Being able to make a living and produce efficiently on roughages is the big advantage these beef cattle have over our competition. Even if we do feed corn to produce premier corn-fed beef products, most of their life is spent converting roughages to beef. How many years do your cows spend producing and reproducing without ever eating a kernel of corn? A corn-fed steer may only utilize corn for 4 months out of his 15 month life span. That’s why you should be buying ROUGHAGE N’ READY™ BULLS and FEMALES. They are developed and proven to have the genetics to make ranching profitable.
Click here to hear about our Roughage ‘N Ready Bulls in a 2021 radio interview on KRVN with Dick Helms!
